1 Kings 4:13

1Ki 4:13 The son of Geber, in Ramothgilead; to him [pertained] the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which [are] in Gilead; to him [also pertained] the region of Argob, which [is] in Bashan, threescore great cities with walls and brasen bars:

Ver. 13. With walls and brazen bars.] To keep out the enemies, wherewith they were surrounded.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which towns bare Jair’s name, because he took them of the Canaanites, Num. 32:41.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 13. Threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars] These were fortified cities: their gates and bars covered with plates of brass. Such were the gates in Priam's palace: -

Ipse inter primos correpta dura bipenni

Limina perrumpit, POSTES que a cardine vellit

AERATOS. VIRG. AEn., lib. ii. ver. 479.

Fierce Pyrrhus in the front, with forceful sway,

Plied the huge axe, and hew'd the beams away;

The solid timbers from the portal tore,

And rent from every hinge the BRAZEN door.

PITT.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(13) The sixth division, large, but probably less fertile, crosses the Jordan, and includes a great portion of the territory of Manasseh and Gad. The region of Argob, “the rocky region” (afterwards translated into the Greek name Trachonitis), is noticed in Deu_3:4; Deu_3:13-14, as the land of Og, covered with great cities, taken by Jair, son of Manasseh, and called Havoth-Jair—“the towns of Jair.” Ramoth-gilead was a Levitical city and a city of refuge, in Gad (Deu_4:43; Jos_20:8; Jos_21:38), famous afterwards in the wars with the Syrians (1Ki_22:3; 2Ki_8:28; 2Ki_9:1).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. the son of Geber] Better, Ben-Geber. The name ‘Geber’ occurs again in 1Ki_4:19, but whether the same person is meant by it there is nothing to shew. It is only found in these two places.

in Ramoth-gilead] We now come to the mountainous district on the eastern side of the Jordan, in which were settled the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh.

the towns of Jair] As the Hebrew word (havvoth) rendered ‘towns’ is found only in this connexion it is better to treat it as a part of the proper name and render Havvoth-Jair. About these ‘towns’ there is some difficulty. They are first mentioned (Num_32:41) as ‘small towns’ in Gilead, and occupied by Jair the son of Manasseh. They are mentioned again (Deu_3:14) and said (Jos_13:30) to be in Bashan and to be 60 in number, whereas in 1Ch_2:23 they are counted as 60 only with the addition of certain other places. In this chapter the question is, are the Havvoth-Jair included in the region of Argob or not? As there is no conjunction, between the two clauses, it seems most natural to take the latter as a fuller definition of the former. ‘To him belonged Havvoth-Jair, even the region of Argob &c.’ This has the advantage of coupling with Havvoth-Jair the number 60 which plays such a part in the other passages quoted above.

In Jdg_10:4 where the Havvoth-Jair are again mentioned, though they are connected with the history of the judge who was so called, yet there is nothing to indicate that the naming of the cities was due to him. As Jair the son of Manasseh first occupied these places, it is likely that his name would become a common one. The sons of Jair the judge held but half the number of the towns, but that is no evidence that the other thirty were then non-existent or that they were not also included in the name Havvoth-Jair, but in the hands of different governors.

in Gilead] Gilead is the name of that mountainous district, east of the Jordan, which had on the north the country of Bashan and on the south Moab and Ammon. Its chief towns were Ramoth-gilead and Jabesh-gilead. Sometimes also Jaazer is counted as belonging to it.

Argob] The district which in later times was called Trachonitis. (See Deu_3:4.)

Bashan] The country which lay immediately north of Gilead, and stretched northwards to Mount Hermon.

great cities with walls and brasen bars] The cities of this district are so described Deu_3:5, and there still are found in this neighbourhood ruins of walled cities (see Bunsen’s Bibelwerk in loc.). As the armaments and modes of warfare were of a much more primitive character than in later times, we need not picture to ourselves from this description fortifications such as would now deserve the name.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ahinadab the son of Iddo had Mahanaim. Another city on the other side Jordan, where both Ishbosheth and David sometimes dwelt, Sa2 2:8; this and the places adjacent must be very fruitful, since this officer was to furnish the king with provisions for a month once a year from hence,

; this and the places adjacent must be very fruitful, since this officer was to furnish the king with provisions for a month once a year from hence,

1 Kings 4:15

kg1 4:15

kg1 4:15

kg1 4:15Ahimaaz was in Naphtali,.... Out of that tribe he made a monthly provision annually:

he also took Basmath the daughter of Solomon to wife; another daughter of Solomon's, in course of time; See Gill on Kg1 4:11.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

It will be observed that five out of the twelve prefects are designated solely by their father’s names, Ben-Hur, etc., while one (Ahimaaz, 1Ki 4:15) has no such designation. Probably the document, which the author of the Book of Kings consulted, had contained originally the proper name and father’s name of each prefect; but it was mutilated or illegible in places at the time when he consulted it. If it was in the shape of a list, a single mutilation at one corner might have removed four of the six wanting names.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In Ramoth-gilead; Ramoth in the land of Gilead, Deu 4:43; Jos 20:8; 1Ki 22:3; so called to difference it from Ramoth in Issachar, 1Ch 6:73.

Jair; in Manasseh beyond Jordan. See Num 32:41; Deu 3:14.

Great cities with walls and brasen bars: this is added by way of distinction from those towns of Jair; for being without Jordan, they were liable to the attempts of their enemies.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. Son of Geber — Perhaps the same Geber mentioned 1Ki_4:19.

Ramoth-gilead — One of the chief cities on the east side of the Jordan, in the tribe of Gad, allotted to the Levites and appointed a city of refuge. Supposed by many to have been at the modern es-Salt, just south of Mount Gilead. See on Deu_4:43; Jos_13:26; and Jdg_10:17.

Jair the son of Manasseh — See on Num_32:41.

Argob — The region north of Mount Gilead, and east and southeast of the sea of Galilee. See on Deu_3:4. “The Bedouins familiarly speak of this whole district as Arkoob or Argoob. Thus they call the mountain on which Urn Keis stands Argoob Um Keis; and although this word is applied to any rough, mountainous country, I have nowhere else heard it thus used in common conversation; and since the kingdom or district of Argob was in this immediate neighbourhood, I think it nearly certain that we have the identical name still preserved among these primitive inhabitants.” — Thomson.

Bashan — The vast region, of which Argob was but a part, extending from Mount Hermon in the north to the Jabbok on the south, and from the Jordan eastward to the desert. See on Deu_3:3.

Threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars — “Such a statement seems all but incredible. It would not stand the arithmetic of Bishop Colenso for a moment. But with my own eyes I have seen that it is literally true. The cities are there to this day. Some of them retain the ancient names recorded in the Bible. Bashan is literally crowded with towns and large villages, and though the vast majority of them are deserted, they are not ruined. Many of the houses in the ancient cities of Bashan are perfect, as if only finished yesterday. The walls are sound, the roofs unbroken, the doors, and even the window shutters, in their places. The walls are from five to eight feet thick, built of large squared blocks of basalt; the roofs are formed of slabs of the same material, hewn like planks, and reaching from wall to wall; the very doors and win-dew shutters are of stone, hung upon pivots projecting above and below. Some of these ancient cities have from two to five hundred houses still perfect, but not a man to dwell in them. On one occasion, from the battlements of the castle of Salcah, I counted some thirty towns and villages, dotting the surface of the vast plain, many of them almost as perfect as when they were built, and yet for more than five centuries there has not been a single inhabitant in one of them.” — PORTER, Giant Cities of Bashan.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The son of Geber possibly son of the Geber mentioned in ver. 19 in Ramothgilead two districts east of the Jordan are now enumerated. And first, the territory of Gad. Bamoth-gilead was a Levitical (Deu_4:43; Jos_21:38) Its selection as a city of refuge, (Jos_20:8) and as the seat of Bengeber"s prefecture, together with the constant wars waged for its possession (1Ki_22:3; 2Ki_8:28 2Ki_9:14) show that it was a position of great strength and importance; to him pertained the towns of Jair the Havoth Jair are strictly the lives (i.e., villages, because men live there) of Jair. So Gesenius, who cites Eisleben and similar names the son Manasseh it is doubtful whether the judge of that name (Jud_1:10:3) or Jair, the son of Segub called a "son of Manasseh" in Num_32:41, because his grandmother was a daughter of the great Machir, though his father belonged to Judah, (1Ch_2:21) is intended. Probably it is the latter. They can hardly be one and the same person, though they are often identified, as, e.g., in the Speaker"s Comm. on Jud_1:10:3. But they belong to different periods. Curiously enough, the Havoth Jair are mentioned in connexion with each (see Num_32:41; Deu_3:4, Deu_3:5, Deu_3:14; Jos_13:30; 1Ch_2:22; Jud_1:10:4) but in every ease except the last the reference is to the son of Segub. As the judge was probably one of his descendants, it is not surprising that the judge"s sons should possess some of the villages of Jair, which are in Gilead; to him also pertained the region lb,j, lit., measuring cord, came to signify the region measured of Argob elsewhere "the Argob," i.e., the stony. This is the region subsequently known as Trachonitis, now called the Lejah. It is distinguished here and in Jos_13:30, and 1Ch_2:22 from the Gileadite district just mentioned, with which it is sometimes confounded. Both seem to have been conquered by Jair, but the towns of the former bore the name of Havoth Jair and these of Bashan Havoth Jair. Cf. Deu_3:4, Deu_3:5, 14 with Num_32:41. The latter consisted of threescore cities, with walls, gates, and bars. This remarkable district, twenty-two miles in length by fourteen in breadth, is "wholly composed of black basalt, which appears to have issued from innumerable pores in the earth in a liquid state.... Before cooling, its surface was violently agitated, and it was afterwards shattered and rent by convulsions.... Strange as it may seem, this ungainly and forbidding region is thickly studded with deserted cities and villages" (Porter, "Giant Cities of Bashan," also in Kitto"s Cycl. 3. p. 1032; Dict. Bib. 1:104) which is in Bashan, threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars. These words are a reminiscence of Deu_3:4, Deu_3:5.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Argov region. He [Gever’s son] was appointed over them to collect the king’s tax, because the rules pertaining to the monarchy allow for his expenditures to be collected from the people, as it is stated in the rules pertaining to the monarchy, in the book of Shmuel.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.