חַוָּה

From the study of 1 Kings 4:13

Range of meaning

Used only in the place-name Havvoth-Jair. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) connect it with an Arabic word for a circle of tents or a nomad encampment. The probable sense is 'tent-camps, enclosures', which became the name for the villages that grew out of them.

Against the English

KJV and WEB have 'towns', BSB 'villages', YLT 'small towns'. Some modern versions have 'settlements'. All of these lose the probable nuance of semi-nomadic, herding origins. Most English Bibles simply keep the place-name 'Havvoth-jair' in Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Used elsewhere in the period

Numbers 32:41 (Jair captures their tent-villages and names them after himself), Deuteronomy 3:14, Joshua 13:30 ('sixty towns'), Judges 10:3–5 (the judge Jair's thirty sons, thirty donkeys and thirty towns, a wordplay on ʿayārîm 'donkeys' and ʿayārîm 'towns'), and 1 Chronicles 2:22–23 (twenty-three towns, later lost to Geshur and Aram).

From the study of Numbers 32:41

Range of meaning

A rare word that appears only in the plural and only in connection with Jair (Num 32:41; Deut 3:14; Josh 13:30; Judg 10:4; 1 Kgs 4:13; 1 Chr 2:23). BDB and HALOT both connect it with Arabic ḥiwāʾ, "a circle of tents" (from a root meaning "to gather, encircle"). That suggests tent-encampments or clusters of dwellings, the kind of open settlement used by herders, rather than walled cities.

Against the English

BSB, WEB and ESV use "villages"; NIV "settlements"; KJV "small towns"; YLT "towns." "Villages" and "settlements" are close. "Towns" suggests permanent, built places with streets and walls, which is probably more than the word implies.

How it drifted

English Bibles needed an everyday word for a small inhabited place. "Town" was the natural choice in 1611 and has stayed in some versions, even though the Hebrew picture is closer to a ring of tents or a farmstead hamlet.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint renders it ἐπαύλεις (epauleis), meaning farmsteads, folds or unwalled dwellings, and translates the name as Epauleis Iair. The same tradition appears in Deuteronomy 3:14 and Joshua 13:30, which place these settlements in Bashan/Argob. In Judges 10:4 they appear as thirty "cities" belonging to the judge Jair's thirty sons, and 1 Chronicles 2:23 groups them with Kenath into sixty towns. The precise meaning remains an inference from the Arabic word and the context; there is no clear outside inscription that uses it.

From the study of Joshua 13:30

Range of meaning

ḥawwah probably means a tent-camp or a cluster of dwellings, which grew into a village. It is related to Arabic ḥiwāʾ, a ring of tents. Together with the name, it forms the place name Havvoth-jair, 'tent-villages of Jair.'

Against the English

KJV and BSB say 'towns,' WEB 'villages,' and YLT 'small towns.' 'Towns' suggests something too permanent and too large. 'Tent-villages' or 'hamlets' is closer, though by the time this was written the word may simply have been part of a fixed name.

How it drifted

English translations go for the familiar word 'towns' and lose the picture of herders' camps.

Used elsewhere in the period

Num 32:41 and Deut 3:14 say Jair son of Manasseh took them and named them after himself. Judges 10:3–4 credits 30 towns to the judge Jair in Gilead. 1 Chr 2:22–23 gives Jair 23 cities in Gilead and says Geshur and Aram took Havvoth-jair and Kenath, 'sixty towns.' 1 Kgs 4:13 puts 'the towns of Jair' in Gilead next to 'the region of Argob in Bashan, sixty great cities.'