Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Joshua 13:29-31
The Portion of the Half-tribe of Manasseh (Joshua 13:29).
‘ And Moses gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh and it was for the half-tribe of the children of Manasseh according to their families.'
For this compare Joshua 13:15; Joshua 13:24. It is noteworthy that their portions are said to be given by Moses, not by YHWH. It must not be overemphasised but it is suggesting that it was not YHWH Who gave them this land east of Jordan. It was theirs by concession. Later much of it would be lost because of their disobedience to YHWH.
‘ And their border was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair which are in Bashan, sixty cities, and half Gilead, and Ashtaroth and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, even for the half of the children of Machir according to their families.'
The description of the portion of the half-tribe of Manasseh is succint and to the point. It included the whole of the former kingdon of Og, king of Bashan, including the towns of Jair. Jair was a descendant of Manasseh who took several towns and villages in Bashan and Gilead when Bashan was invaded (Numbers 32:41) calling them Havvoth-jair (‘the towns of Jair' - see also Deuteronomy 3:14). He seems originally to have had sixty ‘cities' (mainly tent villages?), which reduced to twenty three, which at some time Geshur and Aram (Syria) took from him (1 Chronicles 2:22). But later in the period of the Judges his descendant ruled over thirty cities (Judges 10:3) so he or one of his descendants must have re-established them.
This brings out the precarious nature of life in Bashan. It was a land of cattle and sheep farming and pasturage (Psalms 22:12; Ezekiel 39:18; Amos 4:1; Jeremiah 50:19) and of mighty oaks (Isaiah 2:13; Ezekiel 27:6), but there were enemies to the north. If only they had obeyed God and removed the Geshurites and the Maacathites (Joshua 13:13) they would have avoided many of these troubles. As well as Bashan they possessed north Gilead.
Ashtaroth was presumably a centre for the worship of the Canaanite goddess Ashtaroth and is probably Tell Ashtarah thirty kilometres (eighteen miles) east of the Sea of Galilee (Chinneroth). It is also probably to be identified with the strt of the records of Tuthmosis III, the astarte of the Amarna letters and the astartu of Assyrian inscriptions. Edrei is probably modern Der‘a. It occupies a key point for communications in the Bashan area and has remains dating from the early bronze age.
“Were for the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, even for the half of the children of Machir according to their families.” Manasseh's son Machir was clearly a strong character and a powerful man for his name to be applied to the family tribe of Manasseh (Asriel may well have died young - 1 Chronicles 7:14). He represented the whole of Manasseh both east and west. He established his own sub-tribe, the Machirites, and was the father of Gilead, the ancestor of the Gileadites (Numbers 26:29). The warlikeness of his sub-tribe was one reason why they were given Bashan and Gilead (Joshua 17:1). See also Numbers 32:39; Numbers 36:1; Deuteronomy 3:15.
(‘Father of' and ‘son of' are relationships that can have wide meaning. They may indicate direct descent, distant descent or adoption. Note how in Genesis 10 indication is given of tribes ‘descended from' patriarchs because they were connected with patriarchal descendants).