In the song of Deborah, Machir is reckoned
among the western tribes, and it was not until much later that
this became the designation of the Manassites eastward of Jordan.
It is also worth noticing that Jair's colonisation of northern
Gilead did not take place until the time of the judges (Judges x.
3 seq.), but is related also in Num. xxxii. 39-42.
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The times of agitation and insecurity which followed upon the
conquest of Palestine invited attacks by the eastern nomads, and
once more the Israelite peasantry showed all its old helplessness,
until at last the indignation of a Manassite of good family,
Gideon or Jerubbaal, was roused by the Midianites, who had
captured some of his brothers and put them to death. With his
family, that of Abiezer, he gave pursuit, and, overtaking the enemy
on the borders of the wilderness, inflicted on them such
chastisement as put an end to these incursions. His heroism
had consequences which reached far beyond the scope of his original
purpose. He became the champion of the peasantry against the
freebooters, of the cultivated land against the waste; social
respect and predominance were his rewards.
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