Gilead was a good place to live. It had excellent grazing land, so excellent that the tribes that had this territory allocated to them did not want to go on into Canaan proper, and only did so after Moses persuaded them. And then only after they had helped the other tribes conquer their territories west of the Jordan were they allowed to go back to Gilead and occupy the land (Numbers 32:1–42). Gilead was a place that promised prosperity. And Judges 10:4 reveals that Jair realized Gilead’s potential.
3 After him arose Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years.