There is an alliterative play on words between Jair (ja’ir), donkey (‘ayir) and city/town (‘ir). This creates a humourous irony in the passage. Jair’s concerns are not with saving Israel from anyone; instead, they are in building a power base for himself and his sons. This self-interest motif will recur throughout the remaining judges.
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4 And he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty cities, called Havvoth-jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead.