Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MACHIR

(Heb. māḵîr)

1. The son of Manasseh (Gen. 50:23), father of Gilead, and eponymous head of the Machirite clan (Num. 26:29; 27:1). Machir’s children were “born on Joseph’s knees” (Gen. 50:23), an idiom for legal adoption. Thus, the Machirite group originated in Egypt and belonged to Joseph’s house.

An allotment of land in the Transjordan was promised to half-Manasseh, provided they aid the other tribes in the battle for Canaan (Num. 32:39-40). The descendants of Machir captured Gilead, so Moses allotted this region to Machir (Deut. 3:15). The Song of Deborah (Judg. 5:14) describes the tribes leaving for the battle against Sisera: Machir is listed (W of the Jordan) after Ephraim-Benjamin but before Zebulun-Issachar-Naphtali. If in geographical order, this is the territory occupied by Manasseh, whose name does not appear in this list.

The relationship between the tribes of Machir/Manasseh is thus unclear. Martin Noth argues that the whole region was originally under the name Machir, a cognomen for Manasseh, meaning “rest of Manasseh.” Machir may be an older appellation, Manasseh being later and secondary. Manasseh may originally have been a clan of Machir that grew powerful and replaced it or a rival tribe that drove Machir away. Machir may be a clan of Joseph’s house which was later integrated into Manasseh, as Simeon was later integrated into Judah (Num. 26:29). Later OT texts do not refer to a Machirite tribe W of the Jordan.

2. The son of Ammiel from Lodebar, in whose home Saul’s son Meribaal lived for a time (2 Sam. 9:4-5). The same Machir brought food to David at Mahanaim (2 Sam. 17:27). The suggested site of Lodebar is N of the Jabbok in the land of the Manasseh half-tribe, in the land allotted to Machir (see 1 above).

Bibliography. Z. Kallai, Historical Geography of the Bible (Leiden, 1986); R. de Vaux, The Early History of Israel (Philadelphia, 1978).

Patricia A. MacNicoll

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MACHIR

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)