Machir

Machir was a son of Manasseh whose family went east of the Jordan and took Gilead, driving out the Amorites who lived there. Moses gave him that land, and Joshua records his descendants holding half of it, along with cities once ruled by Og of Bashan. Another Machir, son of Ammiel, appears much later in the house at Lodebar. He sheltered Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s crippled son, until David sent for him, and he later brought supplies to David at Mahanaim. One name, then, covers a conquering clan and a quiet host. Numbers 32 tells how the first Machir received his land.

8 verses

Numbers

Numbers 26:29

Of the sons of Manasseh: of Machir, the family of the Machirites: and Machir begat Gilead: of Gilead come the family of the Gileadites.

Numbers 32:39

And the children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, and took it, and dispossessed the Amorite which was in it.

Numbers 32:40

And Moses gave Gilead unto Machir the son of Manasseh; and he dwelt therein.

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 3:15

And I gave Gilead unto Machir.

Joshua

Joshua 13:31

And half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were pertaining unto the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, even to the one half of the children of Machir by their families.

2 Samuel

2 Samuel 9:4

And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lodebar.

2 Samuel 9:5

Then king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, from Lodebar.

2 Samuel 17:27

And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Sold. (1.) Manasseh’s oldest son (Josh. 17:1), or probably his only son (see 1 Chr. 7:14, 15; comp. Num. 26:29-33; Josh. 13:31). His descendants are referred to under the name of Machirites, being the offspring of Gilead (Num. 26:29). They settled in land taken from the Amorites (Num. 32:39, 40; Deut. 3:15) by a special enactment (Num. 36:1-3; Josh. 17:3, 4). He is once mentioned as the representative of the tribe of Manasseh east of Jordan (Judg. 5:14).

(2.) A descendant of the preceding, residing at Lo-debar, where he maintained Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth till he was taken under the care of David (2 Sam. 9:4), and where he afterwards gave shelter to David himself when he was a fugitive (17:27).

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(sold).

(1.) The eldest son, (Joshua 17:1) of the patriarch Manasseh by an Aramite or Syrian concubine. (1 Chronicles 7:14) At the time of the conquest the family of Machir had become very powerful, and a large part of the country on the east of Jordan was subdued by them. (Numbers 32:39; 3:15)

(2.) The son of Ammiel, a powerful sheikh of one of the transjordanic tribes, who rendered essential service to the cause of Saul and of David successively. (2 Samuel 9:4,5; 17:27-29)