Tola, Jair and Jephthah
1 After Abimelech, Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, appeared to save Israel. He was from the tribe of Issachar and lived at Sha mir, in the mountains of Eph raim.
2 He was judge of Israel for twenty-three years and when he died, he was buried in Shamir.
3 After him rose Jair of Gilead who was judge of Israel for twenty-two years.
4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty asses, and had thirty cities which are still called the villages of Jair to this day, in the land of Gilead.
5 When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.
6 The Israelites again treated Yah weh badly; they served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram and Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. They abandoned Yahweh and no longer served him.
7 The anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, so he gave them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites.
8 For eighteen years, all the Isra-elites living on the other side of the Jordan in the Amorite land of Gilead were disturbed and oppressed.
9 The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to attack Judah, Benjamin and the peo ple of Ephraim. Israel was in great dis tress.
10 In those years the Israelites called out to Yahweh saying, “We have sinned against you, for we have abandoned Yahweh, our God, to serve the Baals.”
11 Yahweh said to the Israelites, “When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philis tines,
12 the Sidonians, Amalek and Midian oppressed you, and you cried out to me, did I not save you from their hands?
13 But in spite of this, you have abandoned me and served other gods. So I will not save you again.
14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen: see if they will save you in the time of your distress.”
15 The Israelites answered Yah weh, “We have sinned. Do to us what ever you wish, but save us to day.”
16 Then they put away the strange gods and served Yahweh. And he could no longer endure the suffering of Israel.
17 The Ammonites assembled and went to encamp in Gilead. The Is rae lites also assembled and they en camped at Mizpah.
18 There the peo ple and the leaders of Gilead asked one another, “Who will lead us all to fight against the Ammonites? Who ever he is, we shall make him head of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
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Comments Judges, Chapter 10
• 10.1 Each tribe had its own problems. There rose up saviors in various places who, after a victory, were honored as “Judges” for the rest of their lives: Gideon from Manasseh; Tola from Issachar; Jair from the country of Gilead.
One notices Yahweh’s tireless and ever-forgiving love. As sins increase Yahweh says “I will not save you again”; and again God could no longer bear the sufferings of Israel. If we complain about God’s inaction with re gard to oppression and social injustice, it is be cause we cannot see that the oppressed, as well as the oppressors, share the responsibility and sin.