The Father Raises Tola to Save Israel
Tola and Jair judge quietly between the storms. Then Israel serves the gods of every neighbor at once and is crushed by Ammon eighteen years. When they cry out, our Father lists every past rescue and refuses — cry to the gods you chose. Their misery wears on him.
10 1After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, rose to save Israel; he lived in Shamir in Ephraim's hills. 2He led Israel as judge for twenty-three years; then he died and was buried in Shamir.
Jair Leads Israel
3After him rose Jair the Gileadite, who led Israel as judge for twenty-two years. 4He had thirty sons riding thirty donkeys, with thirty towns in Gilead, called Havvoth-jair to this day. a a v4 Havvoth-jair means "the settlements of Jair" — the towns took their name from him. 5When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.
Israel Forsakes the Father Again
6Again the Israelites did evil in our Father's eyes, serving the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. They abandoned our Father and no longer served him. 7So our Father's anger burned against Israel, and he sold them to the Philistines and the Ammonites. 8That year they shattered and crushed the Israelites—for eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites beyond the Jordan in the Amorites' land, in Gilead. 9The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim's house, so Israel was in deep distress. 10Then the Israelites cried to our Father: "We have sinned against you, abandoning our Father to serve the Baals."
11And our Father said to the Israelites, "Did I not save you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, and the Philistines? 12The Sidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites oppressed you; you cried to me, and I saved you from their hand. 13Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. 14Go cry out to the gods you chose; let them save you when you're in trouble."
15The Israelites said to our Father, "We have sinned. Do to us whatever you think best; only please rescue us today." 16They put away the foreign gods and served our Father, and his heart could bear Israel's misery no longer.
17The Ammonites mustered and camped in Gilead; the Israelites gathered and camped at Mizpah. 18The people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, "Whoever begins fighting the Ammonites will be head over all Gilead's people."
