Judges 10

Tola and Jair

¹After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo became judge and began to deliver Israel. He was from Issachar and lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. ²Tola judged Israel twenty-three years and when he died, was buried in Shamir.

³After him came Jair the Gileadite, ^a who judged Israel twenty-two years. ⁴He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys. They had thirty towns ^b in Gilead, which are still called Jair’s Villages ^c today. ⁵When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.

Israel’s Rebellion and Repentance

⁶Then the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. ^d They worshiped the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines. ^e They abandoned the Lord and did not worship him. ^{f 7}So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them to the Philistines and the Ammonites. ^{g 8}They shattered and crushed the Israelites that year, and for eighteen years they did the same to all the Israelites who were on the other side of the Jordan ^h in the land of the Amorites ⁱ in Gilead. ⁹The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim. Israel was greatly oppressed, ¹⁰so they cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you. ^j We have abandoned our God and worshiped the Baals.”

¹¹The Lord said to the Israelites, “When the Egyptians, ^k Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines, ¹²Sidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites ^l,^m oppressed you, and you cried out to me, did I not deliver you from them? ¹³But you have abandoned me and worshiped other gods. Therefore, I will not deliver you again. ¹⁴Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. ⁿ Let them deliver you whenever you are oppressed.”

¹⁵But the Israelites said, “We have sinned. Deal with us as you see fit; only rescue us ^o today! ” ¹⁶So they got rid of the foreign gods ^p among them and worshiped the Lord, ^q and he became weary ^r of Israel’s misery.

¹⁷The Ammonites were called together, and they camped in Gilead. So the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah. ^{s 18}The rulers ^t of Gilead said to one another, “Which man will begin the fight against the Ammonites? He will be the leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”