Tola
10
📚And after Abimelech, Tola, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, rose up to defend Israel. And he lived in Shamir in Mount Ephraim.10:1 This Tola is never mentioned again in the Bible. We are not told why he, being of the tribe of Issachar, came to live in Ephraim. Perhaps it was merely because Ephraim was centrally located in the whole land.⚜
2 And he judged 📖 Israel twenty-three years, and died and was buried in Shamir.
Jair
3 📚And after him arose Jair 📖, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty-two years. 4 📚And he had thirty sons who rode on thirty young donkeys, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havoth-Jair to this day. They are in the land of Gilead. 5 And Jair died and was buried in Camon.
Israel’s repeated sin, their repentance, and God’s compassion
6 📚And the children of Israel again 📖 did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals and Ashtaroth 📖 and the gods of Syria and the gods of Sidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD and did not serve him. 7 📚And the anger 📖 of the LORD burned against Israel and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon 📖. 8 📚And that year they troubled and oppressed the children of Israel. For eighteen years they oppressed all the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan in Gilead, in the land of the Amorites. 9 📚Moreover the children of Ammon crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah also and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was greatly distressed.
10 📚And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD 📖, saying, “We have sinned 📖 against you by forsaking our God, and also by serving the Baals”.
11 📚And the LORD said 📖 to the children of Israel, “Did I not rescue you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines? 12 📚Also the Sidonians and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you; and you cried out to me, and I delivered you from their hands. 13 📚Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods. Therefore I will no longer deliver you. 14 📚Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation 📖”.
15 📚And the children of Israel said to the LORD, “We have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good to you. Only deliver us, we pray you, this day”. 16 📚And they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD. And his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
10:15-16 These words and actions showed a measure of repentance, but God knew their good intentions would be like the dew of the morning of a hot day.⚜
17 📚Then the children of Ammon gathered together and camped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled themselves and camped in Mizpeh. 18 📚And the people and leaders of Gilead said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? He will be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead”.