Tola, Israel’s Sixth Judge

10 A man from the tribe of Issachar, Puah’s son Tola, grandson of Dodo, arose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the mountainous region^[a] of Ephraim. ² He governed Israel for 23 years and then died. He was buried in Shamir.

Jair, Israel’s Seventh Judge

³ After him, Jair the Gileadite arose and governed Israel for 22 years. ⁴ His 30 sons rode on 30 donkeys, controlling 30 cities in the territory of Gilead named Havvoth-jair^[b] to this day. ⁵ Jair died and was buried in Kamon.

Israel Descends into Apostasy

⁶ Later on, the Israelis again practiced what the Lord considered to be evil by serving the Baals, the stars, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the descendants of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. In doing so, they ignored^[c] the Lord and wouldn’t serve him. ⁷ In his burning anger against Israel, he sold them into domination by the Philistines and the Ammonites, ⁸ who trampled and troubled the Israelis during that year—eighteen years for the Israelis who lived east of the Jordan River in Gilead, the land occupied by^[d] the Amorites. ⁹ The Ammonites crossed the Jordan River to fight against the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim. As a result, Israel was deeply distressed. ¹⁰ Then the Israelis cried out to the Lord and told him,^[e] “We have sinned against you because we have abandoned our God to serve the Baals.”

¹¹ The Lord replied to the Israelis, “Aren’t you away from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, and the Philistines? ¹² And when the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites harassed you, you cried out to me, and I delivered you from under their domination. ¹³ But you have abandoned me and served other gods. Therefore I will no longer be delivering you. ¹⁴ Go and cry out to the gods that you have chosen for yourselves. Let them deliver you in your time of trouble.”

¹⁵ The Israelis replied to the Lord, “We have sinned, so do to us anything that’s right to do in your opinion, just please deliver us right now.” ¹⁶ When they put away their foreign gods and served the Lord, he brought Israel’s misery to an end. ¹⁷ The Ammonites were summoned and they encamped in Gilead. The Israelis assembled together and encamped in Mizpah. ¹⁸ The people and Gilead’s officials inquired among themselves, “Who will begin our attack against the Ammonites? He’ll become head over everyone who lives in Gilead.”