Tola and Jair
1After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim. 2He judged Israel twenty-three years; then he died and was buried in Shamir. 3After him rose Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years. 4He had thirty sons, who rode on thirty donkeys and had thirty towns; these are called Havvoth-jair to this day, and they are in the land of Gilead. 5Jair died and was buried in Kamon.
Israel’s Renewed Rebellion
6Again the Israelites did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh. They served the Baals and 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 Yahweh and did not serve him. 7Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites. 8That year they crushed and oppressed the Israelites, and for eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites east of the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead. 9The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, and Israel was in deep distress. 10The Israelites cried out to Yahweh, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we abandoned our God and served the Baals.” 11Yahweh said to the Israelites, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, and the Philistines? 12When the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried out to me, did I not save you from their hand? 13Yet you have abandoned me and served other gods. So I will not save you again. 14Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of trouble.” 15The Israelites said to Yahweh, “We have sinned. Do to us whatever seems right to you, only rescue us today, we beg you.” 16They got rid of the foreign gods among them and served Yahweh, and he could no longer bear to see Israel suffer. 17Then the Ammonites were called together and camped in Gilead, and the Israelites gathered together and camped at Mizpah. 18The people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, “Whoever will lead the attack against the Ammonites will become head over all who live in Gilead.”
