Thola ruleth Israel twenty-three years; and Jair twenty-two. The people
fall again into idolatry, and are afflicted again by the Philistines and
Ammonites. They cry to God for help, who upon their repentance hath
compassion on them.
10:1. After Abimelech, there arose a ruler in Israel, Thola, son of
Phua, the uncle of Abimelech, a man of Issachar, who dwelt in Samir of
mount Ephraim:
Uncle of Abimelech... i. e., half brother to Gedeon, as being born of
the same mother, but by a different father, and of a different tribe.
10:2. And he judged Israel three and twenty years, and he died, and was
buried in Samir.
10:3. To him succeeded Jair, the Galaadite, who judged Israel for two
and twenty years,
10:4. Having thirty sons, that rode on thirty ass colts, and were
princes of thirty cities, which from his name were called Havoth Jair,
that is, the towns of Jair, until this present day, in the land of
Galaad.
Havoth Jair... This name was now confirmed to these towns, which they
had formerly received from another Jair. Num. 32.41.
10:5. And Jair died, and was buried in the place which is called Camon.
10:6. But the children of Israel, adding new sins to their old ones, did
evil in the sight of the Lord, and served idols, Baalim and Astaroth,
and the gods of Syria, and of Sidon, and of Moab, and of the children of
Ammon, and of the Philistines: and they left the Lord, and did not serve
him.
10:7. And the Lord being angry with them, delivered them into the hands
of the Philistines, and of the children of Ammon.
10:8. And they were afflicted, and grievously oppressed for eighteen
years, all they that dwelt beyond the Jordan in the land of the
Amorrhite, who is in Galaad:
10:9. Insomuch that the children of Ammon, passing over the Jordan,
wasted Juda, and Benjamin, and Ephraim: and Israel was distressed
exceedingly.
10:10. And they cried to the Lord, and said, We have sinned against
thee, because we have forsaken the Lord our God, and have served Baalim.
10:11. And the Lord said to them: Did not the Egyptians, and the
Amorrhites, and the children of Ammon, and the Philistines,
10:12. The Sidonians also, and Amalec, and Chanaan, oppress you, and you
cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand?
10:13. And yet you have forsaken me, and have worshipped strange gods:
therefore I will deliver you no more:
10:14. Go, and call upon the gods which you have chosen: let them
deliver you in the time of distress.
10:15. And the children of Israel said to the Lord: We have sinned, do
thou unto us whatsoever pleaseth thee: only deliver us this time.
10:16. And saying these things, they cast away out of their coasts all
the idols of strange gods, and served the Lord their God: and he was
touched with their miseries.
10:17. And the children of Ammon shouting together, pitched their tents
in Galaad: against whom the children of Israel assembled themselves
together, and camped in Maspha.
10:18. And the princes of Galaad said one to another: Whosoever of us
shall first begin to fight against the children of Ammon, he shall be
the leader of the people of Galaad.