Statue of an Ammonite King on display at the Jordan Museum, estimated 8th Century BCE, Photo by Makeandtoss,,CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86369152

Judges 10:1-5 Tola and Jair in the Aftermath of Abimelech

1 After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, who lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim, rose to deliver Israel. ² He judged Israel twenty-three years. Then he died, and was buried at Shamir.

³ After him came Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years. ⁴ He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys; and they had thirty towns, which are in the land of Gilead, and are called Havvoth-jair to this day. ⁵ Jair died, and was buried in Kamon.

In the aftermath of Abimelech’s bloody reign, we have the introduction of two minor judges. In contrast to the first minor judge, Shamgar, neither Tola nor Jair are depicted as warriors. They may preside over a relatively peaceful and prosperous time for the Israelite tribes. The information that the text provides about Tola is related to his family, tribe, and place of residence in addition to the time of his judging provides ‘deliverance for Israel. His time as a judge never indicates what he delivers Israel from. It may be from the disarray in the aftermath of the fall of Abimelech. Perhaps he provides a time of calm administration and judgment in the aftermath of Abimelech’s fiery and brief reign. Jair probably comes from the portion of the tribe of Manasseh that remained on the eastern side of the Jordan river. Jair shares a name with a warrior leader who conquered this region during the time of Moses (Numbers 32: 41-42, Deuteronomy 3:14). But once again we have no indication that this later Jair or his sons are warrior leaders, instead he seems to be the head of a wealthy family that controls a large region. I appreciate the Jewish Publication Society’s attempt to capture the play on words between donkeys and town in the Hebrew here when it renders this passage, “He had thirty sons who rode on thirty burrows and owned thirty boroughs in the region of Gilead.”[1] Jair’s time as judge may have been a time of acquiring wealth and property for his family, but it may also point to the vulnerability of Israel to future invasion. In contrast to the warrior namesake, these sons of Jair who preside over cities and ride on donkeys are unprepared when faced with the Ammonites invade their region.

Judges 10: 6-18 The Unfaithful People and the Exasperated God

⁶ The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, worshiping the Baals and the Astartes, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. Thus they abandoned the LORD, and did not worship him. ⁷ So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites, ⁸ and they crushed and oppressed the Israelites that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. ⁹ The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was greatly distressed.

¹⁰ So the Israelites cried to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have abandoned our God and have worshiped the Baals.” ¹¹ And the LORD said to the Israelites, “Did I not deliver you  from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? ¹² The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, oppressed you; and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. ¹³ Yet you have abandoned me and worshiped other gods; therefore I will deliver you no more. ¹⁴ Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.” ¹⁵ And the Israelites said to the LORD, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you; but deliver us this day!” ¹⁶ So they put away the foreign gods from among them and worshiped the LORD; and he could no longer bear to see Israel suffer.

¹⁷ Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped in Gilead; and the Israelites came together, and they encamped at Mizpah. ¹⁸ The commanders of the people of Gilead said to one another, “Who will begin the fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

The pernicious pattern returns when, “the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.” The tribes continue to adopt the worship and the practices of the people who they share their land or borders with. Now they are surrendered to a double threat, the Philistine who come from the west and the Ammonites who come from the east. The Ammonites probably first encountered the people who had been led by Jair, while the Philistines emerge from the southern region near Judah. The Israelites in their ununified state are overwhelmed by both attackers and suffer eighteen years. The Philistine threat drops from the narrative and the primary concern seems to be the advance of the Ammonite threat which now threatens not only Gilead in the east but also the tribes on the western side of the Jordan.

The cry to the LORD is met initially with rejection. The people have called on God in the past and then quickly returned to the practice of worshipping other gods once the crisis is over. Now the LORD tells the people that after delivering them from seven different opponents (from the Egyptians to the Maonites (presumably the Midianites and people of the east driven away in the time of Gideon) that the people can go and appeal for help to the gods they seem continually drawn to. Words will not be enough this time for Israel to gain the LORD’s assistance. Even once the people remove the foreign gods from among them the text indicates that the LORD may still view their repentance as suspect, but one of the characteristics of the LORD is that the LORD responds to the suffering of the people of Israel. The verb which is translated ‘to bear’ (quasar) often indicates impatience, anger, or exasperation and it is likely that even in the midst of the LORD exasperation with Israel it is the suffering that causes the LORD to act. The crisis of an imminent conflict at Gilead sets the stage for the elevation of the next judge of Israel who will deliver the people from their plight.

[1] The Hebrew uses the same word for towns and donkeys (ayarim) (Hattin 2020, 102)