Judges 10

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

3After him came Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel for twenty-two years. 4Jair had thirty sons, riding thirty donkeys, and they owned thirty towns. Those towns in the land of Gilead are known as Havvoth-jair to this day. 5Then Jair died and was buried in Kamon.

6Once again the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, 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 the LORD and no longer served him. 7Then the anger of the LORD blazed against Israel, and he sold them into the power of the Philistines and into the power of the Ammonites. 8That year they shattered and crushed the Israelites, and for eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites who lived east of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites. 9The Ammonites even crossed the Jordan to make war on Judah, on Benjamin and on the house of Ephraim. Israel was in great distress. 10Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD: “We have sinned against you, because we have abandoned our God and served the Baals.”

11And the LORD 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, I saved you from their power. 13Yet you have abandoned me and served other gods. So I will not save you again. 14Go and cry to the gods you chose for yourselves. Let them be the ones to save you when trouble comes.” 15But the Israelites said to the LORD, “We have sinned. Deal with us in whatever way you think best, but please rescue us today.” 16Then they got rid of the foreign gods that were among them and served the LORD, and he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.

17When the Ammonites were called to arms, they made camp in Gilead, while the Israelites came together and made camp at Mizpah. 18The people and the officials of Gilead asked one another, “Who will be the man to open the fight against the Ammonites? He will be head over everyone who lives in Gilead.”