Judges 10

₁After Abimelek, Tola was the next leader who saved the Israelites. Tola was the son of Puah, son of Dodo, from the Issachar tribe. He lived in the town of Shamir in the Ephraim mountains. ₂He was the leader of the Israelites for 23 years. Then he died and they buried him in Shamir.

₃After Tola, Jair was the leader of the Israelites for 22 years. He was from the land of Gilead. ₄He had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys and they lived in 30 towns. Today the people still say those towns are the towns of Jair in the land of Gilead. ₅Then Jair died and they buried him in the town of Kamon.

₆The Israelites did bad things again, things that the Lord said are wrong. They worshipped_the_idols Baal and Ashtoreth and the gods of the Aramean people, the Sidonians, the Moabites, the Ammonites and the Philistines. They stopped serving God. ₇The Lord became angry with the Israelites and He sent the Philistines and the Ammonites to attack them and to defeat them. ₈The Philistines and Ammonites defeated the Israelites who lived on the other side of the Jordan River in the land of the Amorites in Gilead. They won against the Israelites that year and they did very bad things to them. They oppressed them for 18 years. ₉Then the Ammonites went over the Jordan River to go to war_against the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim. The Israelites suffered a lot. ₁₀They prayed to God and asked Him to help them. They said: ‘Lord, we have sinned_against You. Yes, we have stopped serving You, our God, and we have served the Baal idols.’

₁₁But the Lord said to the Israelites: ‘When the Egyptians and the Amorites, the people of Ammon and the Philistines, ₁₂the people of Sidon and the Amalekites and the people of Maon oppressed you, then you prayed to Me and you asked Me to help you. And I saved you. ₁₃But every time I have saved you, you have stopped serving Me and you have started serving other gods. Now I will not help you, and I will not save you again. ₁₄Go to the gods that you chose. Pray to them, and ask them to help you and to save you when you suffer.’

₁₅The Israelites said to the Lord: ‘We have sinned. You can punish us and do what You want, but please save us today.’ ₁₆Then the Israelites threw away the gods of other nations and they started to worship the Lord. Then the Lord felt sorry for them again because they were suffering.

₁₇The Ammonite rulers called their soldiers together and they put up their tents in the land of Gilead. The soldiers of Israel also came together and they put up their tents at the town of Mizpah. ₁₈The leaders of the people in the town of Gilead said: ‘Who will lead us to go to war? We must find someone who will lead us against the Ammonite soldiers. We will make him the ruler of all the people in Gilead.’