Brief Judges, Renewed Apostasy, and a Cry Beyond Words

Tola and Puah were the names of Issachar’s own sons (Genesis 46:13), so this judge carries the tribe’s founding names. Both are also dyes: tola is the crimson worm from which scarlet was made, and puah is a red dye plant. “To defend” is lehoshia, to save, the deliverer’s verb.

Twenty three years is not a round number like the forty of the major judges. The minor judges’ terms, twenty three, twenty two, six, seven, ten, eight, read like entries copied from a record rather than numbers chosen for their shape.

Jair shares his name with the son of Manasseh who, in Moses’ time, took the villages of Gilead and called them after himself (Numbers 32:41; Deuteronomy 3:14). The later Jair is a Gileadite from the same eastern country.

The Hebrew makes a pun: thirty sons rode thirty ayarim, ass colts, and had thirty ayarim, cities, spelled unusually here so that the two words match. Riding on asses was a mark of rank. The towns still bore the name Havoth-jair, “tent villages of Jair”.

Each minor judge’s notice ends with a burial place: Shamir for Tola, Camon for Jair, and later Bethlehem, Aijalon and Pirathon (12:10, 12, 15). The graves were remembered even where the deeds were not. Camon is otherwise unknown.

Seven sets of gods are named: the Baals, the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, Zidon, Moab, Ammon and the Philistines. In verses 11–12 God will name seven peoples he rescued Israel from. Seven betrayals are answered by a list of seven deliverances.

Two enemies on two fronts: the Philistines in the west and Ammon in the east. The Ammonite oppression leads to Jephthah in chapters 11–12; the Philistine one is picked up again in 13:1 and runs through Samson’s life.

“Vexed and oppressed” renders two Hebrew verbs of shattering and crushing that sound alike, the second being the “crushed” of the curse in Deuteronomy 28:33, “thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway.” Eighteen years is the same length as Moab’s rule under Eglon (3:14).

Ammon crosses the Jordan into the heart of the land, striking Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim. “Sore distressed” repeats the phrase of 2:15, “greatly distressed”, from the book’s opening summary of what happens when Israel forsakes the LORD.

This is the first time in the Book of Judges that Israel says “We have sinned.” The confession names two things: forsaking our God, and serving the Baals. Earlier cries in the book were cries of distress; this one admits a cause.

The rescues are recalled by enemy name. The Egyptians and the Amorites belong to Moses’ time; the Ammonites fought beside Moab under Eglon (3:13), and the Philistines fell to Shamgar (3:31). The question form, “Did not I”, makes Israel answer its own history.

The Maonites are otherwise unknown, and the Greek Old Testament reads “Midianites” here, which fits Gideon’s victory and completes the list more naturally. Counting from verse 11, seven oppressors are named, matching the seven sets of gods in verse 6.

“I will deliver you no more” is literally “I will not add to deliver you”: the rescues are being counted and the count is closed. The verb “forsaken”, azav, is the one Israel used of itself in verse 10.

Jeremiah uses the same challenge centuries later: “where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble” (Jeremiah 2:28). “Tribulation” here is the same “time of trouble”: the gods Israel chose are told to answer the call.

“Do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee” is the language of full submission. Eli says it when told of the judgment on his house, “let him do what seemeth him good” (1 Samuel 3:18), and David when fleeing Absalom (2 Samuel 15:26).

“His soul was grieved” is literally “his soul was shortened”: he could bear it no longer. The same idiom describes Israel’s patience running out on the road (Numbers 21:4) and Samson’s soul “vexed unto death” by Delilah’s pleading (16:16). The chapter uses of God an expression otherwise used of people at the end of their endurance.

Mizpeh of Gilead, “the watchtower”, is where Jacob and Laban set up their heap of stones and said, “The LORD watch between me and thee” (Genesis 31:49). It will be Jephthah’s home (11:34), and here the tribes camp while Ammon holds Gilead.

“Head” is rosh. In the next chapter the elders will first offer Jephthah the lesser title qatsin, “captain” (11:6), and only after his objection the full “head” (11:8–11). “Begin to fight” means strike the first blow: the offer goes to whoever dares to open the war.