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Judges 10: What the Passage Says

71 claims across 18 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Judges 10 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

After Abimelech, two judges lead Israel: Tola of Issachar for twenty-three years, and Jair of Gilead for twenty-two. Israel then turns to the gods of the surrounding nations, and the LORD hands them over to the Philistines and the Ammonites. The Ammonites crush the Israelites east of the Jordan for eighteen years, and cross the river to fight Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim as well. When Israel cries out, the LORD lists past rescues and tells them to call on the gods they chose; they confess again, put away the foreign gods, and serve the LORD. The chapter ends with both armies camped for war and the leaders of Gilead offering the headship of Gilead to whoever will lead the attack.

Claim by Claim

  1. 10:1
    • After Abimelech, Tola arose to save Israel.
    • Tola was the son of Puah.
    • Puah was the son of Dodo.
    • Tola was a man of Issachar.
    • Tola lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
  2. 10:2
    • Tola judged Israel twenty-three years.
    • Tola died.
    • Tola was buried in Shamir.
  3. 10:3
    • After Tola, Jair the Gileadite arose.
    • Jair judged Israel twenty-two years.
  4. 10:4
    • Jair had thirty sons.
    • The thirty sons rode on thirty donkey colts.
    • The thirty sons had thirty towns.
    • Those towns are called Havvoth-jair to this day.
    • Those towns are in the land of Gilead.
  5. 10:5
    • Jair died.
    • Jair was buried in Kamon.
  6. 10:6
    • The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.
    • They served the Baals.
    • They served the Ashtoreths.
    • They served the gods of Aram.
    • They served the gods of Sidon.
    • They served the gods of Moab.
    • They served the gods of the Ammonites.
    • They served the gods of the Philistines.
    • They forsook the LORD.
    • They did not serve the LORD.
  7. 10:7
    • The anger of the LORD burned against Israel.
    • The LORD sold Israel into the hand of the Philistines.
    • The LORD sold Israel into the hand of the Ammonites.
  8. 10:8
    • That year they shattered and crushed the Israelites.
    • They oppressed them for eighteen years.
    • The oppression fell on all the Israelites beyond the Jordan.
    • That territory was the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
  9. 10:9
    • The Ammonites crossed the Jordan.
    • They crossed over to fight also against Judah.
    • They crossed over to fight also against Benjamin.
    • They crossed over to fight also against the house of Ephraim.
    • Israel was greatly distressed.
  10. 10:10
    • The Israelites cried out to the LORD.
    • They said they had sinned against the LORD.
    • They said they had forsaken their God.
    • They said they had served the Baals.
  11. 10:11
    • The LORD spoke to the Israelites.
    • The LORD asked whether he had not delivered them from the Egyptians.
    • The LORD asked whether he had not delivered them from the Amorites.
    • The LORD asked whether he had not delivered them from the Ammonites.
    • The LORD asked whether he had not delivered them from the Philistines.
  12. 10:12
    • The Sidonians oppressed Israel.
    • The Amalekites oppressed Israel.
    • The Maonites oppressed Israel.
    • Israel cried out to the LORD.
    • The LORD saved them out of their hand.
  13. 10:13
    • The LORD said they had forsaken him.
    • The LORD said they had served other gods.
    • The LORD said that therefore he would save them no more.
  14. 10:14
    • The LORD told them to go and cry out to the gods they had chosen.
    • The LORD told those gods to save them in the time of their trouble.
  15. 10:15
    • The Israelites said to the LORD that they had sinned.
    • They told the LORD to do to them whatever seemed good in his eyes.
    • They asked the LORD to deliver them that day.
  16. 10:16
    • They removed the foreign gods from among them.
    • They served the LORD.
    • The LORD's soul grew impatient at the misery of Israel.
  17. 10:17
    • The Ammonites were called together.
    • The Ammonites encamped in Gilead.
    • The Israelites assembled.
    • The Israelites encamped at Mizpah.
  18. 10:18
    • The people, the leaders of Gilead, spoke to one another.
    • They asked who the man was that would begin to fight against the Ammonites.
    • They said that man would become head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1
Abimelech was a son of Gideon who had himself made king at Shechem and whose short, violent rule collapsed in civil war (Judges 9). The phrase "after Abimelech's time" places Tola immediately after that episode.
10:2
A "judge" in this book is not a courtroom official. The Hebrew word covers military deliverers and ruling chieftains, leaders who settled disputes and, more often, led Israel in war. Some, like Tola and Jair, are recorded only with a name, a term of years and a burial place; these are traditionally called the "minor judges."
10:3
Gilead is the hill country east of the Jordan River, in what is now northwest Jordan. Israelite tribes settled there, which is why it is treated as part of Israel though it lies across the river.
10:4
Thirty sons implies multiple wives and so considerable wealth; donkeys were the mount of men of rank in this period, before horses came into ordinary Israelite use, so riding thirty of them is a display of standing. "Havvoth-jair" means roughly "the tent-villages of Jair," a play on his name.
10:6
The Baals and Ashtoreths are plural forms: Baal was the Canaanite storm and fertility god, Ashtoreth (Astarte) a major goddess, each worshiped in local versions at local shrines, hence the plurals. Aram is the region around Damascus (the King James calls it Syria); Sidon was a Phoenician port on the coast of modern Lebanon; Moab and Ammon were kingdoms east of the Dead Sea; the Philistines occupied the coastal plain to the southwest. The list is deliberately comprehensive: the gods of every neighboring people.
10:7
The King James "sold them into the hands of" translates a Hebrew legal image, handing a person over into someone else's power, as goods are handed over to a buyer.
10:8
"Amorites" is used broadly in the Hebrew Bible for the peoples living in Canaan before Israel; here it refers specifically to the kingdoms east of the Jordan whose territory became Gilead.
10:9
Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim lie west of the Jordan. The point is that the raiding was no longer confined to the eastern territory but had crossed into the Israelite heartland.
10:10
Judges is built on a repeating cycle: Israel turns to other gods, an enemy oppresses them, they cry out to the LORD, a judge is raised up, and there is peace until the judge dies. The verb "cried" here is the cry of someone in distress calling for help, not weeping.
10:11
The Hebrew of verses 11-12 is a broken sentence: it begins "Was it not from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites..." and never completes the thought before the list runs on. Translators supply the missing verb in different places, which is why some versions put "did I not rescue you?" at the end of verse 12 rather than here.
10:12
The Amalekites were nomadic raiders of the southern desert. The "Maonites" are uncertain: probably the Meunites, a people associated with Maon in the region south of the Dead Sea. Some ancient copies read "Midianites" instead.
10:14
"Tribulation" in 1611 English simply meant trouble or severe distress, without the end-of-the-world sense the word has picked up since. The reply is a challenge rather than an instruction: if those gods were worth serving, let them do the work of a god now.
10:16
The Hebrew idiom is literally "his soul grew short at the misery of Israel", the same phrase used elsewhere for running out of patience. It can be read as God being unable to endure their suffering any longer, or as impatience with Israel itself; the wording leaves both open.
10:17
Mizpah means "watchtower" and several places carry the name; this one is in Gilead, east of the Jordan, not the better-known Mizpah in Benjamin.
10:18
"Head" here means standing ruler, not merely commander for one battle: the offer is permanent leadership of the region in exchange for taking the risk of starting the war.

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