1After Abimelech there arose to deliver Israel Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he was living in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
2He judged Israel twenty-three years; then he died and was buried in Shamir.
3After him arose Jair the Gileadite, and he judged Israel twenty-two years.
4He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty towns; they call them Havvoth-jair to this day — which are in the land of Gilead.
5And Jair died and was buried in Kamon.
6The sons of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh; they served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. They forsook Yahweh and did not serve him.
7So the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the sons of Ammon.
8That year they crushed and shattered the sons of Israel — for eighteen years — all the sons of Israel who were beyond the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
9The sons of Ammon crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim, and Israel was in dire distress.
10Then the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh, saying, “We have sinned against you, for we have forsaken our God and served the Baals.”
11And Yahweh said to the sons of Israel, “Was it not from the Egyptians, from the Amorites, from the sons of Ammon, and from the Philistines —
12and the Sidonians, and Amalek, and Maon — when they oppressed you, and you cried out to me, that I delivered you from their hand?
13But you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer deliver you.
14Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.
15But the sons of Israel said to Yahweh, “We have sinned. Do to us whatever is good in your eyes; only deliver us, please, this day.”
16So they removed the foreign gods from among them and served Yahweh, and his soul grew short over the misery of Israel.
17Then the sons of Ammon were called out and encamped in Gilead, and the sons of Israel gathered and encamped at Mizpah.
18And the people, the commanders of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the sons of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
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