Judges 10; Judges 11:1-11

Judges 10

1 After the time of Abimelech, a man of Issachar, Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose up to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim.

2 Tola judged Israel twenty-three years, and when he died, he was buried in Shamir.

3 Tola was followed by Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years.

4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys. And they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which to this day are called Havvoth-jair.

5 When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.

6 And again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and Philistines. Thus they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.

7 So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites,

8 who that very year harassed and oppressed the Israelites, and they did so for eighteen years to all the Israelites on the other side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites.

9 The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, and Israel was in deep distress.

10 Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against You, for we have indeed forsaken our God and served the Baals.”

11 The LORD replied, “When the Egyptians, Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines,

12 Sidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites oppressed you and you cried out to Me, did I not save you from their hands?

13 But you have forsaken Me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you.

14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of trouble.”

15 “We have sinned,” the Israelites said to the LORD. “Deal with us as You see fit; but please deliver us today!”

16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD, and He could no longer bear the misery of Israel.

17 Then the Ammonites were called to arms and camped in Gilead, and the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah.

18 And the rulers of Gilead said to one another, “Whoever will launch the attack against the Ammonites will be the head of all who live in Gilead.”

Judges 11:1-11

1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor; he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father.

2 And Gilead’s wife bore him sons who grew up, drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, because you are the son of another woman.”

3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where worthless men gathered around him and traveled with him.

4 Some time later, when the Ammonites fought against Israel

5 and made war with them, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.

6 “Come,” they said, “be our commander, so that we can fight against the Ammonites.”

7 Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and expel me from my father’s house? Why then have you come to me now, when you are in distress?”

8 They answered Jephthah, “This is why we now turn to you, that you may go with us, fight the Ammonites, and become leader over all of us who live in Gilead.”

9 But Jephthah asked them, “If you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me, will I really be your leader?”

10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is our witness if we do not do as you say.”

11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. And Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of the LORD at Mizpah.