Judges 10
1 After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, rose up to deliver Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim.
2 He judged Israel for twenty-three years. Then he died and was buried in Shamir.
3 After him, Jair the Gileadite rose up and judged Israel for twenty-two years.
4 He had thirty sons who rode thirty donkeys, and they had thirty towns, which are called Havvoth-jair to this day, in the land of Gilead.
5 Jair died and was buried in Kamon.
6 The Israelites again did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. They abandoned the LORD and did not serve him.
7 The LORD's anger burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the hands of the Ammonites.
8 That year they crushed and oppressed the Israelites. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites who lived beyond the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead.
9 The Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, and Israel was in great distress.
10 The Israelites cried out to the LORD: “We have sinned against you, for we abandoned our God and served the Baals.”
11 The LORD said to the Israelites: “Did I not deliver you from Egypt, from the Amorites, from the Ammonites, and from the Philistines?
12 The Sidonians, Amalek, and Maon oppressed you. You cried out to me, and I delivered you from their hands.
13 But you abandoned me and served other gods. Therefore I will no longer deliver you.
14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them deliver you in your time of distress.”
15 The Israelites said to the LORD: “We have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good in your eyes; but please deliver us today.”
16 They removed the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD, and he could no longer bear Israel's suffering.
17 The Ammonites were summoned and camped in Gilead. The Israelites gathered and camped at Mizpah.
18 The people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another: “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites? He will be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
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