1Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, was next after Abimelech. He rose to the occasion to save Israel. He was a man of Issachar. He lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
2He judged Israel for twenty-three years and then died and was buried at Shamir.
3After him, Jair the Gileadite stepped into leadership. He judged Israel for twenty-two years.
4He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys and had thirty towns in Gilead. The towns are still called Jair's Villages.
5Jair died and was buried in Kamon.
6And then the People of Israel went back to doing evil in God's sight. They worshiped the Baal gods and Ashtoreth goddesses: gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab; gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines. They just walked off and left God, quit worshiping him.
7And God exploded in hot anger at Israel and sold them off to the Philistines and Ammonites, who,
8beginning that year, bullied and battered the People of Israel mercilessly. For eighteen years they had them under their thumb, all the People of Israel who lived east of the Jordan in the Amorite country of Gilead.
9Then the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to go to war also against Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Israel was in a bad way!
10The People of Israel cried out to God for help: "We've sinned against you! We left our God and worshiped the Baal gods!"
11God answered the People of Israel: "When the Egyptians, Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines, Sidonians
12—even Amalek and Midian!—oppressed you and you cried out to me for help, I saved you from them.
13And now you've gone off and betrayed me, worshiping other gods. I'm not saving you anymore.
14Go ahead! Cry out for help to the gods you've chosen—let them get you out of the mess you're in!"
15The People of Israel said to God: "We've sinned. Do to us whatever you think best, but please, get us out of this!"
16Then they cleaned house of the foreign gods and worshiped only God. And God took Israel's troubles to heart.
17The Ammonites prepared for war, setting camp in Gilead. The People of Israel set their rival camp in Mizpah.
18The leaders in Gilead said, "Who will stand up for us against the Ammonites? We'll make him head over everyone in Gilead!"