10
1 Now after Abimelech, Tola, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, arose in order to deliver Israel. He settled in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim.
2 He judged Israel twenty- three years. He died and was buried in Shamir.
3 Then arose after him Jair the Gileadite. He judged Israel twenty- two years.
4 Now he had thirty sons, riding on thirty donkeys. There were thirty cities for them, they call them Havvoth Jair to this day, that are in the land of the Gilead.
5 Then Jair died and he was buried in Kamon.
6 The sons of Israel continued to do this evil in the eyes of Yahweh: they worshiped the Baals, and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. They forsook Yahweh and did not serve him.
7 The anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, so he gave them over into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the sons of Ammon.
8 They shattered and oppressed the sons of Israel in that year, and for eighteen years all the sons of Israel who were on the opposite side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in the Gilead.
9 Then the sons of Ammon also crossed over the Jordan to fight against Judah, against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, and as a result there was for Israel exceedingly great distress.
10 Then the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and we have served the Baals.”
11 Then Yahweh said to the sons of Israel, “Was it not from the Egyptians, and from the Amorite, and from the sons of Ammon, and from the Philistines,
12 and the Sidonians and Amalek and Maon, when they oppressed you that you cried out to me, and I delivered you from their hand?
13 Yet you have abandoned me and you have served other gods. Therefore, I will not continue to deliver you.
14 Go and cry out to the gods that you have chosen for yourselves. They should deliver you at the time of your distress.”
15 Then the sons of Israel said to Yahweh, “We have sinned. You do to us according to all that is good in your eyes. Only rescue us please this day.”
16 They removed the foreign gods from their midst and they worshiped Yahweh. Then His soul became dismayed with the suffering of Israel.
17 Now the sons of Ammon were summoned and they encamped in Gilead. So the sons of Israel gathered together and they encamped at Mizpah.
18 Then the people, the princes of Gilead each said to his fellow man, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the sons of Ammon? He will become the leader over all who are residing in Gilead.”
The Book of Judges