Judgeschapter 10
18 verses · BSBJudges book hub →
Key verse
who that very year harassed and oppressed the Israelites, and did so for eighteen years to all the Israelites on the other side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites.
It stands in scene B of the chapter, verses 6 to 18.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Two quiet judges are noted: Tola, who saved Israel and judged twenty-three years, and Jair the Gileadite, whose thirty sons rode on thirty ass colts and held thirty towns called Havvoth-jair. Then the apostasy widens beyond Baal: they serve the gods of Syria, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and the Philistines, and forsook Jehovah, and served him not. Ammon and the Philistines vex Israel eighteen years. When they cry out, God answers with a rehearsal of past deliverances and a stinging refusal, go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen. Only when they put away the foreign gods and serve Jehovah does the narrator say his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
Context
History · Samuel · Judges overview
Where the chapter sits
Judges 10 falls in The twelve judges (chapters 3–16). Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Samson (and Abimelech as anti-judge). Seven oppression-deliverance cycles.
Before it: Incomplete conquest; programmatic cycle, chapters 1–2. After it: Appendix: diagnosis of Israel, chapters 17–21.
The whole shape of Judges→The world behind this chapter
Judges 10The history
Tola and Jair get a few verses each, and the details are about property, not battles. Jair's thirty sons rode thirty donkeys and held thirty towns. Riding a donkey was the mark of a man of standing in the days before horses were common in Israel, and thirty towns under one family is a small dynasty. These were prosperous years, and the text says nothing about war in them.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The list of gods Israel takes up is the longest in the book: the Baals and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Aram, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia. That is not one lapse; it is a policy of collecting every neighbor's deity. In a world where each people had its own god who was thought to defend its own territory, hedging your bets this way looked like common sense.
Ammon lay east of the Jordan around modern Amman, on the edge of the desert, and the Israelite settlements in Gilead were the exposed frontier between them. Eighteen years of Ammonite oppression means eighteen harvest seasons under threat for the tribes across the river, before the raiding finally crossed west into Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim.
Mustering at Mizpah in Gilead is the tribal system working as designed: no standing army, so the clans gather at an agreed high place and then face the problem the book keeps flagging, there is nobody in command. The chapter ends with the leaders asking each other who will start the fight, offering the top job to whoever volunteers.
What it meant to them
God's answer to their cry is the sharpest in the book: go cry to the gods you chose, let them save you in your time of trouble. For first hearers that was the logic of their own bargain turned back on them.
But then they put away the foreign gods, and the text says his soul could bear Israel's misery no longer. Hearers who knew they deserved nothing were being told what actually moved God to act, and it was not their record.
Sources cited
- Eugene H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
A. Tola and Jair, two quiet judges
1. (vv. 1-2)
a.Tola comes after Abimelech, who took a crown and is never called a judge, so this sentence picks the line back up where chapter 9 broke it. The verb rendered defend is the one used of the judges at 2:16, 3:9 and 3:15, and the margin gives it as deliver. His own name and his father's are the names of Issachar's clans at Genesis 46:13 and 1 Chronicles 7:1, and he is a man of Issachar who settles in mount Ephraim, near the middle of the country. No enemy, no oppression and no battle is named in his twenty-three years, and the text gives no reason for the silence.
Judges 10:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Judges 10:1
“Defend - The marginal reading “to deliver,” is far preferable. The word is the same as in Jdg 2:16, Jdg 2:18; Jdg 3:9, Jdg 3:15, Jdg 3:31, etc., and is the technical word applied to the judges. Compare Neh 9:27 (“saviours who saved them,” the King James Version). The term “there arose,” also marks Tola as one of the Judges, properly so called, raised by divine providence. Tola and Puah - Both names of heads of houses in the tribe of Issachar 1Ch 7:1; Gen 46:”
Judges 10:1
“It signifies a worm, yet, being the name of his ancestor, he was not ashamed of it. Though he was of Issachar, yet, when he was raised up to the government, he came and dwelt in Mount Ephraim, which was more in the heart of the country, that the people might the more conveniently resort to him for judgment.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judges 10:2, 1 voice
Judges 10:2
“And he judged Israel twenty three years, and died,.... He did not take upon him to be king, as Abimelech did, but acted as a judge, in which office he continued twenty three years, and faithfully discharged it, and died in honour: and was buried in Shamir; the place where he executed his office. It is said (t), that in the first year of Tola, the son of Puah, Priamus reigned in Troy. (t) Juchasin, fol. 136. 1.”
2. (vv. 3-5)
a.Jair holds the office twenty-two years and what is recorded of him is a family rather than a war. Thirty sons on thirty ass colts holding thirty cities is a count of rank, since the colt is what the rulers ride at 5:10, and Judges 12:9 and 12:14 repeat the shape with Ibzan's thirty sons and Abdon's seventy riders. The villages are called Havoth Jair unto this day, and Numbers 32:41 and Deuteronomy 3:14 give that name to an earlier Jair of Manasseh who took the towns in Moses' time. Barnes takes the two men for one, and Henry reads this Jair as carrying an old family name that the conquest of these towns revived.
Judges 10:3, 2 voices
Judges 10:3
“Jair the Gileadite was probably the same person as is named in Num 32:41; Deu 3:14, as having given the name of “Havoth-jair” to certain villages in Bashan.”
Judges 10:3
“Jair bore the name of a very famous man of the same tribe who in Moses's time was very active in reducing this country, Num. xxxii. That which is chiefly remarkable concerning this Jair is the increase and honour of his family: He had thirty sons,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judges 10:4, 1 voice
Judges 10:4
“And he had thirty sons that rode upon thirty ass colts,.... Which to ride on in those times was reckoned honourable, and on which judges rode in their circuit, Jdg 5:10 and such might be these sons of Jair, who were appointed under him to ride about, and do justice in the several parts of the country, as Samuel's sons were judges under him, 1Sa 8:1, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havothjair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead; or the villages of Jair.”
Judges 10:5, 1 voice
Judges 10:5
“And Jair died, and was buried in Camon. A city of Gilead, as Josephus (u) calls it; Jerom (w), under this word Camon, makes mention of a village in his times, called Cimana, in the large plain six miles from Legion to the north, as you go to Ptolemais; but, as Reland (x) observes, this seems not to be the same place, but rather this is the Camon Polybius (y) speaks of among other cities of Peraea, taken by Antiochus. (u) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 6. (w) De loc. Heb. fol. 90. B. (x) Palestina Illustr. tom.”
B. Gods enough: go cry to the ones you chose
1. (v. 6)
a.This is the sixth of the seven times Judges says they did evil in the sight of the Lord, at 2:11, 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 10:6 and 13:1, and it carries the longest list of gods in the book. Seven are named, Baalim and Ashtaroth and then the gods of Syria, Zidon, Moab, Ammon and the Philistines, so the worship of every neighbour on every side is gathered into one verse. The closing clause is stronger than the earlier rounds, forsook the Lord, and served not him, which reports the abandonment as total rather than mixed. Two of the seven, Ammon and the Philistines, are the two nations in the verse that follows.
Judges 10:6, 1 voice
Judges 10:6
“And served Baalim - They became universal idolaters, adopting every god of the surrounding nations. Baalim and Ashtaroth may signify gods and goddesses in general. These are enumerated: 1. The gods of Syria; Bel and Saturn, or Jupiter and Astarte. 2. Gods of Zidon; Ashtaroth, Astarte or Venus. 3. The gods of Moab; Chemosh. 4. Gods of the children of Ammon; Milcom. 5. Gods of the Philistines; Dagon. See 1Ki 11:33 (note), and 1Sa 5:2 (note). These are called gods because their images and places of worship were multiplied throughout the land.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 7-9)
a.the anger of the LORD: He sold them, which is the verb of 2:14, 3:8 and 4:2, and here it names two buyers at once, the Philistines on the west and Ammon on the east. Both oppressions run on past this chapter, since Ammon produces Jephthah in chapter 11 and the Philistine hand is the forty years of 13:1 that Samson is born into. The ground held down is the land of the Amorites in Gilead, which is Sihon's old kingdom from Numbers 21:21-26, and that title is the whole of Jephthah's argument to the Ammonite king at 11:19-22. Verse 9 has Ammon crossing the Jordan against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim, so the pressure reaches the western tribes as well.
Judges 10:7, 1 voice
Judges 10:7
“The previous mention of the Philistines as oppressors of Israel Jdg 3:31 seems to be restricted to the south of Judah, when they cooperated with Moab. They appear to have gradually increased in power until they reached their height in the time of Saul. In the present instance they were probably in alliance with the Ammonites, holding the western tribes in check, while the Ammonites subdued those on the east of Jordan.”
Judges 10:8, 3 voices
Judges 10:8
“That year - Perhaps the closing year of the oppression, when the Ammonites passed over the Jordan. For it was this crowning oppression which brought the Israelites to repentance Jdg 10:10, Jdg 10:15-16, and so prepared the way for the deliverance. Possibly in the original narrative from which this portion of the Book of Judges is compiled, “that year” was defined. The land of the Amorites - Namely, of Sihon king of the Amorites, Num 21:21; Deu 1:4; Jos 13:10; Psa 135:11.”
Judges 10:8
“And these eighteen years are not to be reckoned from Jair's death, because that would enlarge the time of the Judges beyond the just bounds; but from the fourth year of Jair's reign: so that the greatest part of Jair's reign was contemporary with this affliction.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Judges 10:8
“Others make them to commence at the death of Jair, which seems the more probable because that part of Israel which was most infested by the Ammonites was Gilead, Jair's own country, which we cannot suppose to have suffered so much while he was living, but that part at least would be reformed and protected.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3. (v. 10)
a.This is the sixth and last time in Judges that Israel cries unto the Lord, after 3:9, 3:15, 4:3, 6:6 and 6:7, and the formula never returns. The Philistine oppression of 13:1 opens with no cry recorded at all. It is also the only one of the six that gives the words, and the words are a confession with the sin named twice, forsaking God and serving Baalim, which is the charge of verse 6 said back to him.
Judges 10:10, 1 voice
Judges 10:10
“The children of Israel cried unto the Lord, saying, We have sinned against thee--The first step of repentance is confession of sin, and the best proof of its sincerity is given by the transgressor, when he mourns not only over the painful consequences which have resulted from his offenses to himself, but over the heinous evil committed against God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
4. (vv. 11-12)
a.The answer sets seven rescues against the seven gods of verse 6: Egyptians, Amorites, Ammon, Philistines, Zidonians, Amalekites and Maonites. Four of them are already in the record, the Exodus, Sihon and Og, Ehud against Moab and Ammon, and Shamgar against the Philistines, and Barnes matches them off in that order. The Maonites are named nowhere else in Judges, and readers differ on who they were, with Barnes taking them for one of the peoples of the east who came with Midian in Gideon's day and others reading the name as the Mehunim of 2 Chronicles 26:7. The Zidonians are read back to the Canaanite coalition under Jabin in chapter 4.
Judges 10:11, 1 voice
Judges 10:11
“The Lord said - Either by some prophet whom he raised and sent for this purpose: or by the high-priest, who was consulted in the case. From the Amorites - Both Sihon and Og, and their people, and other kings of the Amorites within Jordan.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Judges 10:12, 2 voices
Judges 10:12
“The Zidonians - An allusion to the time of Barak, when the Zidonians doubtless formed part of the great confederacy of Canaanites under Jabin king of Hazor. See Jos 11:8. The Amalekites - In the time of Gideon (marginal reference). The Maonites - Probably one of the tribes of the “children of the East,” who came with the Midianites and Amalekites in the time of Gideon, and may have been conspicuous for their hostility to Israel, and for the greatness of their discomfiture, though the record has not been preserved. The name is “Mehununs” in 2Ch 26:7.”
Judges 10:12
“The Maonites - Either first, those who lived in, or near the wilderness of Maon, in the south of Judah, 1 Sam. xxiii, 25; xxv, 2, whether Edomites or others. Or, secondly, the Mehunims, a people living near the Arabians, of whom, 2 Chron. xxvi, 7. For in the Hebrew, the letters of both names are the same, only the one is the singular, the other the plural number.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
5. (vv. 13-14)
a.Wherefore I will deliver you no more stands against every earlier round of the cycle, where the rescue follows the cry. Readers differ on how to hold it with what happens three verses later: Gill reads the sentence as conditional, since deliverance does come, and Henry reads it as what would stand if they stopped at confession and kept their idols. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen is the Song of Moses turned back on them, Deuteronomy 32:37-38, where the gods are told to rise up and help. Jeremiah 2:28 puts it almost word for word, let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble.
Judges 10:13, 1 voice
Judges 10:13
“Ye have forsaken me, and served other gods,.... Since they had been so remarkably saved, time after time, and delivered from so many powerful enemies, which was dreadful ingratitude: wherefore I will deliver you no more; which is not to be understood absolutely, since after this he did deliver them, but conditionally, unless they repented of their idolatries, and forsook them. This is said to bring them to a sense of their sin and danger.”
Judges 10:14, 1 voice
Judges 10:14
“Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen,.... For they were their choice, and not what they were obliged to serve through persecution, and by compulsion of others, and whom they needed not, having the Lord Jehovah to be their God; and they are bid not seriously, but in an ironical or sarcastic way, to call upon them for help in this their time of distress, in whose power it was not to relieve them: let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation; if they can, whom you have served in your prosperity.”
6. (vv. 15-16)
a.The nation asks for the hand of God rather than the hand of men, which is where Eli stands at 1 Samuel 3:18 and David at 2 Samuel 24:14. Then the chapter turns, and it is the one round of the cycle where the nation itself puts the idols away, the act Jacob commands his house at Genesis 35:2, Joshua calls for at Joshua 24:23, and Samuel demands at 1 Samuel 7:3. His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel is the shortening of soul that the Hebrew uses of the people at Numbers 21:4 and of Samson at 16:16. Clarke reads the line as compassion of the same kind that gives the Son for the world, and Keil and Delitzsch read it as God growing impatient of the suffering itself.
Judges 10:15, 1 voice
Judges 10:15
“Note, True penitents dare and will refer themselves to God to correct them as he thinks fit, knowing that their sin is highly malignant in its deserts, and that God is not rigorous or extreme in his demands. They supplicate for God's mercy: Deliver us only, we pray thee, this day, from this enemy.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judges 10:16, 1 voice
Judges 10:16
“And his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel - What a proof of the philanthropy of God! Here his compassions moved on a small scale; but it was the same principle that led him to give his Son Jesus Christ to be a sacrifice for the sins of the Whole world. God grieves for the miseries to which his creatures are reduced by their own sins. Be astonished, ye heavens, at this; and shout for joy, all ye inhabitants of the earth! for, through the love whence this compassion flowed, God has visited and redeemed a lost world!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
7. (vv. 17-18)
a.The muster is at Mizpeh in Gilead, east of the Jordan, which is the Mizpah of Genesis 31:49 where Jacob and Laban raised their heap, and a different town from the Mizpeh of Benjamin where Israel gathers in chapter 20. The sentence the Lord raised up, from 2:16 and 3:9, does not occur anywhere in this chapter, so the army stands in the field with no deliverer named. In its place the princes make an offer, headship over all the inhabitants of Gilead for whoever will begin the fight against Ammon. That question, what man is he that will begin, is what Jephthah answers in the next chapter, and it is why he can set his own terms at 11:9-11 before he draws a sword.
Judges 10:17, 2 voices
Judges 10:17
“The historian, having related the preliminary incidents, now comes to the final issue which forms the subject matter of his narrative. On a certain occasion, as on many previous ones, the Ammonites were encamped in Gilead, with the intention of dispossessing the Israelites of the whole country, or at least as far as the river Jabbok Jdg 11:13, and of invading the West-Jordanic tribes. The children of Israel on the East of Jordan assembled together to resist them, and pitched their camp in Mizpeh. The narrative proceeds to detail what happened.”
Judges 10:17
“Their settled aim was to wrest the whole of the trans-jordanic territory from its actual occupiers. In this great crisis, a general meeting of the Israelitish tribes was held at Mizpeh. This Mizpeh was in eastern Manasseh (Jos 11:3).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Judges 10:18, 1 voice
Judges 10:18
“What man is he that will begin to fight - It appears that, although the spirit of patriotism had excited the people at large to come forward against their enemies, yet they had no general, none to lead them forth to battle. God, however, who had accepted their sincere repentance, raised them up an able captain in the person of Jephthah; and in him the suffrages of the people were concentrated, as we shall see in the following chapter.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Judges 10. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry.
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