Dual Panel1After Abimelech there came forward to deliver Israel Tola son of Pua, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar who lived at Shamir in the hill-country of Ephraim.
2He was judge over Israel for twenty-three years, and when he died he was buried in Shamir.
3After him came Jair the Gileadite; he was judge over Israel for twenty-two years.
4He had thirty sons, who rode on thirty donkeys; they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which to this day are called Havvoth-jair.
5When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.
6Once more the Israelites did what was wrong in the eyes of the LORD, serving the baalim and the ashtaroth, the deities of Aram and of Sidon and of Moab, of the Ammonites and of the Philistines. They forsook the LORD and did not serve him.
7The anger of the LORD was roused against Israel, and he sold them into the power of the Philistines and the Ammonites,
8who for eighteen years harassed and oppressed all those Israelites who lived beyond the Jordan in Amorite territory in Gilead.
9The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to attack Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, so that Israel was in dire straits.
10Then the Israelites cried to the LORD: “We have sinned against you; we have forsaken our God and served the baalim.”
11The LORD answered, “The Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines,
12the Sidonians too, and the Amalekites and the Midianites -- all these oppressed you and you cried to me for help; and did I not deliver you?
13But you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I shall come to your rescue no more.
14Go and cry for help to the gods you have chosen; let them save you in your day of distress.”
15But the Israelites said to the LORD, “We have sinned. Deal with us as you please; only save us this day, we implore you.”
16They banished their foreign gods and served the LORD; and he could no longer bear the plight of Israel.
17The Ammonites were called to arms and encamped in Gilead, while the Israelites assembled and encamped in Mizpah.
18The people of Gilead and their chief men said to one another, “Whoever strikes the first blow at the Ammonites shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”