¹ After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo, rose to deliver Israel. He belonged to Issachar and lived at Shamir in the mountain country of Ephraim.

² He was judge in Israel for twenty-three years; he then died and was buried at Shamir.

³ After him rose Jair of Gilead, who judged Israel for twenty-two years.

⁴ He had thirty sons who rode on thirty young donkeys and who owned thirty towns, still known today as the Encampments of Jair, in the territory of Gilead.

⁵ Jair then died and was buried at Kamon.

⁶ The Israelites again began doing what is evil in Yahweh's eyes. They served Baal and Astarte, and the gods of Aram and Sidon, the gods of Moab and those of the Ammonites and Philistines. They deserted Yahweh and served him no more.

⁷ Yahweh's anger then grew hot against Israel and he gave them over into the power of the Philistines and the power of the Ammonites,

⁸ who from that year onwards crushed and oppressed the Israelites for eighteen years -- all those Israelites living on the other side of the Jordan in Amorite territory, in Gilead.

⁹ Furthermore, the Ammonites would cross the Jordan and also make war on Judah, Benjamin and the House of Ephraim, so that Israel was in distress.

¹⁰ The Israelites then cried to Yahweh and said, 'We have sinned against you, because we have turned from Yahweh our God to serve Baals.'

¹¹ And Yahweh said to the Israelites, 'When Egyptians and Amorites, Ammonites and Philistines,

¹² when the Sidonians, Amalek and Midian oppressed you and you cried to me, did I not rescue you from their power?

¹³ But it is you who have forsaken me and served other gods; and so I shall rescue you no more.

¹⁴ Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen. Let them rescue you in your time of trouble.'

¹⁵ The Israelites replied to Yahweh, 'We have sinned. Treat us as you see fit, but please rescue us today.'

¹⁶ They got rid of their foreign gods and served Yahweh, who could bear Israel's suffering no longer.

¹⁷ The Ammonites gathered and pitched camp in Gilead. The Israelites rallied and pitched camp at Mizpah.

¹⁸ The people, the chieftains of Gilead, then said to one another, 'Who will volunteer to attack the Ammonites? He shall be chief of all who live in Gilead!'