Deeper Commentary
This verse implies Abimelech was a saviour and defender of Israel. At some
point he must have repented of all this and done work for God. His
proclamation as king (Jud. 9:6) was however a rejection of Yahweh as king;
the very thing his father Gideon had refused to do. Yet even such a
spiritually weak man was used to save His people.
"Tola" means 'worm',
Jdg 10:2 He judged Israel twenty-three years and died, and was buried in
Shamir-
'Shamir' is the word for "brier" or "thorn", and is often used in
Isaiah in a very negative place. This man called "worm", Tola, lived in a
place of briers / thorns, wasteland, bearing God's curse. But from such a
place arose a man used by God to save His people.
Jdg 10:3 After him arose Jair the Gileadite, and he judged Israel
twenty-two years-
"Jair" means 'enlightener', or possibly 'light', which would fit with
him being described as 'arising'. Like all the judges / saviours of
Israel, he looked ahead to the rising of the light of Christ in Israel's
darkness. There was another Jair who had liberated large tracts of land
from the Canaanites during the conquest. Perhaps he was named after him. I
have often noted the similarities between the lives of God's servants as
recorded in the Bible; Jair judged for 22 years, and the previous judge
for 23 years (:2), about the same period.
Jdg 10:4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts,
To ride on a colt, an animal not yet broken in, was unusual. The idea
surely is that they all rode on such colts at one time, perhaps the time
when they received their thirty cities. It was as if they had to break in
their city, as they were breaking in the colt, representing how they had
to subdue the local inhabitants. And they look forward, as do all the
judges, to the Lord Jesus; who also rode on a donkey colt as He entered
the city of His inheritance, Jerusalem.
Jdg 10:5 Jair died and was buried in Kamon-
Kamon can mean simply the rising, referring to elevated land. But
given the belief in the resurrection of the body, we wonder if there was
not also the idea of burying a man from where he would finally rise from
the dead. In the same way as Joshua was buried in the border of his
inheritance, to rise again and enter it.
Jdg 10:6 The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of
Yahweh, and served the Baals and Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of
Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the
Philistines; they forsook Yahweh and didn’t serve Him-
Jdg 10:7 The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel and He sold them
into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the people of Ammon-
Jdg 10:8 They troubled and oppressed the Israelites that year. For
eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites that were beyond the
Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead-
The first sentence of this verse is omitted by LXX and many versions,
hence GNB "For eighteen years they oppressed and persecuted all the
Israelites who lived in Amorite country east of the Jordan River in
Gilead".
Jdg 10:9 The Ammonites passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah
and Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was very
distressed-
Jdg 10:10 The Israelites cried to Yahweh saying, We have sinned against
You because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals-
Jdg 10:11 Yahweh said to the Israelites, Didn’t I save you from the
Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites, and from the
Philistines?-
The salvation from the Egyptians was at the Red Sea, long ago (Ex.
14:30). The Israelites were repeatedly reminded of this (Jud. 2:1; 6:8;
10:11). But they failed to perceive that God's actions in history were in
fact their personal salvation, an act of grace shown to them also. David
grasped that point, and his Psalms often thank God for the exodus, as if
it had happened to him personally. But the problem is that Israel like all
people tended to only see what was before their face at that moment. They
had no sense of God's historical salvation of them, and the guarantee that
He would likewise come through for them, if they remained faithful to Him.
Jdg 10:12 The Sidonians also and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed
you, and you cried to Me, and I saved you out of their hand-
Jdg 10:13 Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will
save you no more-
Jdg 10:14 Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen. Let them save you
in the time of your distress!-
They had doubtless done this already, and were turning to Yahweh only
as a last resort, rather than the first and only resort.
Jdg 10:15 The Israelites said to Yahweh, We have sinned; do to us whatever
seems good to You, only deliver us, please, this day-
This confession of sin before asking for deliverance was apparently
from the heart, for God responded to it (:16).
Jdg 10:16 They put away the foreign gods from among them and served
Yahweh; and His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel-
God's
In the death of Jesus we see the rejection of the Son whom God had so dearly hoped His people would reverence- but they rejected Him. As something of each of us dies in the death of those we love, so "God was in Christ", sharing in His sufferings and death. It was not of course that God died. But He fully shared in the sufferings of His Son unto death. God was so hurt by Israel's sufferings that in sympathy with them, "His nephesh ["soul"] was shortened" or expended. The phrase is used in Num. 21:4 and Jud. 16:16 about death or the diminishment of life. God's pain was such that this was how He felt, because He so internalized the sufferings of His people. And how much more in the death of His Son? He even feels like that for the sufferings of Gentiles- in the same way as Moab would weep for their slain sons, so God says that His heart would cry out for Moab, "therefore I weep [along] with the weeping of Jazer... my soul moans like a lyre for Moab" (Is. 15:5; Is. 16:9,11). God "pitied" Nineveh- a Hebrew word meaning to pity with tears (Jonah 4:11). The mourning of the prophets over Tyre (Ez. 27:1) and Babylon (Is. 21:3,4) was an embodiment of God's grief even over those not in covenant with Him. And how much more does He weep and suffer with His people Israel in their sufferings (Jer. 12:12; 23:10; Hos. 4:2,3); "my heart yearns / moans for him" (Jer. 31:20).
God grieved over the carcasses of those wretched men whom He slew in the wilderness for their thankless rebellions against Him their saviour (Heb. 3:17). The apostle makes the point: "With whom was He grieved?". Answer: with the wicked whom He slew! A human God or a proud God would never grieve over His victory over His enemies. Even in the fickleness of Israel's repentance, knowing their future, knowing what they would subject His Son to, "His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel". He delays the second coming because He waits and hopes for repentance and spiritual growth from us. But He praises the faithful for patiently waiting for Him (Is. 30:18; Ps. 37:7). Here we see the humility of God's grace, and His ability to have absolute humanity.
Jdg 10:17 Then the Ammonites were gathered together and encamped in
Gilead. The Israelites assembled themselves and encamped in Mizpah-
Effectively this begins a new chapter or theme; this summarizes the
situation which came about after the events of Jud. 11:1-4. Israel had repented: "The
children of Israel said unto the Lord, We have sinned: do thou unto us
whatsoever seems good unto You; deliver us only... and His (God's) soul was
grieved for the misery of Israel" (Jud. 10:15,16). Straight
after this, "the children of Ammon were gathered together" to attack.
The people were "sore distressed" after an extended period of devastation
at the hands of these people (Jud. 10:8,9), as they will be in the last
days before they come to repent. It would appear from this
type that after their repentance they will be faced with a final
onslaught, and then tested as to whether they will really put their faith
in Jephthah - Jesus.
Jdg 10:18 The people, the princes of Gilead, said one to another, Who will
begin to fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the
inhabitants of Gilead-
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