1After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah son of Dodo, a man from Issachar who lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim, arose to deliver Israel.

2He judged Israel twenty-three years. He died and was buried in Shamir.

3He was followed by Jair the Gileadite. He judged Israel twenty-two years.

4He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead.

5Jair died and was buried in Kamon.

6The people of Israel added to the evil they had done in the sight of Yahweh and worshiped the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. They abandoned Yahweh and no longer worshiped him.

7Yahweh burned with anger toward Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites.

8They crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year, and for eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

9Then the Ammonites crossed over the Jordan to fight against Judah, against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was greatly distressed.

10Then the people of Israel called out to Yahweh, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we abandoned our God and worshiped the Baals.”

11Yahweh said to the people of Israel, “Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines,

12and also from the Sidonians? The Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you; you called out to me, and I delivered you from their power.

13Yet you abandoned me again and worshiped other gods. Therefore, I will not keep adding to the times I deliver you.

14Go and call out to the gods that you have worshiped. Let them rescue you when you have trouble.”

15The people of Israel said to Yahweh, “We have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please, rescue us this day.”

16They got rid of the foreign gods among them and they worshiped Yahweh. Then Yahweh could bear Israel's misery no longer.

17Then Ammonites gathered together and set up camp in Gilead. The Israelites came together and set up their camp at Mizpah.

18The leaders of the people of Gilead said one to another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight the Ammonites? He will become the leader over all those who are living in Gilead.”