1After Abimelech rose a duke in Israel, Tola, the son of Puah, son of Dodo; Tola was a man of Issachar, that dwelled in Shamir, of the hill of Ephraim;

2and he deemed Israel three and twenty years, and he died, and was buried in Shamir.

3His successor was Jair, a man of Gilead, that deemed Israel two and twenty years;

4and he had thirty sons, sitting upon thirty colts of she-asses, and they were princes of thirty cities, the which be called by their father’s name, Havothjair, that is, the cities of Jair, unto this present day, in the land of Gilead.

5And Jair died, and was buried in a place that is called Camon.

6Forsooth the sons of Israel joined new sins to eld [or old] sins, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served to the idols of Baalim, and to Ashtaroth, and to the gods of Syria, and of Sidon, and of Moab, and of the sons of Ammon, and of Philistines; and they left the Lord, and worshipped not him.

7And the Lord was wroth against them, and he betook them into the hands of Philistines, and of the sons of Ammon.

8And all the sons of Israel that dwelled beyond Jordan in the land of Amorites, that is, in Gilead, were tormented and oppressed greatly by eighteen years,

9in so much that the sons of Ammon, when they had passed [over] Jordan, wasted Judah, and Benjamin, and Ephraim; and Israel was tormented greatly.

10And they cried to the Lord, and said, We have sinned to thee, for we forsook our God, and served Baalim.

11To whom the Lord said, Whether not the Egyptians, and Amorites, and the sons of Ammon, and Philistines,

12and Sidonians, and Amalek, and Canaan or Maonites, have oppressed you, and ye cried to me, and I delivered you from their hands?

13And nevertheless ye have forsaken me, and worshipped alien gods; there-fore I shall not add to, that I deliver you [any] more.

14Go ye, and call [the] gods which ye have chosen; deliver they you in the time of anguish.

15And the sons of Israel said to the Lord, We have sinned; yield thou to us whatever thing pleaseth to thee; only deliver us now.

16And they said these things, and casted forth from their coasts all the idols of alien gods, and served the Lord; which had ruth, either compassion, on the wretchednesses of them.

17And so the sons of Ammon cried together, each moving other to battle against Israel, and setted tents in Gilead, and the sons of Israel were gathered against them, and setted tents in Mizpeh.

18And the princes of Gilead said each to his neighbours, He, that beginneth first of us to fight against the sons of Ammon, shall be duke of the people of Gilead.