Judges 10:1-5

Tola and Jair Judge Israel Judges 10:1-5

And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of, Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in mount Ephraim.
2 And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.
3 And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years.
4 And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havoth-jair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead.
5 And Jair died, and was buried in Camon.

1.

Who was Tola? Judges 10:1

Tola is described as the son of Puah. Nothing more is known of this man. He evidently made his home in the hill country of Ephraim in a village called Shamir. Tola judged Israel for twenty-three years and then was buried in the inheritance of his father in Shamir. In his case there is no indication of the people seeking out a leader. On the contrary, it is said that after Abimelech Tola arose to defend Israel. This man must have seen the conditions which prevailed in his beloved homeland and his righteous soul became vexed within him. In an effort to change the situation, he offered himself as a champion for his people.

2.

Where was Tola's home? Judges 10:2

The town of Shamir was a location in the mountains of Ephraim, It was a different place from the Shamir in the hill country of Judah (Joshua 15:48), but its exact situation is still unknown. It may have been actually in the territory of Issachar; or since Issachar and Ephraim bordered each other, Tola may have chosen to live outside the boundaries of his own territory in a town which was a part of the inheritance of Ephraim, their neighbors to the south.

3.

Who was Jair? Judges 10:3-4

Jair was a Gileadite. He is the first of the judges to have a residence east of the Jordan, and this seems to be one of the most significant things about him. In addition, we learn an interesting detail about his family. He had thirty sons, and each had an ass colt on which he rode. These men also each possessed a city, and the group of cities and the territory in which they were situated became known as Havoth-jair. The fact that it is said the land was known as Havoth-jair is not a contradiction of the fact that in the time of Moses the Manassite, Jair, gave the name of Havoth-jair to the towns of Bashan which had been conquered by him (Numbers 32:41 and Deuteronomy 3:14). It is not stated here that the thirty cities which belonged to the sons of Jair received this name for the first time from the judge, Jair, but simply that this name was brought into use again. It was applied to these cities in a peculiar sense.

4.

Can we locate Camon today? Judges 10:5

After Jair judged Israel for twenty-two years, he died and was buried in Camon. Josephus (Antiquities, V, i, 6) describes it as a city of Gilead. This is probably because of his assuming that it would not be likely for Jair, the Gileadite who possessed so many cities in Gilead, to be buried outside Gilead. Keil and Delitzsch in their Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, say that Jair was probably from the tribe of Issachar. They base this on the assumption that he followed Tola in the judgeship, and Tola was from Issachar. Other commentators, however, take a more likely view that Camon is on the east of the Jordan, and Jair was not only buried in Gilead but lived there.