Judges 10:1-18

Life Without Law

Judges

Philip Smith

Chapter 10

v1 After the time when Abimelech had lived, Puah’s son Tola came to rescue *Israel. (Puah was Dodo’s son.) Tola was from Issachar’s *tribe. He lived in Shamir in the hilly country where Ephraim’s *tribe were. v2 He led *Israel’s people for 23 years. He died and they buried him in Shamir.

Tola was not an important judge. He did not do any great work. He probably only decided the results of legal arguments.

v3 Jair from Gilead came after him. He led *Israel’s people for 22 years. v4 He had 30 sons, who rode on 30 *mules. The sons controlled 30 towns in Gilead. People still call these towns Havvoth Jair today. v5 When Jair died, they buried him in Kamon.

Jair was probably from Manasseh’s *tribe. His sons and *mules and towns show that the family were rich and important. Havvoth Jair means Jair’s villages that consisted of tents.

v6 The *Israelites did not obey God. They served the *Baals and the *Ashtoreth. They also served the gods of the people that lived in Aram, Sidon, Moab and Ammon. And they served the gods of the *Philistines. They turned away from the *Lord and they did not serve him any more. v7 So he became angry with them. He allowed the *Philistines and the people from Ammon to *conquer them. v8 Those people were cruel and they were very unkind to the *Israelites. They did this for 18 years. They did it to all the *Israelites in Gilead. These lived on the east side of the Jordan river. This was the country where the *Amorites were. v9 The people from Ammon also went over the Jordan river. There they fought against Judah’s *tribe, Benjamin’s *tribe and also Ephraim’s *tribe. *Israel’s people were very unhappy.

This story is very difficult to understand. During the time when the Judges ruled, *Israel’s people sometimes believed in God a lot. But their belief in him did not always increase. Sometimes it decreased. *Israel’s people were now much worse than they had been. They had turned away from God to serve the *Baals (male gods) and the Ashtaroth (female gods). *Israel’s people also served the gods of the people who lived in Syria (Aram), Sidon, Moab, Ammon and Philistia. Deep in the people’s minds, things were wrong. This had affected very important things in the relationship between God and his people. The *Canaanites’ *religion was more powerful than their armies were. *Israel’s people often had a *temptation to follow that *religion. When they did follow it, very bad events happened.

People today have discovered some things in the ground at Ugarit. These things show us something about the *religion that the people in *Canaan followed. El was the chief of the gods and he had a female companion called *Asherah. Next came *Baal, the god of rain and good crops. Then came Anath, the female god of love and war. Mot was the god of a certain time in summer. This was the time when there was no rain. He attacked *Baal and he killed *Baal. Then he took *Baal to the place where the dead gods were. Anath searched for him. She found his body and she killed Mot. *Baal became alive again and he had sex with Anath. This meant that the crops would be good in the next season.

People believed that they could get good crops by magic. They tried to do this when they acted out that story about *Baal and Anath. They acted it with women that offered themselves for sex. This happened in the place where they praised their god. Some people say that there was a special *celebration in the autumn in *Canaan. On this occasion, the king and one such woman would act the story about *Baal and Anath. The people believed that their crops would grow for another year as a result.

The *Israelites knew that their God was powerful in the desert. And he was powerful in war. But they had forgotten that he could control the weather. He could also control what grew in the fields. And he could control animals. But they forgot these things and, as a result, some people stopped serving God. Other people practised syncretism. (Syncretism is when people try to mix different *religions.) The people praised God. But they used the same places and methods that the *Canaanites used. However, they could not really mix the two *religions. God is not merely a god of nature. He also works by what happens at different times.

The *Canaanites believed that *religion had no connection with people’s behaviour in daily life. It only affected the places where they praised their god. But we learn from the *Scriptures that God is not like that. He is completely the opposite. In the *Scriptures, he demanded that people should serve him only. But the *Canaanites believed in other gods. The *Israelites praised these other gods. In this story, they suffered pain because the people from Ammon attacked them. Later, when Samson was the judge, they also suffered pain. They suffered then because the *Philistines attacked them. The people from Ammon attacked Gilead on the other side of the river Jordan. And they also attacked Judah’s *tribe, Benjamin’s *tribe and Ephraim’s *tribe.

v10 Then the *Israelites cried to the *Lord. ‘We have not obeyed you. We have left our God and we have served *Baals.’ v11 The *Lord answered them. ‘Egypt’s people, the *Amorites and the people from Ammon were cruel to you. And the *Philistines were cruel to you. v12 So were the people from Sidon, and Amalek’s people, and those called Maonites. You cried to me for help. And I freed you. v13 But you have left me and you have served other gods. So I will not save you any more. v14 Go! And get help from the gods that you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!’ v15 But the *Israelites said to the *Lord, ‘We have done wrong. Do with us whatever you think is best. Please rescue us now.’ v16 Then they removed their foreign gods and they served the *Lord. He did not want to see any more how unhappy *Israel’s people were.

The people came to God. They confessed that they had done wrong things. (We see this in verse 10.) But they had not changed their minds. And they had not changed their ways. They still had other gods at first. (Compare verses 13 and 16.) They did not remove the other gods until verse 16. God reminded them how he had helped them to escape from the *Egyptians. This was in the Exodus (when they went out of Egypt). He had helped them to defeat the *Amorites. (Look at the story about Sihon and Og. This is in Numbers chapter 21.) He had also helped them to defeat the people from Ammon and the *Philistines. (Ehud led them against the people from Ammon. Shamgar led them against the *Philistines.) And he had helped them to defeat the people from Sidon. (These had helped the people from Midian to attack *Israel’s people.) Finally, he had helped them to defeat Amalek’s people. (These were friends of the people from Midian and Moab.) *Israel’s people had also defeated the Maonites, who were probably those same people from Midian. God told them to go. And he told them to cry to the gods that they had chosen. He did this to test whether they were honest. In reply, they removed their foreign gods. Although they only changed their ways a little, God was ready to forgive them.

v17 The army from Ammon got ready for battle. They camped in Gilead. The *Israelites gathered at Mizpah. v18 The leaders of the people in Gilead said, ‘Someone will lead the attack against the army from Ammon. And that person will rule over all the people that live in Gilead.’

In verse 8, the writer mentions a period that lasted 18 years. This attack happened at the end of those 18 years. The people from the *tribes met together. They had returned to the *Lord. After that, they wanted to attack the people who had come from Ammon. However, they did not have a suitable leader. And so, we start to read about Jephthah in the story.

Israel ~ the nation that consisted of Jacob’s descendants; the country where they lived; another name for Jacob.

descendants ~ members of your family that are born and live after you.
tribe ~ a large group of people that are all relatives of each other.
mule ~ a horse with short legs that carries loads.
Israelites ~ the people that belonged to the nation called Israel. God had chosen them as his own special people.

Israel ~ the nation that consisted of Jacob’s descendants; the country where they lived; another name for Jacob.
descendants ~ members of your family that are born and live after you.
Baal ~ the false god of rain and good crops.
Ashtoreth ~ false female gods.
Philistines ~ a group of people that came from Egypt. They came to live on the coast between Egypt and Gaza. They lived in the plain that was there.
Lord ~ a name for God. It means that he is the master, the ruler over all. Also, people often use this word to translate Yahweh, a very special Hebrew name for God.

Yahweh ~ the name of God. It means ‘I am what I am’. Or it can mean ‘the same always’.
Hebrew ~ the Hebrew people were Abraham’s descendants; and they spoke a language called Hebrew.
descendants ~ members of your family that are born and live after you.
conquer ~ take control of something or somebody by force.
Amorites ~ a group of people that lived in Canaan.

Canaan ~ the country that later was called Israel.
Canaanites ~ people that lived in Canaan. Sometimes the word means one particular group of people that lived there. And sometimes it means all the people that lived in Canaan. They lived there already, before the Jews lived there.

Canaan ~ the country that later was called Israel.
Jew ~ a person who is from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
religion ~ belief that God exists; and belief that we should obey his rules.
temptation ~ something that tries to make people do wrong things.
Canaan ~ the country that later was called Israel.
Asherah ~ a female god.
celebration ~ a social event that people arrange because of a happy or important occasion.
scriptures ~ the holy texts in the Old Testament or *New Testament of the Bible.

Old Testament ~ the first 39 books in the Bible. They deal with God’s old covenant, which he made at Sinai.
covenant ~ an agreement between two groups of people; or an agreement between God and his people. In God’s agreement, he promised to bless his people if they obeyed him.
Sinai ~ the mountain where God gave the 10 commandments (special laws) to Moses.
commandment ~ a special law that God gave to Moses. There were 10 special laws like this.
Egyptian ~ a word that describes someone from Egypt or anything from Egypt.