Judges 10:1-5

CHAPTER 10:1-5 Tola and Jair

1. Tola judging twenty-three years (Judges 10:1)

2. Jair judging twenty-two years (Judges 10:3)

These are but brief records but not without meaning. Tola means, translated, “a worm.” What a contrast with the proud, wicked, domineering Abimelech! Here is one, who takes the place in self-abasement. It reminds us of Him, whose voice we hear in the great Atonement Psalm “I am a worm and no man.” Tola, no doubt, typifies our Lord in His humiliation. When Abimelech's awful rule is ended, He who was obedient unto death, the death of the cross, will come to reign in righteousness.

And this seems to be more fully brought to our attention in Jair, the judge, who followed Tola. His name means, “enlightener.” He is a type of our Lord in His coming as “the Sun of Righteousness.” The thirty sons, who rode on thirty ass-colts and had thirty cities, must mean the rule of that kingdom to come in which His sons, His co-heirs, will have a part, as Jair's sons had authority over these cities.