Judges · chapter 10 of 21
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Judges 10 mentions the judges Tola and Jair and then tells how Israel again serves the Baals and other gods, so the Lord gives them to the Philistines and Ammonites for eighteen years. When the people cry out, God first tells them to cry to their gods; they confess their sin and put away the foreign gods, and the Lord can no longer bear their misery.
After Abimelech's death the book records two brief judges and returns to the cycle of sin and oppression with greater seriousness: Israel serves seven groups of gods. Judges 10 prepares the story of Jephthah and shows one of the hardest and most tender conversations between God and his people.
After Abimelech, Tola, son of Puah, of Issachar, judges Israel twenty-three years and is buried at Shamir. Jair of Gilead follows and judges twenty-two years; he has thirty sons who ride thirty donkeys and hold thirty cities, called Havvoth-jair. Jair dies and is buried at Kamon.
Israel again does evil. It serves the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, Sidon, Moab, the Ammonites and the Philistines, and forsakes the Lord. The Lord is angry and gives them into the hand of the Philistines and the Ammonites. For eighteen years these oppress the Israelites beyond the Jordan in Gilead, and also cross the river to fight against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim. Israel is in great distress and cries out to the Lord, admitting that they have sinned.
The Lord answers by recalling that he delivered them from Egypt, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines and other peoples, and yet they forsook him. He tells them he will no longer deliver them and that they should go and cry to the gods they chose. Israel insists that they have sinned, that he should do to them whatever seems good to him, but asks him to deliver them that day. They put away the foreign gods and serve the Lord, and he can no longer bear Israel's misery.
The Ammonites are called together and camp in Gilead, and the Israelites gather at Mizpah. The people and the princes of Gilead ask who will begin the fight against the Ammonites, and whoever does will be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Israel again does evil and serves seven groups of gods, abandoning the Lord. The list shows that their unfaithfulness is no longer a slip but a commitment to every kind of neighboring religion.
Israel cries out to the Lord and admits they have sinned by forsaking him and serving the Baals. It is a sincere confession, though still mixed with a wish that everything be fixed quickly.
The Lord tells Israel to cry out to the gods they chose and let them deliver them. The harsh reply shows that God will not be used as a last resort and wants true repentance.
When Israel puts away the foreign gods and serves the Lord, he can no longer bear their suffering. It is a moving picture of God's compassionate heart toward a people who have wounded him.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Twenty-three years. — Judges 10:2
Answer: Thirty sons who rode thirty donkeys. — Judges 10:4
Answer: Eighteen years. — Judges 10:8
Answer: He reminded them how he had delivered them and told them to cry to the gods they had chosen. — Judges 10:11-14
Answer: They put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. — Judges 10:16
Answer: In Gilead. — Judges 10:17
Judges 10 challenges anyone who turns to God only when everything goes wrong. Israel offers a confession, but God asks that it show in action: removing the idols and serving him. In a class or small group we can ask which small gods we turn to more easily than to God, and what it would mean to put them away.
At the same time the chapter ends with one of the most tender lines of the book: the Lord can no longer bear his people's suffering. Even when our motives are mixed, God answers true repentance with compassion and invites us to return without waiting to be perfect.
Judges 10 ends with the Ammonites camped in Gilead and Israel looking for a leader. In Judges 11 Jephthah appears, a man rejected by his brothers, whom the elders of Gilead will call to lead them.
It is strong language that expresses how serious their repeated unfaithfulness is. The text does not say God closed the door on repentance: when Israel puts away its idols his compassion is stirred, so the phrase works as a test of sincerity.
They were minor judges about whom only a few facts are given. Tola was from Issachar and ruled twenty-three years; Jair was from Gilead, ruled twenty-two years, and his thirty sons controlled thirty towns.
The Baals and the Ashtaroth, along with the gods of Syria, Sidon, Moab, the Ammonites and the Philistines. The list shows that Israel had surrounded itself with every kind of neighboring cult.