MARCH 15
Chapter 10 covers two more judges of Israel–Tola and Jair.
No record of achievement is given for Tola, and very little for
Jair. Tola judged Israel for 23 years and Jair judged for 22 years.
Jair had thirty sons, heads of thirty villages, called Havoth-Jair,
which means, “the tent villages of Jair.” Their riding on ass colts
(verse 4) indicated their high social status.
Verses 6-18 record the children of Israel departing again
from the Lord. As a result, God sold them into the hands of the
Philistines and Ammonites. We see Israel’s cry of distress unto the
Lord, their repentance, and their continual chastening.
In chapters 11 and 12 we read of Jephthah, the ninth Judge.
He was a man of great valor, but of blemished birth, in that he was
the son of a harlot. He was of Mizpeh, in Gilead. The Ammonites,
whose power had been broken by Ehud, one of the earlier judges, had
again become strong, and were plundering Israel. God gave Jephthah a
great victory over the Ammonites and delivered Israel. The pitiful
thing in the story of Jephthah is the sacrifice of his daughter.