1 After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, rose up to rescue Israel. He lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
2 For twenty-three years he judged Israel; then he died and was buried at Shamir.
3 Jair the Gileadite rose up after him and judged Israel for twenty-two years.
4 He had thirty sons who rode thirty donkeys, and they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, called Havvoth-jair to this day.
5 Then Jair died and was buried at Kamon.
6 Once more the children of Israel did evil in the LORD's sight. They served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, of Sidon, of Moab, of the children of Ammon and of the Philistines. They abandoned the LORD and served him no longer.
7 The LORD's anger blazed against Israel, and he sold them into the power of the Philistines and of the children of Ammon,
8 who that year battered and crushed the children of Israel. For eighteen years they did so to all the children of Israel across the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead.
9 The children of Ammon even crossed the Jordan to make war on Judah, Benjamin and the house of Ephraim, and Israel was in sore distress.
10 The children of Israel cried to the LORD: "We have sinned against you; we abandoned our God and served the Baals."
11 The LORD answered the children of Israel, "Was it not from Egypt, from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines that I rescued you?
12 When the Sidonians, Amalek and Maon oppressed you and you cried to me, I rescued you from their hand.
13 But you have abandoned me and served other gods. That is why I will not rescue you again.
14 Go, cry to the gods you have chosen. Let them be the ones to rescue you when you are in distress."
15 The children of Israel said to the LORD, "We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best; only rescue us, please, today."
16 They got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the LORD, and his soul could bear Israel's trouble no longer.
17 The children of Ammon were summoned and encamped in Gilead, and the children of Israel gathered and encamped at Mizpah.
18 The people, the leaders of Gilead, said to each other, "Whoever will be the first to fight the children of Ammon will be head over all who live in Gilead."