Tola. 1 After Abimelech, Tola,[a] son of Puah, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, rose up to save Israel; he lived in Shamir in the mountain region of Ephraim. 2 When he had judged Israel twenty-three years, he died and was buried in Shamir.
Jair. 3 Jair the Gileadite came after him and judged Israel twenty-two years. 4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys[b] and possessed thirty cities in the land of Gilead (these are called Havvoth-jair to the present day). 5 Jair died and was buried in Kamon.
Oppression by the Ammonites. 6 The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, serving the Baals and Ashtarts, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. Since they had abandoned the Lord and would not serve him, 7 the Lord became angry with Israel and he sold them into the power of the Philistines and the Ammonites. 8 For eighteen years they afflicted and oppressed the Israelites in Bashan, and all the Israelites in the Amorite land beyond the Jordan in Gilead. 9 The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was in great distress.
10 Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, “We have sinned against you, for we have abandoned our God and served the Baals.” 11 The Lord answered the Israelites: Did not the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, 12 the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Midianites oppress you? Yet when you cried out to me, and I saved you from their power, 13 you still abandoned me and served other gods. Therefore I will save you no more. 14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen; let them save you in your time of distress. 15 But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do to us whatever is good in your sight. Only deliver us this day!” 16 And they cast out the foreign gods from their midst and served the Lord, so that he grieved over the misery of Israel.
Jephthah. 1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a warrior. He was the son of a prostitute, fathered by Gilead. 2 Gilead’s wife had also borne him sons. When they grew up the sons of the wife had driven Jephthah away, saying to him, “You shall inherit nothing in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” 3 So Jephthah had fled from his brothers and taken up residence in the land of Tob. Worthless men had joined company with him, and went out with him on raids.
4 Some time later, the Ammonites went to war with Israel. 5 As soon as the Ammonites were at war with Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 “Come,” they said to Jephthah, “be our commander so that we can fight the Ammonites.” 7 “Are you not the ones who hated me and drove me from my father’s house?” Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Why do you come to me now, when you are in distress?” 8 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “This is the reason we have come back to you now: if you go with us to fight against the Ammonites, you shall be the leader of all of the inhabitants of Gilead.” 9 Jephthah answered the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me back to fight against the Ammonites and the Lord delivers them up to me, I will be your leader.” 10 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord is witness between us that we will do as you say.” 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the army made him their leader and commander. Jephthah gave all his orders in the presence of the Lord in Mizpah.
14 Again Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, 15 saying to him, “This is what Jephthah says: ‘Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. 16 For when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. 17 Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom saying, “Let me pass through your land.” But the king of Edom did not give consent. They also sent to the king of Moab, but he too was unwilling. So Israel remained in Kadesh. 18 Then they went through the wilderness, and bypassing the land of Edom and the land of Moab, they arrived east of the land of Moab and encamped across the Arnon. Thus they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon is the boundary of Moab. 19 Then Israel sent messengers to the Amorite king Sihon, who was king of Heshbon. Israel said to him, “Let me pass through your land to my own place.” 20 But Sihon refused to let Israel pass through his territory. He gathered all his soldiers, and they encamped at Jahaz and fought Israel. 21 But the Lord, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and his entire army into the power of Israel, who defeated them and occupied all the land of the Amorites who lived in that region. 22 They occupied all of the Amorite territory from the Arnon to the Jabbok and the wilderness to the Jordan. 23 Now, then, it was the Lord, the God of Israel, who dispossessed the Amorites for his people, Israel. And you are going to dispossess them? 24 Should you not take possession of that which your god Chemosh[c] gave you to possess, and should we not take possession of all that the Lord, our God, has dispossessed for us? 25 Now, then, are you any better than Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or make war against them? 26 Israel has dwelt in Heshbon and its villages, Aroer and its villages, and all the cities on the banks of the Arnon for three hundred years. Why did you not recover them during that time? 27 As for me, I have not sinned against you, but you wrong me by making war against me. Let the Lord, who is judge, decide this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites!’” 28 But the king of the Ammonites paid no heed to the message Jephthah sent him.
32 Jephthah then crossed over against the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his power. 33 He inflicted a very severe defeat on them from Aroer to the approach of Minnith—twenty cities in all—and as far as Abel-keramin. So the Ammonites were brought into subjection by the Israelites. 34 When Jephthah returned to his house in Mizpah, it was his daughter who came out to meet him, with tambourine-playing and dancing. She was his only child: he had neither son nor daughter besides her. 35 When he saw her, he tore his garments and said, “Ah, my daughter! You have struck me down and brought calamity upon me. For I have made a vow[e] to the Lord and I cannot take it back.” 36 “Father,” she replied, “you have made a vow to the Lord. Do with me as you have vowed, because the Lord has taken vengeance for you against your enemies the Ammonites.” 37 Then she said to her father, “Let me have this favor. Do nothing for two months, that I and my companions may go wander in the mountains to weep for my virginity.” 38 “Go,” he replied, and sent her away for two months. So she departed with her companions and wept for her virginity in the mountains. 39 At the end of the two months she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She had not had relations with any man.
It became a custom in Israel 40 for Israelite women to go yearly to mourn the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days of the year.
10:1–5 Tola…Jair: two more of the so-called “minor judges”; see Introduction.
10:4 Donkeys: mounts signifying rank and wealth; cf. 5:10; 12:14.
11:24 Chemosh: the god of the Moabites (1 Kgs 11:7; 2 Kgs 23:13) not the Ammonites, whose god was Milcom (1 Kgs 11:5; 2 Kgs 23:13). Much of the disputed land, which lay between the Jabbok and Arnon Rivers, was actually in Moab, and many of the details of this passage (vv. 12–28) seem more applicable to a quarrel with the king of the Moabites than with the king of the Ammonites.
11:30–40 Jephthah’s rash vow and its tragic consequences reflect a widespread folklore motif, most familiar in the Greek story of Iphigenia and her father, Agamemnon. The sacrifice of children was strictly forbidden by Mosaic law (Lv 18:21; 20:2–5), and when the biblical writers report its occurrence, they usually condemn it in strong terms (2 Kgs 16:3; 21:6; Jer 7:31; 19:5). In this case, however, the narrator simply records the old story, offering no comment on the acceptability of Jephthah’s extreme gesture. The story may have been preserved because it provided an explanation of the custom described in vv. 39–40 according to which Israelite women mourned Jephthah’s daughter annually in a four-day ceremony.
11:35 Made a vow: lit., “opened my mouth”; so in v. 36.
10:4 : Jgs 8:30; 9:2, 5; 12:9, 14.
10:6–8 : Jgs 2:11–14; 3:7–8, 12; 4:1–2; 6:1; 13:1.
10:10 : Jgs 3:9, 15; 4:3; 6:6, 7; 1 Sm 12:8, 10.
10:11–14 : Jgs 2:1–3; 6:8–10.
11:3 : 2 Sm 10:6, 8.
11:3 : Jgs 9:4; 1 Sm 22:2.
11:15 : Dt 2:9, 19.
11:18 : Nm 20:21; 21:4, 10–12; Dt 2:8.
11:18 : Nm 21:13; 22:36.
11:19–21 : Nm 21:21–26; Dt 2:26–36.
11:25 : Nm 22–24; Jos 24:9–10; Mi 6:5.
11:26 : Nm 21:25; Dt 2:36.
11:29 : Jgs 3:10; 6:34; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1 Sm 11:6.
11:30 : Gn 28:20–22; 1 Sm 1:11; 2 Sm 15:7–8.
11:35 : Nm 30:3; Dt 23:22; Eccl 5:4.
with longing for your judgments.
for I keep your testimonies.
give me life in accord with your word.
I will ponder your wondrous deeds.
lift me up acccording to your word.
favor me with your law.
I have kept your judgments.
do not let me come to shame.
for you will broaden my heart.
119:19 A sojourner in the land: like someone without the legal protection of a native inhabitant, the psalmist has a special need for the guidance of God’s teaching.
Confession and Intercession. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful. 17 Elijah was a human being like us; yet he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain upon the land. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the earth produced its fruit.
5:1–6 Continuing with the theme of the transitory character of life on earth, the author points out the impending ruin of the godless. He denounces the unjust rich, whose victims cry to heaven for judgment on their exploiters (Jas 5:4–6). The decay and corrosion of the costly garments and metals, which symbolize wealth, prove them worthless and portend the destruction of their possessors (Jas 5:2–3).
5:6 The author does not have in mind any specific crime in his readers’ communities but rather echoes the Old Testament theme of the harsh oppression of the righteous poor (see Prv 1:11; Wis 2:10, 12, 20).
5:7–11 Those oppressed by the unjust rich are reminded of the need for patience, both in bearing the sufferings of human life (Jas 5:9) and in their expectation of the coming of the Lord. It is then that they will receive their reward (Jas 5:7–8, 10–11; cf. Hb 10:25; 1 Jn 2:18).
5:7 The early and the late rains: an expression related to the agricultural season in ancient Palestine (see Dt 11:14; Jer 5:24; Jl 2:23).
5:12 This is the threat of condemnation for the abuse of swearing oaths (cf. Mt 5:33–37). By heaven or by earth: these words were substitutes for the original form of an oath, to circumvent its binding force and to avoid pronouncing the holy name of God (see Ex 22:10).
5:14 In case of sickness a Christian should ask for the presbyters of the church, i.e., those who have authority in the church (cf. Acts 15:2, 22–23; 1 Tm 5:17; Ti 1:5). They are to pray over the person and anoint with oil; oil was used for medicinal purposes in the ancient world (see Is 1:6; Lk 10:34). In Mk 6:13, the Twelve anoint the sick with oil on their missionary journey. In the name of the Lord: by the power of Jesus Christ.
5:20 When a Christian is instrumental in the conversion of a sinner, the result is forgiveness of sins and a reinstatement of the sinner to the life of grace.
5:3 : Ps 21:10; Prv 11:4; Jdt 16:17.
5:4 : Lv 19:13; Dt 24:14–15; Mal 3:5.
5:5 : Jer 12:3; Lk 16:19–25.
5:8 : Lk 21:19; Hb 10:36 / Hb 10:25; 1 Pt 4:7.
5:11 : Ex 34:6; Ps 103:8.
5:17 : 1 Kgs 17:1; Lk 4:25.
5:18 : 1 Kgs 18:45.
5:19 : Mt 18:15; Gal 6:1.
5:20 : Prv 10:12; 1 Pt 4:8.