John Gill Commentary Judges 10

And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel
To save, deliver, and protect Israel; which does not necessarily imply that Abimelech did; for he was no judge of God's raising up, or the people's choosing, but usurped a kingly power over them; and was so far from saving and defending them, that he involved them in trouble and distress, and ruled over them in a tyrannical manner, and left them in the practice of idolatry: it only signifies that after his death arose a person next described to which this may well be attributed, that he was raised up as a judge by the Lord; and though we read of no enemies particularly, that he delivered the people from in his days, yet it is not impossible nor unlikely that there might be such, though not made mention of; besides, he might be said to save them, as the word signifies, in that he was an happy instrument of composing those differences and dissensions, which Abimelech had occasioned, and of recovering them from the idolatry they had fallen into in his times, and of protecting them in their liberties, civil and religious.

And this was Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar ;
he was of the tribe of Issachar, and bore the same name as the eldest son of Issachar did, as his father Puah had the name of the second son of Issachar, (1 Chronicles 7:1) and as for Dodo his grandfather, this is elsewhere mentioned as the name of a man, as it doubtless is here, (2 Samuel 23:9 2 Samuel 23:24) though some copies of the Targum, the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, render it, the son of his uncle, or father's brother; meaning that his father Puah was the son of Abimelech's uncle, or father's brother, and so was one of the family which was raised up to be a judge after his death; but it is not likely that Gideon, the father of Abimelech, and Puah, the father of this man, should be brethren, when the one was of the tribe of Manasseh, and the other of the tribe of Issachar:

and he dwelt in Shamir in Mount Ephraim :
that is, when he became judge in Israel he removed to this place, as being in the midst of the tribes, and near the tabernacle of Shiloh, and so fit for a judge to reside in, to whom the people might apply from all parts to have justice and judgment administered to them. It is called Shamir in Mount Ephraim, to distinguish it from another of the same name in the mountain of Judah, (Joshua 15:48) it seems to have its name from the thorns which grew about it.

And he judged Israel twenty three years, and died
He did not take upon him to be king, as Abimelech did, but acted as a judge, in which office he continued twenty three years, and faithfully discharged it, and died in honour:

and was buried in Shamir ;
the place where he executed his office. It is said ^F20 , that in the first year of Tola, the son of Puah, Priamus reigned in Troy.

FOOTNOTES:

• F20: Juchasin, fol. 136. 1.

And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite
Who was of the half tribe of Manasseh, on the other side Jordan, which inhabited the land of Gilead, and who is the first of the judges that was on that side Jordan; it pleased God, before the government was settled in a particular tribe, to remove it from one to another, and to honour them all, and to show that though the two tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, were separated from their brethren by the river Jordan, they were not neglected by the Lord; and generally speaking judges were raised up in all those parts which were most oppressed, and liable to be oppressed by their enemies, as Gilead by the Ammonites;

wherefore this, and the next judge that followed him, Jephthah, were of Gilead:

and judged Israel twenty two years ;
protected them from their enemies, administered justice to them, and preserved them in the true religion.

And he had thirty sons that rode upon thirty ass colts
Which to ride on in those times was reckoned honourable, and on which judges rode in their circuit, (Judges 5:10) and such might be these sons of Jair, who were appointed under him to ride about, and do justice in the several parts of the country, as Samuel's sons were judges under him, (1 Samuel 8:1) ,

and they had thirty cities, which are called Havothjair unto this day,
which are in the land of Gilead ;
or the villages of Jair. There were some of this name that belonged to Jair, a son of Manasseh, in the times of Moses, (Numbers 32:41) and these may be the same, at least some of them; for they were but twenty three he had, whereas these were thirty, (1 Chronicles 2:22) and these coming by inheritance to this Jair, a descendant of the former, and he being of the same name, and these cities perhaps repaired and enlarged by him, the name of them was continued and established, for it is not reasonable to suppose, as some have done, that this is the same Jair that lived in the times of Moses, who, if so, must have lived more than three hundred years, an age men did not live to in those times.

And Jair died, and was buried in Camon .
A city of Gilead, as Josephus ^F21 calls it; Jerom ^F23 , under this word Camon, makes mention of a village in his times, called Cimana, in the large plain six miles from Legion to the north, as you go to Ptolemais; but, as Reland ^F24 observes, this seems not to be the same place, but rather this is the Camon Polybius ^F25 speaks of among other cities of Peraea, taken by Antiochus.

FOOTNOTES:

• F21: Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 6.
• F23: De loc. Heb. fol. 90. B.
• F24: Palestina Illustr. tom. 2. p. 679.
• F25: Hist. l. 5.