¹Then after Abimelech was gone, Tola, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, arose to save Israel – a man of Issachar – and he lived in Shamir at Mount Ephraim. ²And he judged Israel for twenty-three years, then he died and was buried in Shamir. ³And after him Jair the Gileadite arose, and he judged Israel for twenty-two years. ⁴And he had thirty sons who rode on thirty ass-colts, and they had thirty cities, and they call them the Villages of Jair up to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. ⁵Then Jair died, and he was buried in Camon. ⁶Then the sons of Israel again did what was wrong in the eyes of the Lord, and they served the Baalim, and images of Astarte, and the gods of Aramaea, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. But they forsook the Lord, and they did not serve him. ⁷And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the sons of Ammon. ⁸And they crushed and oppressed the sons of Israel in that year – for eighteen years all the sons of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites who were in Gilead. ⁹Then the sons of Ammon crossed the Jordan to fight against both Judah and Benjamin, as well as the house of Ephraim, and Israel was in a serious strait. ¹⁰And the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord and said, “We have sinned against you, because we have both forsaken our God and we have served the Baalim.” ¹¹Then the Lord said to the sons of Israel, “Is it not from Egypt and from the Amorites and from the sons of Ammon and from the Philistines that I saved you? ¹²And when the Sidonians and Amalek and Maon oppressed you, you cried out to me, and I saved you from their hand. ¹³But you forsook me, and you served other gods. That is why I shall not save you again. ¹⁴Go and cry out to the gods that you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress.” ¹⁵Then the sons of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Deal with us in whatever way is right in your sight, but please deliver us this day.” ¹⁶Then they removed the foreign gods from their midst, and they served the Lord, and he became impatient over Israel's suffering. ¹⁷Then the sons of Ammon were mobilized, and they encamped at Gilead. And the sons of Israel gathered and encamped in Mizpah. ¹⁸And the people – the officers of Gilead – said to each other, “Who is the man who will start fighting the sons of Ammon? He will be the head of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”