Judges 10:1

_AND AFTER ABIMELECH THERE AROSE TO DEFEND ISRAEL TOLA THE SON OF PUAH, THE SON OF DODO, A MAN OF ISSACHAR; AND HE DWELT IN SHAMIR IN MOUNT EPHRAIM._ After Abimelech there arose, to defend Israel, Tola - i:e., to save. Deliverance was necessary as well from intestine usurpation as from foreign aggression. THE SON OF PUAH. He was uncle to Abimelech by the father's side, and consequently brother of Gideon; yet the former was of the tribe of Issachar, while the latter was of Manasseh. They were must probably uterine brothers. DWELT IN SHAMIR IN MOUNT EPHRAIM. As a central place, he made it the seat of government....

1-5 Quiet and peaceable reigns, though the best to live in, yield least variety of matter to be spoken of. Such were the days of Tola and Jair. They were humble, active, and useful men, rulers appointed of God....

CHAPTER X _Tola judges Israel_ twenty-three _years_, 1, 2. _Jair is judge_ twenty-two _years_, 3-5. _After him the Israelites rebel against God, and are delivered_ _into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites_ eighteen _years_, 6-9. _They humble themselves, and God reproves them_, 10-14. _They put away their strange gods, and gather together against_ _the Ammonites_, 15-17. _The chiefs of Gilead inquire concerning a captain to head them_ _against the Ammonites_, 18. NOTES ON CHAP. X

DEFEND - The marginal reading “to deliver,” is far preferable. The word is the same as in Judges 2:16, Judges 2:18; Judges 3:9, Judges 3:15, Judges 3:31, etc., and is the technical word applied to the judges. Compare Nehemiah 9:27 (“saviours who saved them,” the King James Version). The term “there arose,” also marks Tola as one of the Judges, properly so called, raised by divine providence....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 10:1 TOLA THE SON OF PUAH, THE SON OF DODO. Nothing more is known of Tola than what is here told us, viz; his name, his parentage, his dwelling-place, his office, the length of time which he held it, and the place of his burial. Who were the enemies from whom Tola was raised up to save Israel we are not told. There was probably no great invasion or grievous servitude, but perhaps frequent border wars requiring an able and watchful chief to maintain the independence of Israel. Tola and Puah (otherwise written Puvah) were both names of families in Issachar (Genesis 46:13; Numbers 26:23). SHAMIR IN MOUNT EPHRAIM, to distinguish it from...

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 a...

CHAPTER 10:1-5 TOLA AND JAIR _ 1. Tola judging twenty-three years (Judges 10:1)_ 2. Jair judging twenty-two years (Judges 10:3) These are but brief records but not without meaning. Tola means, translated, “a worm.” What a contrast with the proud, wicked, domineering Abimelech! Here is one, who takes the place in self-abasement. It reminds us of Him, whose voice we hear in the great Atonement Psalm “I am a worm and no man.” Tola, no doubt, typifies our Lord in His humiliation. When Abimelech's awful rule is ended, He who was obedient unto death, the death of the cross, will come to reign in righteousness. And this seems to be more fully brought to our attention in Jair, the judge, who followed Tola. His name means, “enlightener.” He is a type of our Lord in His coming as “the Sun of

TOLA AND JAIR. These are the first of five minor Judges, the other three being named in Judges 12:8. Of the exploits of these Judges we know nothing. Only a few bare facts regarding their parentage, place of abode, years of rule, number of sons, and place of burial, are set down. Three of the five are elsewhere spoken of not as individuals but as clans, and the other two are naturally to be regarded in the same light. Probably they were not introduced by D, but by a later editor. Judges 10:1. Tola is here the son of Puah. Elsewhere these are brothers, sons of Issachar, _i.e._ brother clans (Genesis 46:13; Numbers 26:23;...

DEFEND. save or deliver. MOUNT. hill country....

_to save Israel_ Cf. Judges 2:16; Judges 2:18; Judges 3:9 f. _Tola the son of Puah_ According to Genesis 46:13; Numbers 26:23 (P), 1 Chronicles 7:1, Tola and Puah were brothers, -sons," i.e. clans of Issachar. Tola means -the crimson worm," -cochineal," and Puah probably -madder," a plant from which a red dye was obtained, in Arab, _fûh_; the coincidence can hardly be accidental; see...