TEXT [Commentary]
3. Tola and Jair: Authority restored (10:1-5)
1 After Abimelech died, Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo, was the next person to rescue Israel. He was from the tribe of Issachar but lived in the town of Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. 2 He judged Israel for twenty-three years. When he died, he was buried in Shamir.
3 After Tola died, Jair from Gilead judged Israel for twenty-two years. 4 His thirty sons rode around on thirty donkeys, and they owned thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which are still called the Towns of Jair.[*] 5 When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.
NOTES
10:1 After Abimelech died. The so-called minor judges represent an orderly succession that is not dynastic. Each arises “after” the other, made explicit in Hebrew by the preposition ’akhare [TH310, ZH339]. But they do not seem to succeed each other directly in the same office. The Hebrew writers normally express direct succession in one office by means of the preposition takhath [TH8478A, ZH9393], meaning “below” or “in place of.”
Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo. Tola’s name means “red worm.” Some parents, upon looking at their newborn, might think the name appropriate. He is the only judge whose ancestral information extends three generations, possibly accentuating his high status (Younger 2002:238). The name “Dodo” derives from the same root as the name of David, and resembles it in the consonantal text. No intentional association is likely, however.
to rescue Israel. The use of the expression “rescue [save] Israel” for a so-called minor judge is unusual, especially since no narrative details appear to flesh out the claim. Boling (1975:187) wisely notes, “in contrast with Abimelech’s effort and short-lived success as king, what Israel needed was good administration, which Tola provided.”
the tribe of Issachar but lived in the town of Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. A mark of the “judge” seems to be that he functioned with a wider portfolio than might be expected from his position in the clan or tribe. Those in the book who are called judges (shopet [TH8199A, ZH9149] cf. 4:4) or who are said to “judge [shapat] Israel” (cf. 3:10; 10:2, 3; 12:7, 11, 13, 14; 15:20; 16:31) can all be shown to be persons operating in some way beyond their expected scope. So here, though Tola is of the tribe of Issachar, we find him active and residing in Shamir in Ephraim, possibly the site of later Samaria, about seven miles northwest of the salted ruins of Shechem.
10:2 He judged Israel for twenty-three years. The so-called minor judges seem to be chiefs or paramounts. Such persons acquired property, offspring, or wealth beyond the norm, and as a result, exercised influence wider than would be expected of a mere town elder.
10:3 After Tola died, Jair from Gilead. Gilead lies on the east side of the Jordan River, an unusual home for a man who governed “Israel.” This region also would be the next to suffer oppression when Israel fell back into apostasy.
judged Israel for twenty-two years. Notably, no apostasy intervenes between the death of Tola and the rise of Jair. By blatantly diverging from the paradigm stated in 2:15-19, the writer as much as indicates the superiority of the “minor” judges over the major judges on the point of continuity. A total of 55 years of orderly and uneventful governance with no apostasy intervening exceeds the times of peace procured by all the “major” judges except Ehud.
10:4 thirty sons . . . thirty donkeys. Here the judge’s scope of influence seems extreme: 30 sons on 30 donkeys. The term for donkey here, ‘ayir [TH5895A, ZH6555], refers to prime riding stock that was “the mount of the noble rather than the lowly” (Soggin 1981:196; cf. Moore 1895:274; NIDB 2.158). Passages traditionally taken to be messianic promises (Gen 49:11; Zech 9:9) portray the Messiah riding a donkey, an image taken up in the NT by all four Gospel writers (Matt 21:2; Mark 11:1-3; Luke 19:29-31; John 12:14-15).
thirty towns . . . the Towns of Jair. “Towns” is ‘arim [TH5892, ZH6551] (cities), and the word closely resembles the term used for “donkeys,” causing some ancient scribal confusion in copying this text. The JPS translation adroitly captures the pun with “burros” and “boroughs.” The term, khawwoth ya’ir [TH2334, ZH2596], appears altogether in six OT passages. Numbers 32:41 and Deut 3:14 credit “Jair the son of Manasseh” (KJV) with conquering villages in Transjordan during the Mosaic era and naming them khawwoth ya’ir [TH2333/2971A, ZH2557/3281] (the Towns of Jair). Joshua 13:30 refers to these events, adding the detail that the towns of Jair were in fact “sixty towns,” a point enlarged upon in 1 Kgs 4:13 where these 60 cities are reported to be walled with bronze bars. The texts also locate the towns in either Gilead or Bashan, to the north. Judges alone attributes the naming of this region to the post-Mosaic era, fixing the number of towns at 30. The similarities tempt us to equate the Mosaic-era Jair with his post-Mosaic counterpart, but that in turn raises chronological conflicts. These dots will probably not be connected without more topographical and historical information.
10:5 When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon. The town where Jair was buried remains unknown, with several possible sites east and west of the Jordan.
COMMENTARY [Text]
The author Ernest Hemingway is reported to have been challenged to write a complete story in only six words. Hemingway rose to the challenge: “For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn.” A story need not be long to convey a vital slice of life to the reader. Although the so-called minor judges come to us only in very brief vignettes, they open revealing windows into the experience of early Israel. Commentators insisting that every single judge in the book represents a step downward morally and spiritually tend to fault these figures for not doing anything to reverse the evils of their predecessors. To force every story somehow to display yet more decline seems heavy-handed. In fact, hints appear in these records that the author assessed the minor judges positively.
Students of social organization point out that Israel, up to the time of Abimelech, had become a “complex chiefdom” (R. Miller 2005:6-14, 97-103, 112-124). A complex chiefdom vests authority in a single family head, the chief or paramount, who passes that authority down as an inheritance. A complex chiefdom involves a central site, such as Shechem or Shiloh, each with its series of satellite towns and their dependent villages, which all form a network of communication, trade, intermarriage, and common defense. Chiefdoms lack “state” features like professional administrators, standing armies, and standardized monumental architecture. Hints at this social structure appear in the Gideon-Abimelech material. Social historians also note that complex chiefdoms break down. The central town or family can lose power, resulting in the former satellite towns achieving independence, becoming a series of “simple chiefdoms” until a new network forms, possibly around another center. Archaeological data suggests that about 1100 BC the complex chiefdom that centered on Shechem collapsed with the destruction of the city, which was not reoccupied for over a century. The extermination of Gideon’s family ended the influence of his family in the region, thus demolishing completely the social structure that had emerged. To the south, several towns, including Gibeah, had already fallen about 1150 (throwing the Benjaminite hill country into confusion); this is possibly reflected in chapters 19–21. Shiloh would meet with a fiery fate around 1050, probably at the hands of the Philistines (cf. 1 Sam 4). The stories of Tola and Jair in 10:1-5 could mirror the new situation resulting from the collapse of these complex chiefdoms—the rise of new networks of power, centered at other sites.
These little vignettes allow the author to point to certain core values about leadership that will be sorely lacking in the stories of the major judges. First, the minor judges show us just what a “judge” (shopet [TH8199A, ZH9149]) was. A judge was a leader whose influence reached beyond the range defined by his genealogical position. For each minor judge, the author will identify some unusual characteristic that will point to this broader scope of influence. Jair, for example, lives in Transjordan, but judges “Israel.” Second, the minor judges show us intrinsic leadership. The judges do indeed exercise power in a manner not precisely grounded in the family system of ancient Israel, but their rule emerges from their rootedness in their own clan or tribe. Their many sons and daughters identify them as families who soon morphed into virtual clans. In each case, some outstanding point of competence or achievement will be noted, upon which their rule is grounded. It will never be coercion or violence, but likely prestige and respect well-earned. Third, they succeed one another without any intervening sin or oppression. The uneventful transfer of power might be taken for granted in Western democracies, but in most of the world throughout most of history, transfers of power come with violence and trauma. Fourth, these two judges show us something about salvation. The narrator notes that Tola arose to save Israel, but does not tell of any battles or murders. Perhaps salvation can take the form not just of dramatic displays of power, divine or human, but also the quiet, steady presence of competent leadership.
These little notes all point to an underlying theme in Judges that will become more obvious with the stories of Jephthah, Samson, and the outrages of chapters 17–21. The desire for overt displays of dramatic divine power that overwhelm the human element and shove aside human institutions and traditions in fact do not constitute Yahweh’s way for his people. Yahweh’s plan was for Israel to construct a community in which his will was done on earth as it is in heaven, with traditions and institutions in which his order, his shalom [TH7965, ZH8934], prevails, and in which, to borrow Jotham’s words, people live in integrity, honor, and faithfulness (8:35; 9:16; Heb., ’emeth [TH571, ZH622], tamim [TH8549, ZH9459] and khesed [TH2617, ZH2876]). Though this community would be grounded in Yahweh’s gracious promise, living each moment solely by his presence, it was nevertheless a thoroughly human community in which human memory, aspirations, and achievements pointed to the glory of God. The minor judges remind us of the book of Ruth, which transpires in “the days when the judges ruled” (Ruth 1:1). In that book, each character behaves with dignity, honor, and integrity. In the human network of faithfulness, every person in the story finds redemption, and that without a single miracle. Perhaps the salvation of God is after all most evident in the quiet succession of good men who direct their growing families and thriving peoples in peace.