Judges 10:2

And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) He judged Israel.—The recurrence of the normal verb (to judge) shows that Tola was an honour able “Suffes,” not a despot, like Abimelech. Nothing further is known about Tola.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1-5 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Jair the Gileadite was probably the same person as is named in Numbers 32:41; Deuteronomy 3:14, as having given the name of "Havoth-jair" to certain villages in Bashan.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 10

Jud 10:1-5. Tola Judges Israel in Shamir.

1. after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel, Tola—that is, "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, most probably, uterine brothers.

dwelt in Shamir in mount Ephraim—As a central place, he made it the seat of government.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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 (t), that in the first year of Tola, the son of Puah, Priamus reigned in Troy.

(t) Juchasin, fol. 136. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. And he judged] Jdg 10:3; see Jdg 3:10 n.

and was buried, in Shamir] ‘We are probably to infer that the tomb of the eponymous ancestor of the clan was in later times shewn at Shamir’ (Moore). This applies, with different names, to similar notices of the other Minor Judges.

Judges 10:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Of these two judges no particular deeds are mentioned, no doubt because they performed none.

Judges 10:1-2

Tola arose after Abimelech's death to deliver Israel, and judged Israel twenty-three years until his death, though certainly not all the Israelites of the twelve tribes, but only the northern and possibly also the eastern tribes, to the exclusion of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin, as these southern tribes neither took part in Gideon's war of freedom nor stood under Abimelech's rule. To explain the clause "there arose to defend (or save) Israel," when nothing had been said about any fresh oppression on the part of the foe, we need not assume, as Rosenmller does, "that the Israelites had been constantly harassed by their neighbours, who continued to suppress the liberty of the Israelites, and from whose stratagems or power the Israelites were delivered by the acts of Tola;" but Tola rose up as the deliverer of Israel, even supposing that he simply regulated the affairs of the tribes who acknowledged him as their supreme judge, and succeeded by his efforts in preventing the nation from falling back into idolatry, and thus guarded Israel from any fresh oppression on the part of hostile nations. Tola was the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, of the tribe of Issachar. The names Tola and Puah are already met with among the descendants of Issachar, as founders of families of the tribes of Issachar (see Genesis 46:13; Numbers 26:23, where the latter name is written פּוּה), and they were afterwards repeated in the different households of these families. Dodo is not an appellative, as the Sept. translators supposed (υἱὸς πατραδέλφου αὐτοῦ), but a proper name, as in 2 Samuel 23:9 (Keri), 24, and 1 Chronicles 11:12. The town of Shamir, upon the mountains of Ephraim, where Tola judged Israel, and was afterwards buried, was a different place from the Shamir upon the mountains of Judah, mentioned in Joshua 15:48, and its situation (probably in the territory of Issachar) is still unknown.