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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.

There arose, to defend Israel. — Heb., To save. He thrust not himself into the office, as Abimelech, that usurper, had done; but was raised up by God, and accordingly qualified.

A man of Issachar. — The men of this tribe are little memorised. Deborah, indeed, celebrateth them in her song, Judges 5:15 and David made great account of them, because "they had understanding of the time, to know what Israel ought to do." 1 Chronicles 12:32 This Tola, likely, was such a one, by a specialty.

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

And he judged Israel twenty and three years. — Appeasing the tumults at the end of Abimelech’s reign, restoring the true religion, and administering justice according to God’s laws. Dr May.

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And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years.

Jair, a Gileadite. — Of whom we may say as one doth of Jesse, the father of David, that he was Vir bonus et probus, sed minus clarus, a good honest man, but there is not much said of him.

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And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havothjair unto this day, which [are] in the land of Gilead.

And he had thirty sons. — A happy man if they all proved towardly: otherwise he might be put to wish as Augustus did, Utinam aut caelebs vixissem, aut orbus periissem.

That rode on thirty ass colts. — Jair therefore was a man of quality, likely, for birth and wealth: and so fitter for government, ordinarily. See Ecclesiastes 10:17 . By the laws of England, noblemen may not be bound to the peace; because it is supposed that the peace is always bound to them, and that of their own accord they will both preserve and promote it.

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And Jair died, and was buried in Camon.

And Jair died. — "It, is appointed for all men once to die, and after death judgment." Judges shall once say, -

"Do ye then speak righteousness? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of

men?" Psalms 58:1 "Behold, the Judge standeth before the

door." James 5:9

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And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him.

And the children of Israel did evil again, — viz., After Jair’s death. Great is the loss of a good magistrate. Israel now did worse than ever; they did proficere in peius, as the apostle hath it. 2 Timothy 3:13 Now they affect a πολυθεσιης , such as the heathens round about them then had, and such as Socrates, an honest pagan, derided, and in despite of them swore by an oak, a goat, a dog, as holding these better gods than those. Cicero, albeit in his book, De Natura Deorum, he set forth the vanity of all those heathenish deities, yet in his oration for Flaccus he saith, that it became not the majesty of the Roman empire to worship one god only; they must have a multiplicity of gods, for reasons of state. But this was to speak and do evil things as they could. Jeremiah 3:5 Meanwhile they "forsook the Lord, and served not him," as it followeth in this verse. For when it was sometimes disputed among the Romans, - in the council using to deify great men, - whether Christ, having done many wonderful works, as Pilate witnessed before Tiberius, should be received into the number of the gods, and his image put in the Pantheon, the historian saith, that at length it was carried in the negative, for these two reasons: first, Because he persuaded poverty, and chose poor men; secondly, Because he had but few worshippers. Accordingly Peter Martyr giveth these two reasons here why the Israelites went so a whoring after these false gods of the several neighbour nations: (1.) Because they so flourished in wealth and honour, when themselves were so poor and contemptible; (2.) Because the worship of the true God was so severe, but the heathenish superstition licentious and pleasing to flesh and blood.

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And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.

He sold them into the hands of the Philistines, — i.e., He abandoned them into the power, and left them to the pleasure of those very nations with whom they hoped to ingratiate by serving their gods.

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And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that [were] on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which [is] in Gilead.

And that year they vexed and crushed the children, … — That year, quo scilicet desciverunt a cultu divino, Vatab. wherein they fell off from God’s true worship, Or, that year, that is, the last of the eighteen of their oppressing Israel their bonds were increased: the Ammonites before, and the Philistines behind, devoured Israel with open mouth. "For all this his anger was not turned away, but his hand was stretched out still." Isaiah 9:12 We read in the Turkish history, that when Solyman II saw a company of his Christian subjects, many thousands, fall down before him, and hold up the forefinger, as their manner of conversion to Mohammedanism is, he asked, What moved them to turn? They replied, It was to be eased of their heavy taxations. He, disdaining that baseness, or not willing to lose in tribute for an unsound accession in religion, rejected their conversion, and doubled their taxations.

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