Judges 10:1

TOLA AND JAIR, Judges 10:1-5.

1. There arose In the providence of God.

To defend Rather, to save Israel. No particular acts of Tola are recorded, but only the general statement (Judges 10:2) that he judged Israel twenty three years. Hence it has been a question among the commentators, How did Tola save Israel?

There is no record of any new oppressions, or of any special dangers. But the chief difficulty comes from assuming that there was no sense in which he might have saved Israel unless they had been in bondage to some foreign foe. He might have saved them from civil discords and fearful feuds by his wise and prudent judgments. He may have saved them from foreign invasions by a timely and prudent caution. We should also remember that the silence of Scripture respecting an individual is not sufficent ground for assuming that he did no mighty works. Tola was raised up to defend Israel; that is, for the purpose of defending or saving them in case any difficulty or danger came; and perhaps an important part of his labour was to save or reclaim the people from the idolatry into which they had fallen after the death of Gideon.

A man of Issachar One of that tribe by birth.

Dwelt in Shamir The site of Shamir has not been satisfactorily identified. “It is singular that this judge, a man of Issachar, should have taken up his official residence out of his own tribe. We may account for it by supposing that the Plain of Esdraelon, which formed the greater part of the territory of Issachar, was overrun, as in Gideon’s time, by the Canaanites or other marauders, of whose incursions nothing whatever is told us, (though their existence is certain,) driving Tola to the more secure mountains of Ephraim. Or, as Manasseh had certain cities out of Issachar allotted to him, so Issachar, on the other hand, may have possessed some towns in the mountains of Ephraim.” Grove, in Smith’s Bib. Dict. Others have supposed that at this city in the mountains of Ephraim he was more accessible to the various tribes, and could thus more conveniently judge Israel.