J
U D G E S
CHAP. X.
In
this chapter we have, I. The peaceable times
Israel
enjoyed under the government of
two judges, Tola and Jair, ver.
1-5. II. The troublesome times that ensued. 1. Israel's sin that
brought them into trouble, ver.
6. 2. The trouble itself they were in, ver.
7-9. III. Their repentance and humiliation for sin, their prayers
and reformation, and the mercy they found with God thereupon, ver.
10-16. IV. Preparation made for their deliverance out of the hand
of their oppressors, ver.
17, 18.
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Government
of Tola and Jair.
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B.
C. 1183.
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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. 2 And he judged
Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.
3 And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two
years. 4 And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and
they had thirty cities, which are called Havoth-jair unto this day, which are
in the land of Gilead. 5 And Jair died, and was buried in Camon.
Quiet and peaceable reigns, though the best to live in, are the worst to write
of, as yielding least variety of matter for the historian to entertain his
reader with; such were the reigns of these two judges, Tola and Jair, who make
but a small figure and take up but a very little room in this history. But no
doubt they were both raised up of God to serve their country in the
quality of judges, not pretending, as Abimelech had done, to the grandeur of
kings, nor, like him, taking the honour they had to themselves, but being
called of God to it. 1. Concerning Tola it is said that he arose after
Abimelech to defend Israel, v.
1. After Abimelech had debauched Israel by his wickedness,
disquieted and disturbed them by his restless ambition, and, by the mischiefs
he brought on them, exposed them to enemies from abroad, God animated this
good man to appear for the reforming of abuses, the putting down of idolatry,
the appeasing of tumults, and the healing of the wounds given to the state by
Abimelech's usurpation. Thus he saved them from themselves, and guarded them
against their enemies. He was of the tribe of Issachar, a tribe disposed to
serve, for he bowed his shoulder to bear (Gen.
xlix. 14, 15), yet one of that tribe is here raised up to rule; for
those that humble themselves shall be exalted. He bore the name of him that
was ancestor to the first family of that tribe; of the sons of Issachar Tola
was the first, Gen.
xlvi. 13; Num. xxvi. 23. It signifies a worm, yet, being the
name of his ancestor, he was not ashamed of it. Though he was of Issachar,
yet, when he was raised up to the government, he came and dwelt in Mount
Ephraim, which was more in the heart of the country, that the people might the
more conveniently resort to him for judgment. He judged Israel twenty-three
years (v.
2), kept things in good order, but did not any thing very
memorable. 2. Jair was a Gileadite, so was his next successor Jephthah, both
of that half tribe of the tribe of Manasseh which lay on the other side
Jordan; though they seemed separated from their brethren, yet God took care,
while the honour of the government was shifted from tribe to tribe and before
it settled in Judah, that those who lay remote should sometimes share in it, putting
more abundant honour on that part which lacked. Jair bore the name of a
very famous man of the same tribe who in Moses's time was very active in
reducing this country, Num.
xxxii. 41; Josh. xiii. 30. That which is chiefly remarkable
concerning this Jair is the increase and honour of his family: He had
thirty sons, v.
4. And, (1.) They had good preferments, for they rode on thirty
ass colts; that is, they were judges itinerant, who, as deputies to their
father, rode from place to place in their several circuits to administer
justice. We find afterwards that Samuel made his sons judges, though he could
not make them good ones, 1
Sam. viii. 1-3. (2.) They had good possessions, every one a city,
out of those that were called, from their ancestor of the same name with their
father, Havoth-jair--the villages of Jair; yet they are called cities,
either because those young gentlemen to whom they were assigned enlarged and
fortified them, and so improved them into cities, or because they were as well
pleased with their lot in those country towns as if they had been cities
compact together and fenced with gates and bars. Villages are cities to a
contented mind.
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Israel
Oppressed by the Ammonites.
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B.
C. 1161.
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6 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. 7 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. 8 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. 9 Moreover the children of
Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin,
and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.
While those two judges, Tola and Jair, presided in the affairs of Israel,
things went well, but afterwards,
I. Israel returned to their idolatry, that sin which did most easily beset
them (v.
6): They did evil again in the sight of the Lord, from whom
they were unaccountably bent to backslide, as a foolish people and unwise.
1. They worshipped many gods; not only their old demons Baalim and Ashtaroth,
which the Canaanites had worshipped, but, as if they would proclaim their
folly to all their neighbours, they served the gods of Syria, Zidon, Moab,
Ammon, and the Philistines. It looks as if the chief trade of Israel had been
to import deities from all countries. It is hard to say whether it was more
impious or impolitic to do this. By introducing these foreign deities, they
rendered themselves mean and despicable, for no nation that had any sense of
honour changed their gods. Much of the wealth of Israel, we may suppose, was
carried out, in offerings to the temples of the deities in the several
countries whence they came, on which, as their mother-churches, their temples
in Israel were expected to own their dependence; the priests and devotees of
those sorry deities would follow their gods, no doubt, in crowds into the land
of Israel, and, if they could not live in their own country, would take root
there, and so strangers would devour their strength. If they did it in
compliment to the neighbouring nations, and to ingratiate themselves with
them, justly were they disappointed; for those nations which by their wicked
arts they sought to make their friends by the righteous judgments of God
became their enemies and oppressors. In quo quis peccat, in eo punitur--Wherein
a person offends, therein he shall be punished. 2. They did not so much as
admit the God of Israel to be one of those many deities they worshipped, but
quite cast him off: They forsook the Lord, and served not him at all.
Those that think to serve both God and Mammon will soon come entirely to
forsake God, and to serve Mammon only. If God have not all the heart, he will
soon have none of it.
II. God renewed his judgments upon them, bringing them under the power of
oppressing enemies. Had they fallen into the hands of the Lord
immediately, they might have found that his mercies were great; but God
let them fall into the hands of man, whose tender mercies are cruel. He
sold them into the hands of the Philistines that lay south-west of
Canaan, and of the Ammonites that lay north-east, both at the same time; so
that between those two millstones they were miserably crushed, as the
original word is (v.
8) for oppressed. God had appointed that, if any of the
cities of Israel should revolt to idolatry, the rest should make war upon them
and cut them off, Deut.
xiii. 12, &c. They had been jealous enough in this matter,
almost to an extreme, in the case of the altar set up by the two tribes and a
half (Josh.
xxii.); but now they had grown so very bad that when one city was
infected with idolatry the next took the infection and instead of punishing
it, imitated and out-did it; and therefore, since those that should have been
revengers to execute wrath on those that did this evil were
themselves guilty, or bore the sword in vain, God brought the
neighbouring nations upon them, to chastise them for their apostasy. The
oppression of Israel by the Ammonites, the posterity of Lot, was, 1. Very
long. It continued eighteen years. Some make those years to be part of the
judgeship of Jair, who could not prevail to reform and deliver Israel as he
would. Others make them to commence at the death of Jair, which seems the more
probable because that part of Israel which was most infested by the Ammonites
was Gilead, Jair's own country, which we cannot suppose to have suffered so
much while he was living, but that part at least would be reformed and
protected. 2. Very grievous. They vexed them and oppressed them. It was a
great vexation to be oppressed by such a despicable people as the children of
Ammon were. They began with those tribes that lay next them on the other side
Jordan, here called the land of the Amorites (v.
8) because the Israelites had so wretchedly degenerated, and had
made themselves so like the heathen, that they had become, in a manner,
perfect Amorites (Ezek.
xvi. 3), or because by their sin they forfeited their title to this
land, so that it might justly be looked upon as the land of the Amorites
again, from whom they took it. But by degrees they pushed forward, came over
Jordan, and invaded Judah, and Benjamin, and Ephraim (v.
9), three of the most famous tribes of Israel, yet thus insulted
when they had forsaken God, and unable to make head against the invader. Now
the threatening was fulfilled that they should be slain before their
enemies, and should have no power to stand before them, Lev.
xxvi. 17, 37. Their ways and their doings procure this to
themselves; they have sadly degenerated, and so they come to be sorely
distressed.
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The
Repentance and Reformation of Israel.
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B.
C. 1161.
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10 And the children of
Israel cried unto the LORD,
saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God,
and also served Baalim. 11 And the LORD
said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the
Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the
Philistines? 12 The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the
Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of
their hand. 13 Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods:
wherefore I will deliver you no more. 14 Go and cry unto the gods
which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your
tribulation. 15 And the children of Israel said unto the LORD,
We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us
only, we pray thee, this day. 16 And they put away the strange
gods from among them, and served the LORD:
and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. 17 Then the
children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the
children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpeh.
18 And the people and princes of Gilead said one to another, What man is
he that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be
head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
Here is, I. A humble confession which Israel make to God in their distress, v.
10. Now they own themselves guilty, like a malefactor upon the
rack, and promise reformation, like a child under the rod. They not only
complain of the distress, but acknowledge it is their own sin that has brought
them into the distress; therefore God is righteous, and they have no reason to
repine. They confess their omissions, for in them their sin began--"We
have forsaken our God," and their commissions--"We have served
Baalim, and herein have done foolishly, treacherously, and very
wickedly."
II. A humbling message which God thereupon sends to
Israel
, whether by an angel
(as ch. ii. 1) or by a prophet (as ch. vi. 8) is not certain. It
was kind that God took notice of their cry, and did not turn a deaf ear to it
and send them no answer at all; it was kind likewise that when they began to
repent he sent them such a message as was proper to increase their repentance,
that they might be qualified and prepared for deliverance. Now in this
message, 1. He upbraids them with their great ingratitude, reminds them of the
great things he had done for them, delivering them from such and such enemies,
the Egyptians first, out of whose land they were rescued, the Amorites whom
they conquered and into whose land they entered, and since their settlement
there, when the Ammonites had joined with the Moabites to oppress them (ch.
iii. 13), when the Philistines were vexatious in the days of Shamgar, and
afterwards other enemies had given them trouble, upon their petition God had
wrought many a great salvation for them, v. 11, 12. Of their being
oppressed by the Zidonians and the Maonites we read not elsewhere. God had in
justice corrected them, and in mercy delivered them, and therefore might
reasonably expect that either through fear or through love they would adhere
to him and his service. Well therefore might the word cut them to the heart (v.
13), "Yet you have forsaken me that have brought you out of your
troubles and served other gods that brought you into your
troubles." Thus did they forsake their own mercies for their
own delusions. 2. He shows them how justly he might now abandon them to
ruin, by abandoning them to the gods that they had served. To awaken
them to a thorough repentance and reformation, he lets them see, (1.) Their
folly in serving Baalim. They had been at a vast expense to obtain the favour
of such gods as could not help them when they had most need of their help:
"Go, and cry unto the gods which you have chosen (v. 14),
try what they can do for you now. You have worshipped them as gods--try if
they have now either a divine power or a divine goodness to be employed for
you. You paid your homage to them as your kings and lords--try if they will
now protect you. You brought your sacrifices of praise to their altars as your
benefactors, imagining that they gave you your corn, and wine, and oil, but a
friend indeed will be a friend in need; what stead will their favour stand you
in now?" Note, It is necessary, in true repentance, that there be a full
conviction of the utter insufficiency of all those things to help us and do us
any kindness which we have idolized and set upon the throne in our hearts in
competition with God. We must be convinced that the pleasures of sense on
which we have doted cannot be our satisfaction, nor the wealth of the world
which we have coveted be our portion, that we cannot be happy or easy any
where but in God. (2.) Their misery and danger in forsaking God. "See
what a pass you have brought yourselves to; now you can expect no other than
that I should say, I will deliver you no more, and what will become of
you then?" v. 13. This he tells them, not only as what he might
do, but as what he would do if they rested in a confession of what they
had done amiss, and did not put away their idols and amend for the future.
III. A humble submission which Israel hereupon made to God's justice, with a
humble application to his mercy, v. 15. The children of Israel met
together, probably in a solemn assembly at the door of the tabernacle,
received the impressions of the message God had sent them, were not driven by
it to despair, though it was very threatening, but resolve to lie at God's
feet, and, if they perish, they will perish there. They not only repeat their
confession, We have sinned, but, 1. They surrender themselves to God's
justice: Do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee. Hereby they
own that they deserved the severest tokens of God's displeasure and were sure
he could do them no wrong, whatever he laid upon them; they humbled themselves
under his mighty and heavy hand, and accepted of the punishment of their
iniquity, which Moses had made the condition of God's return in mercy to
them, Lev. xxvi. 41. Note, True penitents dare and will refer themselves to
God to correct them as he thinks fit, knowing that their sin is highly
malignant in its deserts, and that God is not rigorous or extreme in his
demands. 2. They supplicate for God's mercy: Deliver us only, we pray thee,
this day, from this enemy. They acknowledge what they deserved, yet pray
to God not to deal with them according to their deserts. Note, We must submit
to God's justice with a hope in his mercy.
IV. A blessed reformation set on foot hereupon. They brought forth fruits meet
for repentance (v. 16): They put away the gods of strangers (as
the word is), strange gods, and worshipped by those nations that were
strangers to the commonwealth of Israel and to the covenants of promise, and
they served the Lord. Need drove them to him. They knew it was to no
purpose to go to the gods whom they had served, and therefore returned to the
God whom they had slighted. This is true repentance not only for sin, but from
sin.
V. God's gracious return in mercy to them, which is expressed here very
tenderly (v. 16): His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
Not that there is any grief in God (he has infinite joy and happiness in
himself, which cannot be broken in upon by either the sins or the miseries of
his creatures), nor that there is any change in God: he is in one mind, and
who can turn him? But his goodness is his glory. By it he proclaims his
name, and magnifies it above all names; and, as he is pleased to put himself
into the relation of a father to his people that are in covenant with him, so
he is pleased to represent his goodness to them by the compassions of a father
towards his children; for, as he is the Father of lights, so he is the Father
of mercies. As the disobedience and misery of a child are a grief to a tender
father, and make him feel very sensibly from his natural affection, so the
provocations of God's people are a grief to him (Ps. xcv. 10), he is broken
with their whorish heart (Ezek. vi. 9); their troubles also are a grief to
him; so he is pleased to speak when he is pleased to appear for the
deliverance of his people, changing his way and method of proceeding, as
tender parents when they begin to relent towards their children with whom they
have been displeased. Such are the tender mercies of our God, and so far is he
from having any pleasure in the death of sinners.
VI. Things are now working towards their deliverance from the Ammonites'
oppression, v. 17, 18. God had said, "I will deliver you no
more;" but now they are not what they were, they are other men, they are
new men, and now he will deliver them. That threatening was denounced to
convince and humble them, and, now that it had taken its desired effect, it is
revoked in order to their deliverance. 1. The Ammonites are hardened to their
own ruin. They gathered together in one body, that they might be destroyed at
one blow, Rev. xvi. 16. 2. The Israelites are animated to their own rescue.
They assembled likewise, v. 17. During their eighteen years'
oppression, as in their former servitudes, they were run down by their
enemies, because they would not incorporate; each family, city, or tribe,
would stand by itself, and act independently, and so they all became an easy
prey to the oppressors, for want of a due sense of a common interest to cement
them: but, whenever they got together, they did well; so they did here. When
God's Israel become as one man to advance a common good and oppose a common
enemy what difficulty can stand before them? The people and princes of Gilead,
having met, consult first about a general that should command in chief against
the Ammonites. Hitherto most of the deliverers of Israel had an extraordinary
call to the office, as Ehud, Barak, Gideon; but the next is to be called in a
more common way, by a convention of the states, who enquired out a fit man to
command their army, found out one admirably well qualified for the purpose,
and God owned their choice by putting his Spirit upon him (ch. xi. 29);
so that this instance is of use for direction and encouragement in after-ages,
when extraordinary calls are no longer to be expected. Let such be impartially
chosen to public trust and power as God has qualified, and then God will
graciously own those who are thus chosen.
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