Matthew Henry on Judges 10:1-5
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, Jdg 10:1. After Abimelech had debauched Israel by his wickedness, disqu…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 10:4
he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts--This is a characteristic trait of Eastern manners in those early times; and the grant of a village to each of his thirty sons was a striking proof of his extensive possessions. His having thirty sons is no conclusive evidence that he had more than one wife, much less that he had more than one at a time. There are instances, in this country, of men having as many children by two successive wives.
John Gill on Judges 10:5
And Jair died, and was buried in Camon. A city of Gilead, as Josephus (u) calls it; Jerom (w), under this word Camon, makes mention of a village in his times, called Cimana, in the large plain six miles from Legion to the north, as you go to Ptolemais; but, as Reland (x) observes, this seems not to be the same place, but rather this is the Camon Polybius (y) speaks of among other cities of Peraea, taken by Antiochus.
(u) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 6. (w) De loc. Heb. fol. 90. B. (x) Palestina Illustr. tom. 2. p. 679. (y) Hist. l. 5.
Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 10:1-5
Of these two judges no particular deeds are mentioned, no doubt because they performed none.
Jdg 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 c…
