Verses 1-18

The Ammonite Oppression

1-5. The Minor Judges, Tola and Jair.

1. Defend] RV 'save.' Tola] see on Genesis 46:13; Numbers 26:23; 1 Chronicles 7:1. Shamir] unknown. Issachar appears at this time to have had no territory' of its own.

3. Jair] see Numbers 32:41; Deuteronomy 3:14; 1 Kings 4:13. Gilead is the country E. of the Jordan to which Jephthah also belongs, and which was specially open to attack.

4. Havoth-jair] i.e. tent-villages of Jair: cp. 1 Chronicles 2:22.

5. Camon] unknown.

6-18. The Ammonite oppression. These vv. serve as an introduction to the story of Jephthah, and also, in part (Judges 10:6-7), to those of Samson and Samuel. They repeat the lessons of Judges 2, and, like that passage, remind us throughout of the tone of Deuteronomy. The sequence of thought is the same; faithlessness, oppression, repentance, deliverance.

6. Baalim and Ashtaroth] see on Judges 2:11-13.

7. The children of Ammon] see Genesis 19:38, where they are said to be akin to the Hebrews. They claimed the land between the Arnon and the Jabbok, E. of Jordan, which the tribes of Reuben and Gad had partly possessed, and which includes a large part of Gilead (Judges 10:8). The Amorites were the aboriginal inhabitants of this, as of the hill-country W. of the Jordan.

9. The Ammonite raids extended to the central strongholds of Palestine (cp. Judges 12:1); but Judges 11 makes it clear that the brunt of their 'oppression' was felt in Gilead.

11. See Judges 10:6. The two lists partially coincide. The Amorites] Perhaps a reference to Numbers 21:21. Ammon] So far no deliverance from these has been described.

12. We know nothing of a Zidonian oppression. Amalekites] see Judges 3:13 and Judges 6:3, Judges 6:33, also Exodus 17:8. Maonites] LXX has 'Midianites.' The Maonites lived S. of the Dead Sea: cp. 2 Chronicles 20:1 RV, 2 Chronicles 26:7.

17. Mizpeh] of Gilead, the scene of the compact between Jacob and Laban (Genesis 31:49). The name means 'watch-tower.'