1 After Abimelech rose a duke in Israel, Tola, the son of Puah, son of Dodo; Tola was a man of Issachar, that dwelled in Shamir, of the hill of Ephraim;

2 and he deemed Israel three and twenty years, and he died, and was buried in Shamir.

3 His successor was Jair, a man of Gilead, that deemed Israel two and twenty years;

4 and he had thirty sons, sitting upon thirty colts of she-asses, and they were princes of thirty cities, the which be called by their father’s name, Havothjair, that is, the cities of Jair, unto this present day, in the land of Gilead.

5 And Jair died, and was buried in a place that is called Camon.

6 Forsooth the sons of Israel joined new sins to eld [or old] sins, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served to the idols of Baalim, and to Ashtaroth, and to the gods of Syria, and of Sidon, and of Moab, and of the sons of Ammon, and of Philistines; and they left the Lord, and worshipped not him.

7 And the Lord was wroth against them, and he betook them into the hands of Philistines, and of the sons of Ammon.

8 And all the sons of Israel that dwelled beyond Jordan in the land of Amorites, that is, in Gilead, were tormented and oppressed greatly by eighteen years,

9 in so much that the sons of Ammon, when they had passed [over] Jordan, wasted Judah, and Benjamin, and Ephraim; and Israel was tormented greatly.

10 And they cried to the Lord, and said, We have sinned to thee, for we forsook our God, and served Baalim.

11 To whom the Lord said, Whether not the Egyptians, and Amorites, and the sons of Ammon, and Philistines,

12 and Sidonians, and Amalek, and Canaan or Maonites, have oppressed you, and ye cried to me, and I delivered you from their hands?

13 And nevertheless ye have forsaken me, and worshipped alien gods; there-fore I shall not add to, that I deliver you [any] more.

14 Go ye, and call [the] gods which ye have chosen; deliver they you in the time of anguish.

15 And the sons of Israel said to the Lord, We have sinned; yield thou to us whatever thing pleaseth to thee; only deliver us now.

16 And they said these things, and casted forth from their coasts all the idols of alien gods, and served the Lord; which had ruth, either compassion, on the wretchednesses of them.

17 And so the sons of Ammon cried together, each moving other to battle against Israel, and setted tents in Gilead, and the sons of Israel were gathered against them, and setted tents in Mizpeh.

18 And the princes of Gilead said each to his neighbours, He, that beginneth first of us to fight against the sons of Ammon, shall be duke of the people of Gilead.