Tola and Jair: brief records of leadership
Conquest & Judges · Draft · BSB
Content revision: ecc7dd82cb2b5eb6 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: After Abimelech · Tola 23 years; Jair 22 years
After Abimelech, Tola rises to save Israel and judges for twenty-three years from Shamir in Ephraim. Jair follows for twenty-two years in Gilead. The account remembers Jair’s thirty sons and their towns but describes no campaign.
These short notices keep quieter leaders in the story. Tola is from Issachar but lives in Ephraim; Jair belongs to Gilead. Their durations are recorded without assigning calculated BC years or a shared capital.
Primary Scripture
10:1 After the time of Abimelech, a man of Issachar, Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose up to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim.
10:2 Tola judged Israel twenty-three years, and when he died, he was buried in Shamir.
10:3 Tola was followed by Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years.
10:4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys. And they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which to this day are called Havvoth-jair.
10:5 When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.
Related Scripture
The narrator’s overview explains the role and limits of deliverers throughout this period.
Location evidence
The two notices concern different regions. Shamir and Kamon have uncertain identifications, so no single city pin is used for both leaders.
No event map marker is assigned. Do not infer an exact venue from related places.
Hill country of Ephraim: Approximate region. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.22, 32.08]. Classification source: editorial.
Illustrative regional extent: [[35.05,31.9],[35.4,32.25]]; not a measured confidence interval.
Biblical setting · Judges 17:1
OpenBible · possible locations / region
Gilead: Approximate region. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.8, 32.22]. Classification source: editorial.
Illustrative regional extent: [[35.6,31.95],[36.1,32.55]]; not a measured confidence interval.
Biblical setting · Judges 10:3-11:40
OpenBible · possible locations / region
For the class
What might we overlook when we remember only the most dramatic stories of leadership?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/conquest-judges.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm