Commentaria in Judices
Chapter 10
The seventh judge, Thola, is chosen; the eighth, Jair, verse 3. Verse 6, the Hebrews returning to their idols are chastised by God through the Philistines and Ammonites for eighteen years. Hence, verse 10, sincerely repenting, they call upon God, who, rebuking them, at last, verse 16, has pity on them.
1. After Abimelech, there rose up a leader in Israel, Thola, the son of Phua, the uncle of Abimelech, a man of Issachar, who dwelt in Samir of mount Ephraim: 2. and he judged Israel twenty-three years, and he died, and was buried in Samir. 3. To him succeeded Jair the Galaadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years, 4. having thirty sons that rode upon thirty ass colts, and were princes of thirty cities, which were called from his name Havoth Jair, that is, the towns of Jair, unto this day, in the land of Galaad. 5. And Jair died, and was buried in the place called Camon. 6. And the children of Israel, adding new sins to their old ones, did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the idols Baalim and Astaroth, and the gods of Syria and of Sidon and of Moab and of the children of Ammon and of the Philistines: and they forsook the Lord, and did not serve him. 7. And the Lord, being angry with them, delivered them into the hands of the Philistines and of the children of Ammon. 8. And they were afflicted and grievously oppressed for eighteen years, all they that dwelt beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorrhite, which is in Galaad: 9. insomuch that the children of Ammon, passing over the Jordan, wasted Juda and Benjamin and Ephraim: and Israel was afflicted exceedingly. 10. And crying to the Lord, they said: We have sinned against thee, because we have forsaken the Lord our God, and have served Baalim. 11. And the Lord said to them: Did not the Egyptians, and the Amorrhites, and the children of Ammon, and the Philistines, 12. the Sidonians also, and Amalec, and Chanaan oppress you, and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hands? 13. And yet you have forsaken me, and have served strange gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more: 14. Go, and call upon the gods which you have chosen: let them deliver you in the time of your distress. 15. And the children of Israel said to the Lord: We have sinned, do thou unto us whatsoever pleaseth thee: only now deliver us. 16. And saying thus, they cast away out of their coasts all the idols of strange gods, and served the Lord God, and he was grieved for their miseries. 17. Now the children of Ammon, crying out together, pitched their tents in Galaad: and the children of Israel, being assembled against them, camped in Maspha. 18. And the princes of Galaad said, each one to his neighbours: He that shall first begin to fight against the children of Ammon, shall be the leader of the people of Galaad.
1. AFTER ABIMELECH THERE AROSE A LEADER IN ISRAEL, THOLA, THE SON OF PHUA, THE UNCLE OF ABIMELECH.—Thola was therefore a cousin of Abimelech, being the son of Phua, who was the brother of Gedeon, the father of Abimelech. Thola seems to have been made Judge by the election of the people, for no mention of God is made here. So Abulensis. So were Jephte, Abesan, Ahialon and Abdon chosen Judges by the people, chap. xii, verse 8. He “rose up,” therefore, chosen by the people to correct the scandal and abolish the tyranny of Abimelech, that no one thereafter might imitate it and attempt the like. Hence the Hebrew and the Septuagint add, he rose up to save Israel, namely to free the Republic from the tyranny and the idolatry of Baalberith introduced by Abimelech, and to defend it from the neighbouring enemies, if in their manner they should invade Israel; and perhaps he did in fact defend it, even though Scripture does not record the deed. For the Judges of Israel were saviours, as was said chap. ii, verse 16, and chap. iii, verse 9.
For “the uncle of Abimelech,” the Hebrew is ben dodo, that is, the son of his uncle, namely of Abimelech; supply: this new Judge Thola was. So also the Septuagint, and the Chaldee as well, except that it renders in the genitive, the son of his uncle; as if not Thola but his father Phua were the son of Abimelech’s uncle. But the Rabbis, and from them Pagninus, Arias, Vata-
A MAN OF ISSACHAR.—You will say: Gedeon was of the tribe of Manasses; how then was his brother Phua, and his son Thola, of the tribe of Issachar? St. Augustine answers, and others, that Gedeon and Phua were only uterine brothers, so that their mother married first Joas of Manasses, and by him bore Gedeon, then married another husband of the tribe of Issachar, and by him bore Phua the father of Thola. For women could marry husbands of another tribe outside their own, when they had brothers who were the heirs of their fathers and kept their inheritance in their tribe, lest it should pass through a woman (if, a male line failing, she were heir) to the husband of another tribe marrying her, Num. last chapter.
WHO DWELT IN SAMIR (a city) OF MOUNT EPHRAIM.—Although he was of the tribe of Issachar, yet he dwelt in the tribe of Ephraim, that dwelling as it were in the midst of the more numerous tribes he might as Judge the more easily rule them. For it befits a king to be in the centre of the kingdom, that he may easily be approached and met by all the inhabitants of the kingdom.
Allegorically, Thola in Hebrew is the same as a little worm or scarlet. Hence he was a type of Christ, who says: “I am a worm, and no man,” Ps. xxi, 7; he was likewise scarlet in blood and charity, because empurpled with his blood for us, and burning with fiery charity; he was the son of Phua, that is, of the Corner, because he is the corner stone of the Church. His seat was Samir, that is, custody, dregs, thorns, adamant. For in so many dangers and snares we have great need of custody, of great knowledge and contempt of our dregs, of great compunction of flesh and mind, and finally of great constancy and adamantine strength.
3. TO HIM SUCCEEDED JAIR THE GALAADITE,—and therefore of the tribe of Manasses; for this dwelt beyond the Jordan in the Galaadite country near mount Galaad; hence also the towns over which his thirty sons presided were in the tribe of Manasses. He is the eighth Judge of Israel.
Jair in Hebrew is the same as enlightening, because he made Israel bright by his justice, virtue and religion. All the Judges were given by God to Israel for this, to keep it in the true faith and worship of God, and therefore all were holy, and as such are praised by Ecclesiasticus, chap. xlvi, verse 13, and by the Apostle, Heb. xi, 32. Hence Jair was a type of Christ, who as the light of the world “enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world,” John i, 9.
Tropologically, let every prelate and faithful man be a “Jair,” that is, an enlightener of others, according to Christ’s words: “So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven,” Matt. v, 16.
4. HAVING THIRTY SONS SITTING (in Hebrew, riding; the Septuagint, mounting; Josephus, most skilled in riding) UPON THIRTY ASS COLTS.—Cajetan would have these colts to be of horses, not asses; because, he says, this is mentioned here to show the glory of these princes; and glory is to ride on a horse, not an ass: but Cajetan errs. In Hebrew ayarim signifies here and elsewhere colts of an ass, not of a horse, as St. Jerome, the Septuagint, Pagninus and others everywhere testify. So also Lyranus, Arias, Vatablus and Abulensis, who understand by colts of an ass mules, which are begotten of an ass and a mare; for nobles are carried on mules. More simply you may take them to be real asses, because Hebrew ayarim signifies these, and in Palestine they are livelier and stronger than ours; hence there they used asses instead of horses, especially because God had forbidden the Hebrews the use and abundance of horses, as I showed in the Pentateuch, Deut. xvii, 16, on the words: “He shall not multiply horses to himself.” To this the etymology of the ass contributes, of which St. Isidore, book XII of the Etymologies: “The ass,” he says, “and the little ass (asellum) are so called from sitting (a sedendo), as if assedus; but this animal took the name, which suited horses better, because men began to ride upon it before they took horses. For it is a slow animal and resisting with no reason, and as soon as man wished, he laid it under himself.”
AND PRINCES OF THIRTY CITIES.—In the Hebrew there is a beautiful play on words in the word ayarim, which signifies both colts and cities. There is a like one in Greek, polos and polis.
WHICH WERE CALLED FROM HIS NAME HAVOTH JAIR, THAT IS, THE TOWNS OF JAIR.—Long before, these thirty cities, and moreover another thirty, that is sixty, had been called the cities of Jair by another, more ancient Jair, as is plain from Num. xxxii, 41; here, however, that name was confirmed to them, and as it were given anew for a new reason, namely because thirty princes, the sons of the judge Jair, presided over these thirty cities; but of the other thirty no mention is made here, because they did not belong to these thirty princes.