Judges 10: The children of Israel sin once again

Synopsis:

After Abilemech dies Tola, son of Puah, son of Dodo (yes – Dodo), judges Israel for 23 years. He is buried in Shamir. Then Jai, a Giladite judges Israel  22 years. He had 30 sons that rode 30 ass colts and they had 30 cities called Havothjair in Gilead.  Jair died and was buried in Camon. After that, the children of Israel forgot God and started serving the God Baalim and Ashtaroth and the gods of Moab, and the gods of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. God is pissed and sells them to the Philistines and to the children of Ammon.  Once again the children of Israel apologize to God and ask Him to protect them, he tells them to stuff it and go ask your other gods for protection. They repent and give up the other gods.  The children of Ammon encamp in Gilead and the children of Israel assemble in Mizpeh. But who will lead them?

In other words:

The children of Israel once again worship other gods and once again God allows other people to rule over them.

Favorite bit:

Judges 10:6 – the list of the other gods that the Israelites worship.

Funniest bit:

Judges 10:1 – that a guy’s name was actually Dodo. My son, who loves dodos,  would love this – if the story was age appropriate, which it’s not.

Oddest bit:

Judges 10:4 – Jair has 30 sons who ride 30 ass colts in 30 cities – which all have the same name. And we never hear from them again.

Most annoying bit:

Judges 10:10-16 – The negotiations between God and the Israelites about whether he will protect them. This whole – forget him, beg for forgiveness thing is getting really old. The only reason why they keep going back is because priests are convincing them the problems they are having is because they aren’t worshipping the right god in the right way.  Priests, selling fear for millenia.

Moral Lesson Learned:

Don’t expect people to help you if you ignore them all the time. (Judges 10)