3. The next leader of Israel was Jair, who lived in Gilead. He was a leader for twenty-two years.
4. He had thirty sons, and each son had his own mule and was in charge of one town in Gilead. Those thirty towns are still called The Settlements of Jair.
5. When he died, he was buried in the town of Kamon.
6. Before long, the Israelites began disobeying the Lord by worshipping Baal, Astarte, and gods from Syria, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia.
7. The Lord was angry with Israel and decided to let Philistia and Ammon conquer them.
8. So the same year that Jair died, Israel's army was crushed by these two nations. For eighteen years, Ammon was cruel to the Israelites who lived in Gilead, the region east of the River Jordan that had once belonged to the Amorites.
9. Then the Ammonites began crossing the Jordan and attacking the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Life was miserable for the Israelites.
10. They begged the Lord for help and confessed, “We were unfaithful to you, our Lord. We stopped worshipping you and started worshipping idols of Baal.”
11-12. The Lord answered:In the past when you came crying to me for help, I rescued you. At one time or another I've rescued you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites.
13-14. But I'm not going to rescue you any more! You've left me and gone off to worship other gods. If you're in such big trouble, go and cry to them for help!
15. “We have been unfaithful,” the Israelites admitted. “If we must be punished, do it yourself, but please rescue us from the Ammonites.”