According to the Bible, Tola () was one of the
Judges of Israel. His career is summarised in
Judges 10:1-2. He judged Israel for 23 years after
Abimelech
Abimelech (also spelled Abimelek or Avimelech; ) was the generic name given to all Philistine kings in the Hebrew Bible from the time of Abraham through King David. In the Book of Judges, Abimelech, son of Gideon, of the Tribe of Manasseh, is ...
died. He lived at Shamir in
Mount Ephraim, where he was also buried.
His name means "Crimson worm" or "scarlet stuff."
"Tola"
''International Standard Bible Encyclopedia'' The son of Puah[There is no clear biblical evidence to suggest that the mother of Tolah (Judges 10:1) and Puah the midwife (Exodus 1:15-21) are the same person. The midwife lived during the period of Israel's enslavement in Egypt, whereas Tolah's mother lived several generations later, during the time of the Judges after the Exodus.] and the grandson of Dodo
The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinction, extinct flightless bird that was endemism, endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest relative was the also-extinct and flightles ...
from the tribe of Issachar, he had the same name as one of the sons of Issachar
Issachar () was, according to the Book of Genesis, the fifth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's ninth son), and the founder of the Israelites, Israelite Tribe of Issachar. However, some Biblical criticism, Biblical scholars view this as ...
who migrated to Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
with Jacob
Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...
his grandfather in .
Of all the biblical judges, the least is written about Tola. None of his deeds are recorded. The entire account from Judges 10:1-2 (KJV
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...
) follows:
:''1And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in mount Ephraim''.
:''2And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir''.
See also
*Biblical judges
The judges (sing. , pl. ) whose stories are recounted in the Hebrew Bible, primarily in the Book of Judges, were individuals who served as military leaders of the tribes of Israel in times of crisis, in the period before the monarchy was estab ...
*Book of Judges
The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom in the ...
* List of minor biblical figures
References
External links
Book of Judges article
(Jewish Encyclopedia)
Hebrew Bible judges
12th-century BCE Hebrew people
{{Tanakh-stub