We had been told that Shamgar, the first minor judge, saved Israel from the Philistines (Judges 3:31). But here we have no indication as to whom Tola saved Israel from. There is no mention of any foreign or domestic oppressor. There are no Midianites, or Ammonites, or Canaanites, or Philistines, or Moabites. “Perhaps that is deliberate, for we have just seen a vicious internal enemy, Abimelech, in action.”1 Abimelech has razed to the ground the largest city in Israel’s possession, namely, Shechem. That means that Israel’s core has been destabilized. Anarchy now threatens.
2 So Israel likely needed rescue not from foreign powers, but from decay and turmoil within.
1 After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, and he lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.