We do not know for certain. We know so little about this obscure man from an obscure family and from an obscure place. Nothing of much significance is noted about his time as judge. There is no military action attributed to him. He is not remembered for any acts of heroism. We are just told that he lived in Shamir; literally, he sat in Shamir, and, verse Judges 10:2, he judged Israel twenty-three years. This language recalls the earlier career of Deborah, who used to sit under her palm tree in the hill country of Ephraim and judge Israel (Judges 4:4–5). She too arose when Israel was in disarray (Judges 5:7). This seems to give Tola’s career a positive link.¹ The details of his activity are few, but what we are given, especially the reference to Abimelech and the similarity to Deborah, suggest that Tola saved Israel from the pervasive destruction of Abimelech by providing a period of stable administration, without being involved in direct conflict.