📖 Biblical Definition
Sixth judge of Israel (Judges 10:1-2), following the catastrophic three-year usurpation of Abimelech the son of Gideon. Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, of the tribe of Issachar, judged Israel twenty-three years and was buried in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. The account is brief and significant precisely in its brevity. Tola's judgeship is the recovery of normal civil-ecclesial order in Israel after Abimelech's seventy-brother massacre and three-year false-kingship. The Lord raised up Tola to defend Israel (Judges 10:1, Hebrew l'hoshia) and gave the land twenty-three years of quiet leadership. Tola models the often-overlooked judgeship: no dramatic deliverance, no recorded battle, no famous heroism, just twenty-three years of faithful civil-religious leadership that knit Israel back together after a catastrophic episode. The patriarchal-Reformed reader recovers the value of the Tola-type leader: the quiet faithful stewardship that does not feature in dramatic narrative but that the Lord uses to preserve His people through long ordinary seasons of stable governance.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Sixth judge of Israel (Judges 10:1-2); twenty-three-year reign restoring order after Abimelech's usurpation; quiet faithful leadership.
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TOLA, proper n. (OT judge) Sixth judge of Israel (Judges 10:1-2). Son of Puah, son of Dodo, of the tribe of Issachar. Judged Israel twenty-three years following Abimelech's three-year usurpation. Buried in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. The Lord raised him up to defend (Hebrew l'hoshia) Israel after Abimelech's catastrophic episode. The Tola-type leader: quiet faithful stewardship that does not feature in dramatic narrative but preserves the Lord's people through stable seasons of ordinary governance.
📖 Key Scripture
Judges 10:1-2 — "And 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. And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir."
Genesis 46:13 — "And the sons of Issachar; Tola, and Phuvah, and Job, and Shimron."
1 Chronicles 7:1-2 — "Now the sons of Issachar were, Tola, and Puah, Jashub, and Shimron, four. And the sons of Tola; Uzzi, and Rephaiah..."
Proverbs 25:28 — "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
No major postmodern redefinition. Tola is a quiet judge whose name is rarely encountered; the recovery is simple attention to the text.
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Tola as a proper name does not undergo lexical corruption. The principal contemporary mishandling is the modern preference for dramatic-narrative biblical leadership at the expense of the quiet faithful-stewardship pattern Tola embodies. Twenty-three years of stable Israelite governance with no recorded dramatic event is precisely what the Lord uses to preserve His people through ordinary seasons. The recovery is the appreciation of the Tola-type leader in the church and in the household: the quiet faithful man whose steady twenty-three-year labor restores order after a crisis without itself featuring in the dramatic chronicle.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Judges 10:1-2; sixth judge of Israel; Issachar; twenty-three years; quiet faithful stewardship.
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['Hebrew', 'H8439', 'Tola', 'crimson worm; also a tribal clan in Issachar']
['Hebrew', 'H3467', 'yasha', 'to save, deliver (root of defend at Judges 10:1)']
['Hebrew', 'H8294', 'Shamir', "thorn, sharp point; Tola's burial place"]
Usage
"Sixth judge of Israel; twenty-three-year reign restoring order after Abimelech."
"Pattern of the quiet faithful steward of ordinary governance."
"The Lord uses long ordinary seasons of stable leadership to preserve His people."