• “The Tender Compassion of Our God”
    Draw Close to Jehovah

    • 10 Consider what happened in the days of Jephthah. Since the Israelites had turned to serving false gods, Jehovah allowed them to be oppressed by the Ammonites for 18 years. Finally, the Israelites repented. The Bible tells us: “They removed the foreign gods from their midst and served Jehovah, so that he could no longer tolerate Israel’s suffering.”b (Judges 10:6-16) Once his people manifested genuine repentance, Jehovah could no longer bear to see them suffer. So the God of tender compassion empowered Jephthah to deliver the Israelites out of the hands of their enemies.​—Judges 11:30-33.

  • “The Tender Compassion of Our God”
    Draw Close to Jehovah

    • b The expression “he could no longer tolerate” literally means “his soul was shortened; his patience was exhausted.” The New English Bible reads: “He could endure no longer to see the plight of Israel.” Tanakh​—A New Translation of the Holy Scriptures renders it: “He could not bear the miseries of Israel.”