Defend - The marginal reading “to deliver,” is far preferable. The word is the same as in Judges 2:16, Judges 2:18; Judges 3:9, Judges 3:15, Judges 3:31, etc., and is the technical word applied to the judges. Compare Nehemiah 9:27 (“saviours who saved them,” the King James Version).
The term “there arose,” also marks Tola as one of the Judges, properly so called, raised by divine providence.
Tola and Puah - Both names of heads of houses in the tribe of Issachar 1 Chronicles 7:1; Genesis 46:13.
Shamir - Not the same as that mentioned in Joshua 15:48, which was in the hill country of Judah. Issaehar would seem from this to have extended into the northern part of mount Ephraim.