The Judges · c. 1370–1300 BC
Chapter 2
Ehud and the King of Moab
But when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. The children of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab.
For parents
Ehud hides a sword under his clothes and stabs Eglon, king of Moab, when they are alone. The handle goes in after the blade, and the fat closes over it (Judges 3:16–22). The king’s servants find him dead (3:25). Then Israel kills about ten thousand Moabites (3:29), and Shamgar kills six hundred Philistines with an ox goad (3:31).
The did what was evil in the ’s eyes. They forgot the Lord their God, and they served the and the .
So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he handed them over to , the king of . For eight years the Israelites had to serve him.
When the Israelites cried out to the Lord, he raised up a savior for them: the son of , ’s younger brother. Othniel saved them.
The Lord’s Spirit came on him, and he led Israel as its . He went out to war, and the Lord handed the king of Mesopotamia over to him. Othniel beat him.
The land was at peace for forty years. Then Othniel died.
Once again the Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes. Because of the evil they had done, the Lord made , the king of , strong against Israel.
Eglon gathered the people of and to his side. He went and attacked Israel, and his forces took the . The Israelites had to serve Eglon for eighteen years.
But when the Israelites cried out to the Lord, he raised up a savior for them: the son of Gera, of the tribe of , a left-handed man. The Israelites sent Ehud to Eglon with their tribute, the payment they had to make to the king.
Ehud made himself a sword with two edges, a long, which is about a foot and a half. He wore it under his clothes, on his right thigh.
He brought the tribute to Eglon. Eglon was a very fat man. When Ehud had finished handing over the tribute, he sent away the people who had carried it.
But at the stone near , Ehud turned back. “King, I have a secret message for you,” he said.
“Quiet!” said the king. Everyone who was standing around him went out and left him.
Ehud came to him. The king was sitting all alone in the cool room upstairs. “I have a message from God for you,” Ehud said. The king got up from his seat.
Ehud reached out with his left hand and took the sword from his right thigh. He drove it into the king’s body. The handle went in after the blade, and the fat closed around the blade, because Ehud didn’t pull the sword out of his body. And it came out behind.
Then Ehud went out onto the porch. He shut the doors of the room upstairs on the king, and locked them.
After Ehud had gone, the king’s servants came. They saw that the doors were locked, and they said, “He must be relieving himself in there.”
They waited until they felt foolish, but he didn’t open the doors. So they took the key and opened them, and there was their master, fallen down dead on the floor.
While they waited, Ehud got away. He went on past the stone idols and escaped to .
When Ehud arrived, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of . The Israelites went down with him from the hill country, and he led them.
“Follow me,” he said to them, “because the Lord has handed your enemies, the Moabites, over to you.” They followed him and took the fords of the , the shallow places where people crossed the river. They held the fords against the Moabites and didn’t let anyone cross.
At that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all of them strong men and brave fighters. Not one of them escaped.
So that day Moab was brought under Israel’s power. Then the land was at peace for eighty years.
After Ehud came the son of Anath. He killed six hundred with an ox goad, a long, pointed stick for driving oxen. He too saved Israel.