Judges 3

¹ These are the nations that Yahweh let remain, to use them to test all those in Israel who had never known war in Canaan

² (this was only in the interest of the generations of the sons of Israel, to teach them the art of war, those at least who had never known the former wars):

³ the five chiefs of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hittites who lived in the range of Lebanon, from the uplands of Baal-hermon to the Pass of Hamath.

⁴ They were used to put Israel to the test and see if they would keep the orders that Yahweh had given their fathers through Moses.

⁵ The Israelites lived among the Canaanites and Hittites and Amorites, the Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites;

⁶ they married the daughters of these peoples, gave their own daughters in marriage to their sons, and served their gods

⁷ The Israelites[*a] did what displeases Yahweh. They forgot Yahweh their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.

⁸ Then Yahweh’s anger flamed out against Israel: he handed them over to Cushan-rishathaim the king of Edom, and the Israelites were enslaved by Cushan-rishathaim for eight years.

⁹ The Israelites cried to Yahweh, and Yahweh raised up for the Israelites a deliverer who rescued them, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.

¹⁰ The spirit of Yahweh came on him; he became judge in Israel and set out to fight. Yahweh delivered the king of Edom, Cushan-rishathaim, into his hands, and he overcame Cushan-rishathaim.

¹¹ Then the land enjoyed rest for forty years.

¹² once again the men of Israel began to do what displeases Yahweh, and Yahweh gave Eglon the king of Moab power over Israel, because they had done what displeases Yahweh.

¹³ Eglon in alliance with the sons of Ammon and Amalek marched against Israel and conquered them and took possession of the city of palms.[*b]

¹⁴ The Israelites were enslaved by Eglon the king of Moab for eighteen years.

¹⁵ Then the Israelites cried to Yahweh, and Yahweh raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud the son of Gera the Benjaminite; he was left-handed. The men of Israel appointed him to take their tribute to Eglon the king of Moab.

¹⁶ Ehud made a dagger – it was double-edged and a cubit long – and strapped it on under his clothes, over his right thigh.

¹⁷ He presented the tribute to Eglon the king of Moab. This Eglon was a very fat man.

¹⁸ Having presented the tribute, Ehud went off again with the men who had carried it;

¹⁹ but he himself, on reaching the Idols of Gilgal,[*c] turned and went back and said, ‘I have a secret message for you, O king’. The king replied, ‘Silence!’ and all who were with him went out.

²⁰ Then Ehud went in. The king sat in the cool retreat of his upper room; he was alone. Ehud said to him, ‘I have a message from God for you, O king’. The king immediately stood up from his seat.

²¹ Then Ehud, using his left hand, drew the dagger he was carrying on his right thigh and thrust it into the king’s belly.

²² The hilt too went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for Ehud left the dagger in his belly; then he went out through the window.

²³ Ehud went out by the porch; he had shut and locked the doors of the upper room behind him.

²⁴ When he had gone, the servants came back and looked; the doors of the upper room were locked. They thought, ‘He is probably covering his feet[*d] in the inner part of the cool room’.

²⁵ They waited until they no longer knew what to think, for he still did not open the doors of the upper room. At length they took the key and unlocked the room; their master lay on the ground, dead.

²⁶ While they were waiting, Ehud had fled. He passed the Idols and escaped to safety in Seirah.

²⁷ When he reached the territory of Israel he sounded the horn in the highlands of Ephraim, and the Israelites came down with him from the hills, with him at their head.

²⁸ And he said to them, ‘Follow me, because Yahweh has delivered your enemy Moab into your hands’. So they followed him, cut Moab off from crossing the fords of the Jordan and let no one across.

²⁹ On that occasion they beat the Moabites, some ten thousand men, all tough and seasoned fighters, and not one escaped.

³⁰ That day, Moab was humbled under the hand of Israel, and the land enjoyed rest for eighty years.

³¹ After him came Shamgar son of Anath. He routed six hundred of the Philistines with an ox-goad; he too was a deliverer of Israel.