3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he23 raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man.24 The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment.25
tnHeb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
24
tn The phrase, which refers to Ehud, literally reads “bound/restricted in the right hand,” apparently a Hebrew idiom for a left-handed person. See Judg 20:16, where 700 Benjaminites are described in this way. Perhaps the Benjaminites purposely trained several of their young men to be left-handed warriors by restricting the use of the right hand from an early age so the left hand would become dominant. Left-handed men would have a distinct military advantage, especially when attacking city gates. See B. Halpern, “The Assassination of Eglon: The First Locked-Room Murder Mystery,” BRev 4 (1988): 35.
25
tnHeb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”