Judges 3:12–30

Ehud

¹²Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord,^q and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab^r power over Israel. ¹³Getting the Ammonites^s and Amalekites^t to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms.^{cu 14}The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab^v for eighteen years.

¹⁵Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer^w—Ehud^x, a left-handed^y man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute^z to Eglon king of Moab. ¹⁶Now Ehud^a had made a double-edged sword about a cubit^d long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. ¹⁷He presented the tribute^b to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man.^{c 18}After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way those who had carried it. ¹⁹But on reaching the stone images near Gilgal he himself went back to Eglon and said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.”

The king said to his attendants, “Leave us!” And they all left.

²⁰Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace^ed and said, “I have a message from God for you.” As the king rose^e from his seat, ²¹Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword^f from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. ²²Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. ²³Then Ehud went out to the porch^f; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

²⁴After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, “He must be relieving himself^g in the inner room of the palace.” ²⁵They waited to the point of embarrassment,^h but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead.

²⁶While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the stone images and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷When he arrived there, he blew a trumpetⁱ in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them.

²⁸“Follow me,” he ordered, “for the Lord has given Moab,^j your enemy, into your hands.^k” So they followed him down and took possession of the fords of the Jordan^l that led to Moab; they allowed no one to cross over. ²⁹At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not one escaped. ³⁰That day Moab^m was made subject to Israel, and the land had peaceⁿ for eighty years.