Judges 3:12–30

Ehud

^12mAnd the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord strengthened ⁿEglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹³Then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and ^oAmalek, went and ⁴defeated Israel, and took possession of ^pthe City of Palms. ¹⁴So the children of Israel ^qserved Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.

¹⁵But when the children of Israel ^rcried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a ^sleft-handed man. By him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab. ¹⁶Now Ehud made himself a dagger (it was double-edged and a cubit in length) and fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. ¹⁷So he brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.) ¹⁸And when he had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who had carried the tribute. ¹⁹But he himself turned back ^tfrom the ⁵stone images that were at Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.”

He said, “Keep silence!” And all who attended him went out from him.

²⁰So Ehud came to him (now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber). Then Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” So he arose from his seat. ²¹Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. ²²Even the ⁶hilt went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the dagger out of his belly; and his entrails came out. ²³Then Ehud went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

²⁴When he had gone out, ⁷Eglon’s servants came to look, and to their surprise, the doors of the upper room were locked. So they said, “He is probably ^uattending ⁸to his needs in the cool chamber.” ²⁵So they waited till they were ^vembarrassed, and still he had not opened the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them. And there was their master, fallen dead on the floor.

²⁶But Ehud had escaped while they delayed, and passed beyond the ⁹stone images and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷And it happened, when he arrived, that ^whe blew the trumpet in the ^xmountains of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains; and ¹he led them. ²⁸Then he said to them, “Follow me, for ^ythe Lord has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him, seized the ^zfords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. ²⁹And at that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of valor; not a man escaped. ³⁰So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And ^athe land had rest for eighty years.