Judges 3:1-31
3 And these are the nations that Jehovah left to test Israel by, all who had not known any of the Canaanite wars;
2 only for the sake of the generations of the sons of Israel, to teach them war—only those who had not known them before:
3 the Five Sarns of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites and the Phenicians and the Hivvites that live on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-Hermon to Lebo-Hamath;
4 and they were to test Israel by, to know whether they would obey Jehovah’s commandments which he had given to their fathers by Moses.
5 And the sons of Israel lived in the midst of the Canaanites, the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivvites and the Jebusites,
6 and took their daughters for wives and gave their own daughters to their sons, and worshiped their gods.
7 And the sons of Israel did what displeased Jehovah, and forgot their God Jehovah and worshiped the Baals and the Asherahs;
8 and Jehovah was angry with Israel and sold them into the hands of Cushan-Risheathaim, the king of Aram-Naharaim; and the sons of Israel were subject to Cushan-Risheathaim eight years.
9 And the sons of Israel cried to Jehovah, and Jehovah raised up for the sons of Israel a deliverer who saved them, Ghothniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother;
10 and the spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he judged Israel and went out to war, and Jehovah gave King Cushan-Risheathaim of Aram into his hands, and his hands bore hard on Cushan-Risheathaim;
11 and the country was quiet forty years.
And Ghothniel the son of Kenaz died,
12 and the sons of Israel did more of what displeased Jehovah, and Jehovah strengthened King ʽEglon of Moab against Israel because of their doing what displeased Jehovah;
13 and he drew together around him the Bene-ʽAmmon and ʽAmalek, and went and defeated Israel and took possession of the City of Palms;
14 and the sons of Israel were subject to King ʽEglon of Moab eighteen years.
15 And the sons of Israel cried to Jehovah, and Jehovah raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera the Benjamite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel were sending a tribute by him to King ʽEglon of Moab;
16 * and Ehud made himself a sword with two edges, a foot long, and belted it on under his brigandine, on his right hip.
17 And he presented the tribute to King ʽEglon of Moab (who was a very fat man);
18 and when he had finished presenting the tribute he dismissed the people who carried the tribute,
19 but he turned back from the carved stones at the Gilgal and said “Your majesty, I have some private business with you”; and he said “Quiet!” and all who were standing in his presence went out from it,
20 * and Ehud went in to him, he sitting in his cool roof-chamber alone. And Ehud said “I have an errand from God to you”; and he rose from his chair.
21 * And Ehud put his left hand in and took the sword from his right hip and ran it into ʽEglon’s abdomen,
22 * and it went in hilt and all, and the fat closed over the blade, because he had not drawn the sword out of the abdomen;
23 * and Ehud went out on the ledge, and shut the doors of the roof-chamber on him and locked them.
24 And when he had gone out ʽEglon’s servants came and saw how the doors of the roof-chamber were locked, and thought “He must be easing himself in the cool closet”;
25 and they waited till they felt uncomfortable, and found that he did not open the doors of the roof-chamber; and they took the key and opened them, and found their sovereign down on the ground dead.
26 And Ehud made his escape while they were delaying, and had passed the carved stones and got safe to Seʽirah.
27 And when he got there he blew the ram-horn in the highland of Ephraim, and the sons of Israel came down from the highland with him, he at their head;
28 * and he said to them “Come down after me, because Jehovah has given your enemies the Moabites into your hands,” and they came down after him and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not let a man cross,
29 * and made havoc of the Moabites at that time, killing about ten thousand men—every man of standing and every man of energy; not one escaped;
30 and Moab was humbled under the hands of Israel on that day. And the country was quiet eighty years.
31 And after him was Shamgar the son of ʽAnath, and he made havoc of the Philistines, killing six hundred men with an oxgoad; and he too saved Israel.
Footnotes
^ 3:16 Or got himself
^ 3:20-21 Var. And when he rose Ehud
^ 3:21 Lit. his abdomen
^ 3:22-23 Var. abdomen; and he went out to the parshedon (unc.); and Ehud
^ 3:23 (ledge) Unc.
^ 3:28 Var. Come after me
^ 3:29 Lit. every fat man and every
