Judges 3:12

Deceit, Assassination, and Deliverance

3:12 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. ¹  The Lord gave King Eglon of Moab control over Israel ²  because they had done evil in the Lord’s sight.

Judges 3:15

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ³  raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. ⁴  The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. ⁵ 

Judges 11:17

11:17 Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please allow us ⁶  to pass through your land.” But the king of Edom rejected the request. ⁷  Israel sent the same request to the king of Moab, but he was unwilling to cooperate. ⁸  So Israel stayed at Kadesh.

¹ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord” (also later in this verse).

² tn Heb “strengthened Eglon…against Israel.”

³ tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁴ 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.

⁵ tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”

⁵ tn Heb “me.” (Collective Israel is the speaker.)

⁶ tn Heb “did not listen.”

⁷ tn Heb “Also to the king of Moab he sent, but he was unwilling.”