Judges 3:20-31

3:20 When Ehud approached him, he was sitting in his well-ventilated ¹  upper room all by himself. Ehud said, “I have a message from God ²  for you.” When Eglon rose up from his seat, ³  3:21 Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled the sword from his right thigh, and drove it into Eglon’s ⁴  belly. 3:22 The handle went in after the blade, and the fat closed around the blade, for Ehud ⁵  did not pull the sword out of his belly. ⁶  3:23 As Ehud went out into the vestibule, ⁷  he closed the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

3:24 When Ehud had left, Eglon’s ⁸  servants came and saw the locked doors of the upper room. They said, “He must be relieving himself ⁹  in the well-ventilated inner room.” ¹⁰  3:25 They waited so long they were embarrassed, but he still did not open the doors of the upper room. Finally they took the key and opened the doors. ¹¹  Right before their eyes was their master, sprawled out dead on the floor! ¹²  3:26 Now Ehud had escaped while they were delaying. When he passed the carved images, he escaped to Seirah.

3:27 When he reached Seirah, ¹³  he blew a trumpet ¹⁴  in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites went down with him from the hill country, with Ehud in the lead. ¹⁵  3:28 He said to them, “Follow me, for the Lord is about to defeat your enemies, the Moabites!” ¹⁶  They followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan River ¹⁷  opposite Moab, ¹⁸  and did not let anyone cross. 3:29 That day they killed about ten thousand Moabites ¹⁹  – all strong, capable warriors; not one escaped. 3:30 Israel humiliated Moab that day, and the land had rest for eighty years.

3:31 After Ehud ²⁰  came ²¹  Shamgar son of Anath; he killed six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad and, like Ehud, ²²  delivered Israel.

[3:20]  ¹ tn Or “cool.” This probably refers to a room with latticed windows which allowed the breeze to pass through. See B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 144.

[3:20]  ² tn Heb “word of [i.e., from] God.”

[3:20]  ³ tn Or “throne.”

[3:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Eglon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ehud) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:22]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text has “and he went out to the [?].” The meaning of the Hebrew word פַּרְשְׁדֹנָה (parshÿdonah) which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. The noun has the article prefixed and directive suffix. The word may be a technical architectural term, indicating the area into which Ehud moved as he left the king and began his escape. In this case Ehud is the subject of the verb “went out.” The present translation omits the clause, understanding it as an ancient variant of the first clause in v. 23. Some take the noun as “back,” understand “sword” (from the preceding clause) as the subject, and translate “the sword came out his [i.e., Eglon’s] back.” But this rendering is unlikely since the Hebrew word for “sword” (חֶרֶב, kherev) is feminine and the verb form translated “came out” (וַיֵּצֵא, vayyetse’) is masculine. (One expects agreement in gender when the subject is supplied from the preceding clause. See Ezek 33:4, 6.) See B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 146-48, for discussion of the options.

[3:23]  ⁷ tn Again the precise meaning of the Hebrew word, used only here in the OT, is uncertain. Since it is preceded by the verb “went out” and the next clause refers to Ehud closing doors, the noun is probably an architectural term referring to the room (perhaps a vestibule; see HALOT 604 s.v. מִסְדְּרוֹן) immediately outside the king’s upper chamber. As v. 24 indicates, this vestibule separated the upper room from an outer room where the king's servants were waiting.

[3:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “his.”

[3:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “covering his feet” (i.e., with his outer garments while he relieves himself).

[3:24]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew expression translated “well-ventilated inner room” may refer to the upper room itself or to a bathroom attached to or within it.

[3:25]  ¹¹ tn The words “the doors” are supplied.

[3:25]  ¹² tn Heb “See, their master, fallen to the ground, dead.”

[3:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “When he arrived.”

[3:27]  ¹⁴ tn That is, “mustered an army.”

[3:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “now he was before them.”

[3:28]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for the Lord has given your enemies, Moab, into your hand.” The verb form (a Hebrew perfect, indicating completed action from the standpoint of the speaker) emphasizes the certainty of the event. Though it had not yet taken place, the Lord speaks of it as a “done deal.”

[3:28]  ¹⁷ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for clarity.

[3:28]  ¹⁸ tn Or “against Moab,” that is, so as to prevent the Moabites from crossing.

[3:29]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “They struck Moab that day – about ten thousand men.”

[3:31]  ²⁰ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Ehud) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:31]  ²¹ tn Heb “was.”

[3:31]  ²² tn Heb “also he”; the referent (Ehud) has been specified in the translation for clarity.