Judges 3:3-31

3:3 These were the nations: ¹  the five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo-Hamath. ²  3:4 They were left to test Israel, so the Lord would know if his people would obey the commands he gave their ancestors through Moses. ³ 

3:5 The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 3:6 They took the Canaanites’ daughters as wives and gave their daughters to the Canaanites; ⁴  they worshiped ⁵  their gods as well.

Othniel: A Model Leader

3:7 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. ⁶  They forgot the Lord their God and worshiped the Baals and the Asherahs. ⁷  3:8 The Lord was furious with Israel ⁸  and turned them over to ⁹  King Cushan-Rishathaim ¹⁰  of Aram-Naharaim. They were Cushan-Rishathaim’s subjects ¹¹  for eight years. 3:9 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ¹²  raised up a deliverer for the Israelites who rescued ¹³  them. His name was Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. ¹⁴  3:10 The Lord’s spirit empowered him ¹⁵  and he led Israel. When he went to do battle, the Lord handed over to him King Cushan-Rishathaim of Aram and he overpowered him. ¹⁶  3:11 The land had rest for forty years; then Othniel son of Kenaz died.

Deceit, Assassination, and Deliverance

3:12 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. ¹⁷  The Lord gave King Eglon of Moab control over Israel ¹⁸  because they had done evil in the Lord’s sight. 3:13 Eglon formed alliances with ¹⁹  the Ammonites and Amalekites. He came and defeated Israel, and they seized the City of Date Palm Trees. 3:14 The Israelites were subject to ²⁰  King Eglon of Moab for eighteen years.

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ²¹  raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. ²²  The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. ²³  3:16 Ehud made himself a sword – it had two edges and was eighteen inches long. ²⁴  He strapped it under his coat on his right thigh. 3:17 He brought the tribute payment to King Eglon of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.)

3:18 After Ehud brought the tribute payment, he dismissed the people who had carried it. ²⁵  3:19 But he went back ²⁶  once he reached ²⁷  the carved images ²⁸  at Gilgal. He said to Eglon, ²⁹  “I have a secret message for you, O king.” Eglon ³⁰  said, “Be quiet!” ³¹  All his attendants left. 3:20 When Ehud approached him, he was sitting in his well-ventilated ³²  upper room all by himself. Ehud said, “I have a message from God ³³  for you.” When Eglon rose up from his seat, ³⁴  3:21 Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled the sword from his right thigh, and drove it into Eglon’s ³⁵  belly. 3:22 The handle went in after the blade, and the fat closed around the blade, for Ehud ³⁶  did not pull the sword out of his belly. ³⁷  3:23 As Ehud went out into the vestibule, ³⁸  he closed the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

3:24 When Ehud had left, Eglon’s ³⁹  servants came and saw the locked doors of the upper room. They said, “He must be relieving himself ⁴⁰  in the well-ventilated inner room.” ⁴¹  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. ⁴²  Right before their eyes was their master, sprawled out dead on the floor! ⁴³  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, ⁴⁴  he blew a trumpet ⁴⁵  in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites went down with him from the hill country, with Ehud in the lead. ⁴⁶  3:28 He said to them, “Follow me, for the Lord is about to defeat your enemies, the Moabites!” ⁴⁷  They followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan River ⁴⁸  opposite Moab, ⁴⁹  and did not let anyone cross. 3:29 That day they killed about ten thousand Moabites ⁵⁰  – 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 ⁵¹  came ⁵²  Shamgar son of Anath; he killed six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad and, like Ehud, ⁵³  delivered Israel.

[3:3]  ¹ tn The words “These were the nations,” though not present in the Hebrew text, are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[3:3]  ² tn Or “the entrance to Hamath.”

[3:4]  ³ tn Heb “to know if they would hear the commands of the Lord which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.”

[3:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “to their sons.”

[3:6]  ⁵ tn Or “served”; or “followed” (this term occurs in the following verse as well).

[3:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”

[3:7]  ⁷ sn The Asherahs were local manifestations of the Canaanite goddess Asherah.

[3:8]  ⁸ tn Or “The Lord’s anger burned (or raged) against Israel.”

[3:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “sold them into the hands of.”

[3:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or “Cushan the Doubly Wicked.”

[3:8]  ¹¹ tn Or “they served Cushan-Rishathaim.”

[3:9]  ¹² tn Heb “the Lord.”

[3:9]  ¹³ tn Or “delivered.”

[3:9]  ¹⁴ tn “Caleb’s younger brother” may refer to Othniel or to Kenaz (in which case Othniel is Caleb’s nephew).

[3:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “was on him.”

[3:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “his hand was strong against Cushan-Rishathaim.”

[3:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord” (also later in this verse).

[3:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “strengthened Eglon…against Israel.”

[3:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he gathered to him.”

[3:14]  ²⁰ tn Or “the Israelites served Eglon.”

[3:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:15]  ²² 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.

[3:15]  ²³ tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”

[3:16]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew term גֹּמֶד (gomed) denotes a unit of linear measure, perhaps a cubit (the distance between the elbow and the tip of the middle finger – approximately 18 inches [45 cm]). Some suggest it is equivalent to the short cubit (the distance between the elbow and the knuckles of the clenched fist – approximately 13 inches [33 cm]) or to the span (the distance between the end of the thumb and the end of the little finger in a spread hand – approximately 9 inches [23 cm]). See BDB 167 s.v.; HALOT 196 s.v.; B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 142.

[3:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the tribute payment.”

[3:19]  ²⁶ tn Or “returned” (i.e., to Eglon’s palace).

[3:19]  ²⁷ tn The words “when he reached” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Hebrew text simply reads “from.”

[3:19]  ²⁸ tn Or “idols.”

[3:19]  ²⁹ tn The words “to Eglon” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[3:19]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eglon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:19]  ³¹ tn Or “Hush!”

[3:20]  ³² 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]  ³³ tn Heb “word of [i.e., from] God.”

[3:20]  ³⁴ tn Or “throne.”

[3:21]  ³⁵ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Eglon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:22]  ³⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ehud) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:22]  ³⁷ 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]  ³⁸ 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]  ³⁹ tn Heb “his.”

[3:24]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “covering his feet” (i.e., with his outer garments while he relieves himself).

[3:24]  ⁴¹ 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]  ⁴² tn The words “the doors” are supplied.

[3:25]  ⁴³ tn Heb “See, their master, fallen to the ground, dead.”

[3:27]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “When he arrived.”

[3:27]  ⁴⁵ tn That is, “mustered an army.”

[3:27]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “now he was before them.”

[3:28]  ⁴⁷ 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]  ⁴⁸ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for clarity.

[3:28]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “against Moab,” that is, so as to prevent the Moabites from crossing.

[3:29]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “They struck Moab that day – about ten thousand men.”

[3:31]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Ehud) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:31]  ⁵² tn Heb “was.”

[3:31]  ⁵³ tn Heb “also he”; the referent (Ehud) has been specified in the translation for clarity.