Judges 3:1-30

Here is a list of the nations that YAHWEH permitted to remain in the land so he could use them to test the Israelites who had not known what it was like during the Canaanite wars. He wanted the succeeding generations of Israel, who had not known war before, to learn the art of warfare. So he left in the land the five Philistine principalities and all the Canaanites, Sidonians, and Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Lebo Hamath. They remained in the land to test Israel to see if they would obey YAHWEH’s commands that Moses had given to their ancestors. So the Israelites settled among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons; and the Israelites served their false gods. The Israelites did what was evil in YAHWEH’s sight. They ignored YAHWEH their God, and they served the Baal gods and the Asherah goddesses. Therefore YAHWEH’s blazing anger rose up against them. He surrendered them to Cushan-Rishathaim, the king of Mesopotamia. He kept the Israelites in bondage to him for eight years. Then the Israelites, with shattered hearts, cried out to YAHWEH for mercy, and he answered them by raising up a champion-deliverer to rescue them, Othniel. He was Caleb’s nephew, the son of his younger brother Kenaz. And the Spirit of YAHWEH was upon him and empowered him to liberate Israel from bondage. He became Israel’s champion and went out to war, and YAHWEH delivered into his hands Cushan-Rishathaim, the king of Mesopotamia. Othniel overpowered him, and after the land had peace for forty years, Othniel the son of Kenaz died. The Israelites again did what was evil in YAHWEH’s sight, and because they did what was offensive to YAHWEH, he gave King Eglon of Moab power over Israel. Eglon formed an alliance with the Ammonites and Amalekites, and they attacked and defeated Israel. Eglon captured Jericho, the City of Date Palms. King Eglon of Moab kept the Israelites in bondage to him for eighteen years. Then the Israelites, with shattered hearts, cried out to YAHWEH for mercy, and YAHWEH raised up a champion-deliverer to rescue them—Ehud, who was left-handed. He was the son of Gera from the tribe of Benjamin. One day, the Israelites sent him to present tribute to King Eglon of Moab. Ehud had made for himself a two-edged sword over a foot long, which he strapped under his coat to his right thigh. He and his entourage came before King Eglon, who was a very fat man, to present the tribute. After the formal presentation of the tribute, he told the men who accompanied him to go back home. Ehud went with them part of the way, but he turned back at the carved stones near Gilgal. He returned to Eglon and said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.” The king said to his attendants, “Leave us!” After all the king’s servants had left, Ehud approached King Eglon while he was sitting alone in his cool upper room and said to him, “I have a message from God for you.” As the king rose from his throne, Ehud reached beneath his robe with his left hand for the sword strapped to his right thigh, and he plunged it deep into Eglon’s belly! And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade. Ehud was unable to pull out the sword, and the dung came out. Stepping out of the king’s upper room into the portico, Ehud shut and locked the doors behind him. After he had slipped away, the king’s servants came to the doors of the upper room and discovered they were locked. So they told themselves, “He must be on the toilet.” They waited and waited, but still the king did not emerge. Embarrassed, they finally took their key and unlocked the doors. And when they opened the doors, there was their master sprawled out on the floor, dead! But Ehud had escaped while they stood there wondering what to do. He fled beyond the carved stones and made it to Seirah. When he arrived back in the land, he sounded the war trumpet with a loud blast and rallied the people in the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites went down from the hills to fight against the Moabites with Ehud leading the charge. “Follow me closely,” he said, “and pursue them, for YAHWEH has delivered your enemies, the Moabites, into your hands!” So they followed his lead and secured the fords of the Jordan opposite the land of Moab and did not let anyone cross. In the battle that ensued, they killed nearly ten thousand able-bodied men—brave warriors of Moab, and not one escaped. On that day, Moab surrendered to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.