Ehud and Eglon

After Kenaz died, the affairs of the Israelites suffered again from the lack of any government. Since they neither gave God the honor due to him nor obeyed the laws, their troubles grew, until Eglon, king of the Moabites, came to despise them so much for the disorder of their government that he made war on them. He beat them in several battles, forced the bravest to submit, subdued their whole army, and ordered them to pay him tribute. He settled at Jericho and made it his royal seat, and left no means untried to oppress them; in fact he kept them in poverty for eighteen years. But once God had taken pity on the Israelites for their sufferings, and was moved to compassion by the prayers they offered him, he freed them from the harsh treatment they had received from the Moabites. He won them this freedom in the following way. [a]

There was a young man of the tribe of Benjamin named Ehud, son of Gera. He was a man of very great daring in bold undertakings, strong in body and fit for hard work, but most skilled with his left hand, in which lay all his strength; and he too lived at Jericho. This man became friendly with Eglon. He won the king’s favor with gifts and worked his way into his good opinion, and in this way he was also well liked by those around the king. Once, when he was bringing gifts to the king with two servants, he secretly strapped a dagger to his right thigh and went in to him. It was summer, about the middle of the day, when the guards were not keeping close watch, both because of the heat and because they had gone to their midday meal. The young man offered his gifts to the king, who was then staying in a small room well placed to keep off the heat, and began to talk with him. They were now alone, for the king had told the servants attending him to leave, because he wanted to talk with Ehud. [c]

Eglon was sitting on his throne. Ehud was afraid he might miss his stroke and fail to give a deadly wound, so he got the king to rise by saying he had a dream to tell him at God’s command. At that the king sprang up from his throne for joy at the dream, and Ehud struck him to the heart. He left the dagger in his body, went out, and shut the door behind him. The king’s servants kept quite still, supposing the king had settled himself to sleep.

Ehud then told the people of Jericho privately what he had done and urged them to win back their freedom. They heard him gladly and took up arms, and they sent messengers through the country to blow rams’ horns, for it was our custom to call the people together with these. For a long time Eglon’s attendants did not know what had happened to him. But toward evening, fearing something unusual had occurred, they went into his room, and when they found him dead they were thrown into confusion and did not know what to do. Before the guards could be assembled, the mass of the Israelites came upon them. Some were killed at once; others were put to flight and ran toward the country of Moab to save themselves. There were more than ten thousand of them. The Israelites seized the ford of the Jordan, pursued them and cut them down; they killed many of them at the ford, and not one of them escaped their hands. That is how the Hebrews freed themselves from slavery to the Moabites. [d]

For this Ehud was honored with the government over all the people, and he died after he had held it eighty years. He was a man worthy of praise, even apart from what he deserved for the deed just told. After him Shamgar, son of Anath, was chosen as their governor, but he died in the first year of his rule.