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1Here 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.
2He wanted the succeeding generations of Israel, who had not known war before, to learn the art of warfare.
3So 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.[#3:3 Or “tyrants” or “lords.”; #3:3 Sidonians may be a collective term for the Phoenicians. See Josh. 13:4.]
4They remained in the land to test Israel to see if they would obey Yahweh ’s commands that Moses had given to their ancestors.
5So the Israelites settled among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
6They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons; and the Israelites served their false gods.[#3:6 See Ex. 34:16; Deut. 7:3; Ezra 9:12.]
7The Israelites did what was evil in Yahweh ’s sight. They ignored Yahweh their God, and they served the Baal gods and the Asherah goddesses.
8Therefore 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.[#3:8 Cushan possibly means “darkness” and Rishathaim possibly means “double wickedness.” Cushan-Rishathaim was an oppressive ruler over Israel for eight years because of their rebellion against God.; #3:8 Mesopotamia was all the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This would include parts of modern Syria and Iraq.; #3:8 Or “they served the king.”]
9Then 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.[#3:9 This was probably in a public assembly at Shiloh. Their cries came from broken hearts, as they were devastated with nowhere else to turn. heard their repentant cries and answered them by raising up a champion-deliverer.]
10And 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,[#3:10 The Targum reads “the Spirit of Prophecy came upon him,” signifying a sudden and pronounced power of God’s Spirit coming upon Othniel that transcended human strength or ability. The supernatural strength, wisdom, boldness, valor, and ecstasy of a prophet would manifest when the Spirit of God came upon him (see 1 Sam. 10:10).; #3:10 The Septuagint adds “and they obeyed him.”; #3:10 The Jewish historian Josephus states that Othniel won the victory with a small band of courageous men who surprised the king’s bodyguards, overpowered them, and killed the king. (See Josephus, Ant. 5.3.3.)]
11and after the land had peace for forty years, Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
12The 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.[#3:12 Or “ strengthened King Eglon against Israel.”]
13Eglon formed an alliance with the Ammonites and Amalekites, and they attacked and defeated Israel. Eglon captured Jericho , the City of Date Palms.
14King Eglon of Moab kept the Israelites in bondage to him for eighteen years.[#3:14 Or “Israel served King Eglon.” Eglon means “fat bull.”]
15Then 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.[#3:15 Ehud means “union” or “strong.”; #3:15 The Hebrew literally reads “restricted [crippled] in his right hand.” Left-handed Ehud was from the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin means “son of my right hand.” Some scholars believe Ehud may have been the great-grandson of Benjamin. See 20:16. God will use his deliverers no matter what handicap they may have. Ehud’s weakness became his strength.]
One day, the Israelites sent him to present tribute to King Eglon of Moab.
16Ehud had made for himself a two-edged sword over a foot long, which he strapped under his coat to his right thigh.[#3:16 The length of Ehud’s sword in Hebrew is a gomed , a term which only occurs here in the Old Testament. It is believed to be a short cubit, or about thirteen inches long.]
17He and his entourage came before King Eglon, who was a very fat man, to present the tribute.[#3:17 The tribute was likely fruit and produce of the land, along with quantities of wool, which would have required a number of people to carry it and present it to the king. Ehud, like God’s servants today, carried both a gift and a sword: a gift to bless the lives of God’s people and a sword to render judgment on everything that hindered their advance in the ways of God.]
18After the formal presentation of the tribute, he told the men who accompanied him to go back home.
19Ehud 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.”[#3:19 Or “quarries” or “carved images.” It may have been the boundary line of Eglon’s territory.]
The king said to his attendants, “Leave us!”
After all the king’s servants had left,
20Ehud 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,
21Ehud 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!
22And 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.[#3:22 According to the Latin Vulgate, Midrash Rabbah, and the Targum of Jonathan on the Prophets . The meaning of the Hebrew in this last clause is uncertain.]
23Stepping out of the king’s upper room into the portico, Ehud shut and locked the doors behind him.[#3:23 The meaning of the Hebrew of this clause is uncertain.]
24After 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.”[#3:24 The Hebrew uses the euphemistic saying, “Perhaps he is covering his feet.” Compare 1 Sam. 24:3.]
25They 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!
26But Ehud had escaped while they stood there wondering what to do. He fled beyond the carved stones and made it to Seirah.
27When 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.
28“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.
29In the battle that ensued, they killed nearly ten thousand able-bodied men—brave warriors of Moab, and not one escaped.
30On that day, Moab surrendered to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.
31After Ehud, God raised up Shamgar son of Anath, who killed six hundred Philistines with nothing but an ox-goad, and Shamgar the deliverer rescued Israel.[#3:31 Or “Shamgar the Beth Anathite.” Shamgar is not a Hebrew name, and his father, Anath, (the name of a pagan god of war) was a Canaanite, not an Israelite. God raised up a foreigner to bring deliverance to the nation. A nobody with a stick is more than enough when God is with him. Shamgar means “surprised stranger.”; #3:31 The Word of God is like an ox-goad that disciplines the heart and moves us closer to righteousness. See Eccl. 12:11.]