Ehud

12 Once again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. So He gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD. 13 After enlisting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join forces with him, Eglon attacked and defeated Israel, taking possession of the City of Palms.[fn]

14 The Israelites served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years. 15 And again they cried out to the LORD, and He raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjamite, as their deliverer. So they sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.

16 Now Ehud had made for himself a double-edged sword a cubit long.[fn] He strapped it to his right thigh under his cloak 17 and brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was an obese man.

18 After Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he ushered out those who had carried it. 19 But upon reaching the idols near Gilgal, he himself turned back and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.”

“Silence,” said the king, and all his attendants left him.

20 Then Ehud approached him while he was sitting alone in the coolness of his upper room. “I have a word from God for you,” Ehud said, and the king rose from his seat.

21 And Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled the sword from his right thigh, and plunged it into Eglon’s belly. 22 Even the handle sank in after the blade, and Eglon’s fat closed in over it, so that Ehud did not withdraw the sword from his belly. And Eglon’s bowels emptied. 23 Then Ehud went out through the porch, closing and locking the doors of the upper room behind him.

24 After Ehud was gone, Eglon’s servants came in and found the doors of the upper room locked. “He must be relieving himself in the cool room,” they said. 25 So they waited until they became worried and saw that he had still not opened the doors of the upper room. Then they took the key and opened the doors—and there was their lord lying dead on the floor.

26 Ehud, however, had escaped while the servants waited. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah.

27 On arriving in Seirah, he blew the ram’s horn throughout the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites came down with him from the hills, and he became their leader. 28 “Follow me,” he told them, “for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.”

So they followed him down and seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. 29 At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all robust and valiant men. Not one of them escaped.

30 So Moab was subdued under the hand of Israel that day, and the land had rest for eighty years.