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The Book of Judges 3

3 The younger Israelites had not fought in any of the wars against the Canaanites. Yahweh wanted them to show faith and courage. So he allowed some enemy people groups to stay in the land. 2 Yahweh did that in order to teach the new generation of Israelites how to wage war, since they had no experience fighting battles before. 3 These are the people groups that Yahweh allowed to stay in the land: the Philistines and their five leaders, the Canaanites, the people living in and around the city of Sidon, and the Hivites living in the mountains of Lebanon between Mount Baal Hermon and Lebo Hamath. 4 Yahweh left those people groups there to test the Israelites. He wanted to see whether they would obey the commands that he had told Moses to give to their ancestors. 5 That was why the Israelites lived among these people groups: the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 6 The Israelite men married women from those people groups. They also allowed their daughters to marry men from those people groups. And they worshiped the gods of those people groups.

7 The Israelites then did things that Yahweh had said were very wicked. They stopped worshiping Yahweh, the God their ancestors had worshiped. Instead, they started to worship idols that represented gods such as Baal and goddesses such as Asherah. 8 This made Yahweh very angry with the people of Israel. So he allowed Cushan-Rishathaim, the king of Aram Naharaim in Mesopotamia, to conquer them. Cushan-Rishathaim ruled over the people of Israel for eight years. 9 But when the people of Israel pleaded with Yahweh to help them, he brought a leader to rescue them. This leader was Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz. 10 Yahweh’s Spirit gave Othniel special strength and courage to be a leader for the Israelites. Then he led an army that fought against the army of Cushan-Rishathaim, the king of Aram. Yahweh enabled the Israelites to win this battle. So Othniel defeated Cushan-Rishathaim and he no longer ruled over the people of Israel. 11 After that, the land of Israel was a peaceful place for the next 40 years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.

12 Then the Israelites once again did things that Yahweh had said were very wicked. Because they were doing these things, Yahweh gave Eglon, the king of Moab, a stronger army than the Israelites had so that he could defeat them. 13 Eglon persuaded the leaders of the Ammonites and the Amalekites to join their armies with his army to attack Israel. They defeated the Israelites and captured Jericho, which people called Palm Tree City. 14 Then King Eglon of Moab ruled the Israelites for 18 years.

15 After that, the Israelites again pleaded with Yahweh to help them. So he brought another leader to rescue them. This leader was Ehud, the son of Gera. He was from the tribe of Benjamin, and he was left-handed. King Eglon of Moab made the Israelites send him goods such as gold, silver, animals, and crops every year so that he would not attack them. This time, the Israelites put Ehud in charge of delivering those goods. 16 Ehud had made a special sword to bring with him on this trip. Both of its edges were sharp, and it was only half a meter long. He hid it under his clothes by strapping it onto his right thigh. 17 Ehud made sure that King Eglon of Moab received all of the goods that the Israelites had sent. (Eglon was a very fat man.) 18 After he had delivered all of the goods, Ehud told the men who had carried them to go back to Israel. 19 Ehud went with the men as far as the boundary stones near the city of Gilgal. There he told the other men to go on, but he himself turned around and went back to the king of Moab. When he arrived at the palace, he told the king, “Your majesty, I have a secret message for you.” So the king told all his servants to be quiet, and he sent them out of the room.

20 This left Eglon sitting all by himself in the room of his palace where he stayed cool in the heat of summer. Ehud came close to him and said, “I have a message for you from God.” The king stood up from his throne to receive the message. 21 As the king got up, Ehud reached with his left hand and pulled the dagger from his right thigh. He plunged it into the king’s stomach. 22 Ehud plunged the sword in so far that even the handle went into the king’s belly. Ehud did not pull the sword out. He left it there, with the king’s fat surrounding it. From the force of the blow, Eglon’s bowels discharged. 23 Then Ehud stepped out of the room into its entrance area. He closed the doors to the room, and he bolted them shut as he closed them.

24 Then Ehud ran away from the palace. King Eglon’s servants came back, but they found that someone had locked the doors to the room. They said to each other, “The king must be relieving himself in there.” 25 So they waited. But when the king did not open the doors of the room for a long time, they became concerned because they had left him alone for so long. They got a key and unlocked and opened the doors. And they saw that their king was lying on the floor dead from the sword wound.

26 The servants had taken so long to enter the king’s room that Ehud had time to escape. He ran back to Israel, passed by the boundary stones at Gilgal, and arrived at the city of Seirah. 27 That city was in the hilly area where the descendants of Ephraim lived. When Ehud got there, he blew a ram’s horn to call the people to join him in fighting against the people of Moab. So the Israelites went with him down from the hills toward the Jordan River. Ehud was leading them.

28 Ehud told the men he was leading, “Yahweh is going to enable us to defeat our enemies, the people of Moab. So follow me!” So they followed him down to the Jordan River, and they stationed some of their men at the place where people could walk across the river into Moab. That way they could kill any people from Moab who tried to cross the river to escape. 29 At that time, the Israelites killed about 10,000 Moabite soldiers who had been occupying the city of Jericho. They were all strong and capable soldiers, but the Israelites killed them all. 30 On that day, the Israelites conquered the people of Moab. After that, the land of Israel was a peaceful place for the next 80 years.

31 After Ehud died, Shamgar, the son of Anath, became their leader. In one battle, Shamgar killed 600 Philistine soldiers even though his only weapon was an ox goad. In that way, he rescued the Israelites from the Philistines.

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