Judges 3:1-30

¹And these are the nations which the Lord left to prove Israel with them, all that had not known the wars of Canaan.

²Only for the sake of the generations of Israel, to teach them war, only the men before them knew them not.

³The five lordships of the Philistines, and every Canaanite, and the Sidonian, and the Hivite who dwelt in Lebanon from the mount of Hermon to Lebo-hamath.

⁴And this was done in order to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commands of the Lord, which he charged their fathers by the hand of Moses.

⁵And the children of Israel dwelt in the midst of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

⁶And they took their daughters for wives to themselves, and they gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

⁷And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the groves.

⁸And the Lord was very angry with Israel, and sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Syria of the rivers: and the children of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.

⁹And the children of Israel cried to the Lord; and the Lord raised up a savior to Israel, and he saved them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb younger than himself.

¹⁰And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel; and he went out to war against Cushan-rishathaim: and the Lord delivered into his hand Cushan-rishathaim king of Syria of the rivers, and his hand prevailed against Cushan-rishathaim.

¹¹And the land was quiet forty years; and Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

¹²And the children of Israel continued to do evil before the Lord: and the Lord strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil before the Lord.

¹³And he gathered to himself all the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and took possession of the city of Palm trees.

¹⁴And the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

¹⁵And the children of Israel cried to the Lord; and he raised up to them a savior, Ehud the son of Gera a son of Jamin, a man who used both hands alike: and the children of Israel sent gifts by his hand to Eglon king of Moab.

¹⁶And Ehud made himself a dagger of two edges, of a span long, and he girded it under his cloak upon his right thigh.

¹⁷And he went, and brought the presents to Eglon king of Moab, and Eglon was a very handsome man.

¹⁸And it came to pass when Ehud had made an end of offering his gifts, that he dismissed those that brought the gifts.

¹⁹And he himself returned from the quarries that are by Gilgal; and Ehud said, I have a secret errand to thee, O king! and Eglon said to him, Be silent: and he sent away from his presence all who waited upon him.

²⁰And Ehud went in to him; and he sat in his own upper summer chamber quite alone; and Ehud said, I have a message from God to thee, O king: and Eglon rose up from his throne near him.

²¹And it came to pass as he arose, that Ehud stretched forth his left hand, and took the dagger off his right thigh, and plunged it into his belly;

²²and drove in also the haft after the blade, and the fat closed in upon the blade, for he drew not out the dagger from his belly.

²³And Ehud went out to the porch, and passed out by the appointed guards, and shut the doors of the chamber upon him, and locked them.

²⁴And he went out: and Eglon’s servants came, and saw, and behold, the doors of the upper chamber were locked; and they said, Does he not uncover his feet in the summer chamber?

²⁵And they waited till they were ashamed, and, behold, there was no one that opened the doors of the upper chamber; and they took the key, and opened them; and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead upon the earth.

²⁶And Ehud escaped while they were in a tumult, and no one paid attention to him; and he passed the quarries, and escaped to Seirah.

²⁷And it came to pass when Ehud came into the land of Israel, that he blew the horn in Mount Ephraim, and the children of Israel came down with him from the mountain, and he was before them.

²⁸And he said to them, Come down after me, for the Lord God has delivered our enemies, even Moab, into our hand; and they went down after him, and seized on the fords of Jordan before Moab, and he did not suffer a man to pass over.

²⁹And they smote Moab on that day about ten thousand men, every lusty person and every mighty man; and not a man escaped.

³⁰So Moab was humbled in that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had rest eighty years; and Ehud judged them till he died.