Judges 3:1-30

¹These be the folks which the Lord left alive, that in them he should teach Israel, and all men that knew not the battles of Canaanites;

²and that afterward the sons of them should learn to fight with enemies, and to have custom of battle.

³He left five princes of the Philistines, and all Canaanites, and the people of Sidon, and Hivites that dwelled in the hill Lebanon, from the hill Baalhermon till to the entering of Hamath.

⁴And he left them, that in them he should assay Israel, whether they would hear the behests of the Lord, which he commanded to their fathers by the hand of Moses, either nay.

⁵And so the sons of Israel dwelled in the midst of Canaanites, of Hittites, and of Amorites, and of Perizzites, and of Hivites, and of Jebusites,

⁶and they wedded wives, the daughters of them; and the sons of Israel gave their daughters to their sons, and they served to their gods.

⁷And the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgat their Lord God, and served Baalim, and Asheroth.

⁸And the Lord was wroth against Israel, and he betook them into the hands of Chushanrishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, and they served him eight years.

⁹And they cried to the Lord, and he raised to them a saviour, and delivered them, that is, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, and the younger brother of Caleb.

¹⁰And the spirit of the Lord was in him, and he deemed Israel. And he went out to battle, and the Lord betook into his hand Chushanrishathaim, king of Syria; and Othniel oppressed him.

¹¹And the land rested forty years; and Othniel, the son of Kenaz, died.

¹²Forsooth the sons of Israel added to do evil in the sight of the Lord; and he comforted against them Eglon, the king of Moab, for they did evil in the sight of the Lord.

¹³And the Lord coupled to him the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went, and smote Israel, and had in possession the city of Palms.

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

¹⁵And afterward they cried to the Lord; and he raised to them a saviour, Ehud by name, the son of Gera, son of Benjamin, the which Ehud used ever either hand for the right hand. And the sons of Israel sent by him gifts, that is, tribute, to Eglon, king of Moab;

¹⁶the which Ehud made to him a sword carving on ever either side, of the length of the palm of an hand; and he was girded therewith under the say, that is, a knight’s mantle, in the right hip.

¹⁷And he brought gifts to Eglon, king of Moab; and Eglon was full fat.

¹⁸And when he had given gifts to the king, he pursued or followed forth after his fellows that came with him;

¹⁹and he turned again from Gilgal, where the graven idols were, and he said to the king, O king, I have a privy word to thee. And the king commanded silence. And when all men were gone out, that were about him,

²⁰Ehud entered to him; and the king sat alone in a summer parlour. And Ehud said, I have the word of God to thee. The which rose anon from his throne.

²¹And Ehud held forth his left hand, and took his sword from his right hip; and he put it into the king’s womb so strongly,

²²that the pommel, either hilt, pursued or followed the iron in the wound, and was holden strait in the thickest fatness within; and Ehud drew not out the sword, but so as he had smitten Eglon, he left it in his body; and anon by the privates of mankind, the turds of the womb burst out.

²³Forsooth when the doors of the parlour were closed most diligently, and fastened with a lock,

²⁴Ehud went out by a porch. And the king’s servants entered, not into the parlour, but into the porch, and they saw the doors of the parlour closed, and they said, In hap he purgeth the womb in the summer parlour.

²⁵And they abode so long, till they were ashamed; and they saw that no man opened the door, and they took the key, and they opened, and they found their lord lying dead on the earth.

²⁶And while they were troubled, Ehud fled out, and passed the place of the graven idols, from whence he turned again; and he came into Seirath.

²⁷And anon he sounded with a clarion in the hill of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel came down with him, and he went in the front.

²⁸Which said to them, Follow ye me, for the Lord hath betaken our enemies, Moabites, into our hands. And they came down after him, and occupied the fords of Jordan, that led over into Moab. And they suffered not any man to pass over,

²⁹but they smote in that time about ten thousand Moabites, all mighty men and strong; no man of them might escape.

³⁰And Moab was made low in that day under the hand of Israel, and the land rested eighty years.