Judges 3:7-23

⁷And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and put out of their minds the Lord their God, and became servants to the Baals and the Astartes.

⁸So the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel were his servants for eight years.

⁹And when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord, he gave them a saviour, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.

¹⁰And the spirit of the Lord came on him and he became judge of Israel, and went out to war, and the Lord gave up Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hands and he overcame him.

¹¹Then for forty years the land had peace, till the death of Othniel, the son of Kenaz.

¹²Then the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord made Eglon, king of Moab, strong against Israel, because they had done evil in the Lord's eyes.

¹³And Eglon got together the people of Ammon and Amalek, and they went and overcame Israel and took the town of palm-trees.

¹⁴And the children of Israel were servants to Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years.

¹⁵Then when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord, he gave them a saviour, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man; and the children of Israel sent an offering by him to Eglon, king of Moab.

¹⁶So Ehud made himself a two-edged sword, a cubit long, which he put on at his right side under his robe.

¹⁷And he took the offering to Eglon, king of Moab, who was a very fat man.

¹⁸And after giving the offering, he sent away the people who had come with the offering.

¹⁹But he himself, turning back from the stone images at Gilgal, said, I have something to say to you in secret, O king. And he said, Let there be quiet. Then all those who were waiting before him went out.

²⁰Then Ehud came in to him while he was seated by himself in his summer-house. And Ehud said, I have a word from God for you. And he got up from his seat.

²¹And Ehud put out his left hand, and took the sword from his right side, and sent it into his stomach;

²²And the hand-part went in after the blade, and the fat was joined up over the blade; for he did not take the sword out of his stomach. And he went out into the ...

²³Then Ehud went out into the covered way, shutting the doors of the summer-house on him and locking them.