Judges
Chapter 3
1 These are the nations God left to test Israel, especially those in Israel who had not experienced all the Canaan wars.
2 The idea was that Israel’s descendants should learn about war, especially those who had never known it before.
3 Specifically, five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath.
4 They were used to test Israel, to see if they would follow God’s commands given to their ancestors through Moses.
5 The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
6 They married their daughters and gave their daughters to their sons and worshiped their gods.
7 The Israelites did bad things that God saw, forgot God, and worshiped Baal and the Asherah poles.
8 So God was very angry with Israel, and he let the king of Mesopotamia, Chushanrishathaim, defeat them. The people of Israel had to serve Chushanrishathaim for eight years.
9 When the Israelites called out to God, God gave them a rescuer, Othniel the son of Kenaz and Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them.
10 God’s Spirit came upon him, and he led Israel. He went to battle, and God helped him defeat Chushanrishathaim, the king of Mesopotamia; he overpowered Chushanrishathaim.
11 The land was peaceful for forty years. Then Othniel, Kenaz’s son, passed away.
12 The Israelites did wrong before God again, and God gave Eglon, the king of Moab, power over Israel because they had done wrong in God’s eyes.
13 He brought together the people of Ammon and Amalek, attacked Israel, and took over the city of palm trees.
14 The Israelites served King Eglon of Moab for eighteen years.
15 When the Israelites called out to God, God gave them a savior, Ehud, Gera’s son from the tribe of Benjamin, who was left-handed. Through him, the Israelites sent a gift to Eglon, the king of Moab.
16 Ehud made a two-edged dagger about eighteen inches long and tied it under his clothes on his right thigh.
17 He gave the gift to Eglon, the king of Moab, who was very fat.
18 After he finished giving the gift, he let the people who carried the gift go.
19 However, he turned back from the stone-cutting place near Gilgal and said, “I have a private message for you, king.” The king replied, “Be quiet.” Then everyone with him left.
20 Ehud went to him while he was sitting alone in a summer room. Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” Then he stood up from his chair.
21 Ehud reached out with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and stabbed it into his stomach.
22 The handle followed the blade into the body; the fat closed over the blade, so he couldn’t pull the knife from his stomach; and the insides spilled out.
23 Then Ehud went out through the entryway, closed the doors of the room behind him, and locked them.
24 After he left, his servants arrived, and seeing the locked room doors, they thought, “He must be resting in his cool room.”
25 They waited until they felt embarrassed. When the doors to the room didn’t open, they used a key to unlock them and found their master lying dead on the ground.
26 Ehud got away while they waited, went past the stone-cutting places, and ran to Seirath.
27 When he arrived, he sounded a trumpet on Mount Ephraim, and the Israelites followed him down, with him leading the way.
28 He told them, “Follow me, for God has given us victory over the Moabites, our enemies.” So they followed him, captured the crossing places of the Jordan River that led to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross.
29 They killed about ten thousand strong and brave men from Moab at that time, and not a single man escaped.
30 So Moab was defeated that day by Israel, and the land was at peace for eighty years.
31 After him, Shamgar son of Anath killed 600 Philistine men with an ox-goad and he also saved Israel.