Ehud and Eglon

The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel. Eglon gathered the children of Ammon and Amalek, went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees, which is Jericho (Judges 3:13). The Israelites served Eglon for eighteen years until they cried out to the Lord. The Lord raised up a deliverer named Ehud, the son of Gera, a Benjamite who was left-handed. The children of Israel sent a present by him to Eglon. Ehud made himself a two-edged dagger of a cubit length and girded it under his raiment upon his right thigh (Judges 3:16).

After Ehud offered the present to Eglon, who the text describes as a very fat man, he sent away the people that bore the present. Ehud returned from the quarries that were by Gilgal and told the king he had a secret errand for him. Eglon commanded silence and sent his attendants away. Ehud approached the king as he sat in a summer parlor, stating he had a message from God. When Eglon stood up from his seat, Ehud used his left hand to take the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into the king's belly (Judges 3:21). The hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed upon the blade because Ehud did not draw the dagger out.

Ehud went out through the porch and locked the doors of the parlor. The king's servants returned but did not enter because the doors were locked, assuming the king was covering his feet in his summer chamber. They tarried until they were ashamed, then took a key and opened the doors to find their lord fallen down dead on the earth (Judges 3:25). Ehud escaped while they delayed, passing beyond the quarries to Seirath. He blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him. They took the fords of Jordan toward Moab and slew about ten thousand men of Moab, all lusty men of valor, and not a man escaped (Judges 3:29).