Judges
3
- These are the nations the LORD left to test
all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan
- (he did this only to teach warfare to the
descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience):
- the five rulers of the Philistines, all
the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains
from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath.
- They were left to test the Israelites to
see whether they would obey the LORD'S commands, which he had given their
forefathers through Moses.
- The Israelites lived among the Canaanites,
Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
- They took their daughters in marriage and
gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
- The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the
LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.
- The anger of the LORD burned against Israel
so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim,
to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years.
- But when they cried out to the LORD, he
raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother,
who saved them.
- The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, so
that he became Israel's judge and went to war. The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim
king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him.
- So the land had peace for forty years, until
Othniel son of Kenaz died.
- Once again the Israelites did evil in the
eyes of the LORD, and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king
of Moab power over Israel.
- Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to
join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the
City of Palms.
- The Israelites were subject to Eglon king
of Moab for eighteen years.
- Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD,
and he gave them a deliverer -- Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the
Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.
- Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about
a foot and a half long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing.
- He presented the tribute to Eglon king of
Moab, who was a very fat man.
- After Ehud had presented the tribute, he
sent on their way the men who had carried it.
- At the idols near Gilgal he himself turned
back and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king." The king
said, "Quiet!" And all his attendants left him.
- Ehud then approached him while he was sitting
alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, "I have a message
from God for you." As the king rose from his seat,
- Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the
sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly.
- Even the handle sank in after the blade,
which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed
in over it.
- Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut
the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.
- After he had gone, the servants came and
found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, "He must be relieving
himself in the inner room of the house."
- They waited to the point of embarrassment,
but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked
them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead.
- While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed
by the idols and escaped to Seirah.
- When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet
in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from
the hills, with him leading them.
- "Follow me," he ordered, "for
the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands." So they followed
him down and, taking possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab,
they allowed no one to cross over.
- At that time they struck down about ten
thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped.
- That day Moab was made subject to Israel,
and the land had peace for eighty years.
- After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who
struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.
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