Ehud

^12 (A)And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord strengthened ^(B)Eglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹³ Then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and ^(C)Amalek, went and ^[a]defeated Israel, and took possession of ^(D)the City of Palms. ¹⁴ So the children of Israel ^(E)served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.

¹⁵ But when the children of Israel ^(F)cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a ^(G)left-handed man. By him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab. ¹⁶ Now Ehud made himself a dagger (it was double-edged and a cubit in length) and fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. ¹⁷ So he brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.) ¹⁸ And when he had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who had carried the tribute. ¹⁹ But he himself turned back ^(H)from the ^[b]stone images that were at Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.”

He said, “Keep silence!” And all who attended him went out from him.

²⁰ So Ehud came to him (now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber). Then Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” So he arose from his seat. ²¹ Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. ²² Even the ^[c]hilt went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the dagger out of his belly; and his entrails came out. ²³ Then Ehud went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

²⁴ When he had gone out, ^[d]Eglon’s servants came to look, and to their surprise, the doors of the upper room were locked. So they said, “He is probably ^(I)attending^[e] to his needs in the cool chamber.” ²⁵ So they waited till they were ^(J)embarrassed, and still he had not opened the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them. And there was their master, fallen dead on the floor.

²⁶ But Ehud had escaped while they delayed, and passed beyond the ^[f]stone images and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷ And it happened, when he arrived, that ^(K)he blew the trumpet in the ^(L)mountains of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains; and ^[g]he led them. ²⁸ Then he said to them, “Follow me, for ^(M)the Lord has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him, seized the ^(N)fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. ²⁹ And at that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of valor; not a man escaped. ³⁰ So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And ^(O)the land had rest for eighty years.