¹² Now the sons of Israel again ^(A)did evil in the sight of the Lord. So ^(B)the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹³ And he gathered to himself the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and ^[a]defeated Israel, and they took possession of ^(C)the city of the palm trees. ¹⁴ And the sons of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab for eighteen years.

Ehud Kills Eglon

¹⁵ But when the sons of Israel ^(D)cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel sent tribute by ^[b]him to Eglon the king of Moab. ¹⁶ Now Ehud made himself a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length, and he strapped it on his right thigh under his cloak. ¹⁷ Then he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. ¹⁸ And it came about, when he had finished presenting the tribute, that Ehud sent away the people who had carried the tribute. ¹⁹ But he himself turned back from the idols which were at Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And the king said, “Silence!” And all who were attending him left him. ²⁰ Then Ehud came to him while he was sitting in his cool roof chamber alone. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he got up from his seat. ²¹ Then Ehud reached out with his left hand and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. ²² The hilt of the sword also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade because he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and ^[c]the refuse came out. ²³ Then Ehud went out into the ^[d]vestibule, and shut the doors of the roof chamber behind him, and locked them.

²⁴ When he had left, ^[e]the king’s servants came and looked, and behold, the doors of the roof chamber were locked; and they said, “^(E)Undoubtedly he is ^[f]relieving himself in the cool room.” ²⁵ So they waited ^[g]until it would have been shameful to wait longer; but behold, he did not open the doors of the roof chamber. So they took the key and opened them, and behold, their master had fallen to the ^[h]floor dead.

²⁶ Now Ehud escaped while they were hesitating, and he passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷ And ^[i]when he arrived, ^(F)he blew the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was ^[j]leading them. ²⁸ Then he said to them, “Pursue them, for the Lord has handed your enemies the Moabites over to you.” So they went down after him and took control of ^(G)the crossing places of the Jordan opposite Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross. ²⁹ They struck and killed about ten thousand Moabites at that time, all robust and valiant men; and no one escaped. ³⁰ So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land was at rest for eighty years.