3:1 | These are the nations that GOD left there, using them to test the Israelites who had no experience in the Canaanite wars. |
3:2 | He did it to train the descendants of Israel, the ones who had no battle experience, in the art of war. |
3:3 | He left the five Philistine tyrants, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living on Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal Hermon to Hamath's Pass. |
3:4 | They were there to test Israel and see whether they would obey GOD's commands that were given to their parents through Moses. |
3:5 | But the People of Israel made themselves at home among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. |
3:6 | They married their daughters and gave their own daughters to their sons in marriage. And they worshiped their gods. |
3:7 | The People of Israel did evil in GOD's sight. They forgot their GOD and worshiped the Baal gods and Asherah goddesses. |
3:8 | GOD's hot anger blazed against Israel. He sold them off to Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim. The People of Israel were in servitude to Cushan-Rishathaim for eight years. |
3:9 | The People of Israel cried out to GOD and GOD raised up a savior who rescued them: Caleb's nephew Othniel, son of his younger brother Kenaz. The Spirit of GOD came on him and he rallied Israel. He went out to war and GOD gave him Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim. Othniel made short work of him. |
3:10 | |
3:11 | The land was quiet for forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenaz died. |
3:12 | But the People of Israel went back to doing evil in GOD's sight. So GOD made Eglon king of Moab a power against Israel because they did evil in GOD's sight. |
3:13 | He recruited the Ammonites and Amalekites and went out and struck Israel. They took the City of Palms. |
3:14 | The People of Israel were in servitude to Eglon fourteen years. |
3:15 | The People of Israel cried out to GOD and GOD raised up for them a savior, Ehud son of Gera, a Benjaminite. He was left-handed. The People of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon king of Moab. |
3:16 | Ehud made himself a short two-edged sword and strapped it on his right thigh under his clothes. |
3:17 | He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Eglon was grossly fat. |
3:18 | After Ehud finished presenting the tribute, he went a little way with the men who had carried it. |
3:19 | But when he got as far as the stone images near Gilgal, he went back and said, "I have a private message for you, O king." The king told his servants, "Leave." They all left. |
3:20 | Ehud approached him--the king was now quite alone in his cool rooftop room--and said, "I have a word of God for you." Eglon stood up from his throne. |
3:21 | Ehud reached with his left hand and took his sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's big belly. |
3:22 | Not only the blade but the hilt went in. The fat closed in over it so he couldn't pull it out. |
3:23 | Ehud slipped out by way of the porch and shut and locked the doors of the rooftop room behind him. |
3:24 | Then he was gone. When the servants came, they saw with surprise that the doors to the rooftop room were locked. They said, "He's probably relieving himself in the restroom." |
3:25 | They waited. And then they worried--no one was coming out of those locked doors. Finally, they got a key and unlocked them. There was their master, fallen on the floor, dead! |
3:26 | While they were standing around wondering what to do, Ehud was long gone. He got past the stone images and escaped to Seirah. |
3:27 | When he got there, he sounded the trumpet on Mount Ephraim. The People of Israel came down from the hills and joined him. He took his place at their head. |
3:28 | He said, "Follow me, for GOD has given your enemies--yes, Moab!--to you." They went down after him and secured the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites. They let no one cross over. |
3:29 | At that time, they struck down about ten companies of Moabites, all of them well-fed and robust. Not one escaped. |
3:30 | That day Moab was subdued under the hand of Israel. The land was quiet for eighty years. |
3:31 | Shamgar son of Anath came after Ehud. Using a cattle prod, he killed six hundred Philistines single-handed. He too saved Israel. |