Judges 3
1 At that time there were still many people-groups in Canaan. Yahweh left them there to test the Israeli people. But many of the Israelis in Canaan were ones who had not fought in any of the wars in Canaan. So Yahweh also left those people-groups in Canaan so that the descendants of those who had not fought in any of the wars might learn how to fight.
Now these are the nations which the Lord kept in the land for the purpose of testing Israel by them, all those who had had no experience of all the wars of Canaan;
Only because of the generations of the children of Israel, for the purpose of teaching them war — only those who up till then had no experience of it;
3 [This is a list of] the people-groups that Yahweh left there: The Philistines and their five leaders, the people living in the area near Sidon [city], the descendants of Canaan, and the descendants of Hiv who were living in the mountains of Lebanon between Baal-Hermon Mountain and Lebo-Hamath.
The five chiefs of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites and the Zidonians and the Hivites living in Mount Lebanon, from the mountain Baal-hermon as far as Hamath:
4 Yahweh left these people-groups there to test the Israelis, to see if they would obey his commands which he had told Moses to give them.
For the purpose of testing Israel by them, to see if they would give ear to the orders of the Lord, which he had given to their fathers by the hand of Moses.
5 The Israelis lived among the Canaan people-group, the Hiv people-group, the Amor people-group, the Periz people-group, the Hiv people-group, and the Jebus people-group.
Now the children of Israel were living among the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites:
6 [Moses had told the people not to associate with any of those people]. But the Israelis took daughters of people from those people-groups [to be their own wives], and gave their own daughters to men of those groups, to marry them. And [as a result] they started to worship the gods of those people-groups.
And they took as wives the daughters of these nations and gave their daughters to their sons, and became servants to their gods.
7 The Israelis did things that Yahweh said were very evil. They forgot about Yahweh, their God, and they started to worship [the idols that represented] the god Baal and the goddess Asherah.
And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and put out of their minds the Lord their God, and became servants to the Baals and the Astartes.
8 Yahweh became very angry with the Israelis. So he allowed king Cushan from Mesopotamia to conquer them and rule them for eight years.
So the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel were his servants for eight years.
9 But when they pleaded to Yahweh [to help them], he gave them a leader to rescue them. He was Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz.
And when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord, he gave them a saviour, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.
10 Yahweh’s Spirit came upon him, and he became their leader. He [led an army that] fought against [the army of] Cushan, and defeated them.
And the spirit of the Lord came on him and he became judge of Israel, and went out to war, and the Lord gave up Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hands and he overcame him.
11 After that, there was peace in the land for 40 years, until Othniel died.
Then for forty years the land had peace, till the death of Othniel, the son of Kenaz.
12 After that, the Israelis again did things that Yahweh said were very evil. As a result, he allowed the army of King Eglon, who ruled [the] Moab [area], to defeat the Israelis.
Then the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord made Eglon, king of Moab, strong against Israel, because they had done evil in the Lord's eyes.
13 Eglon persuaded the leaders of the Ammon and Amalek people-groups to join their armies with his army to attack Israel. They captured [Jericho, which was called] ‘The City of Palm Trees’.
And Eglon got together the people of Ammon and Amalek, and they went and overcame Israel and took the town of palm-trees.
14 Then King Eglon ruled the Israelis for eighteen years.
And the children of Israel were servants to Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years.
15 But then the Israelis again pleaded to Yahweh [to help them]. So he gave them another leader to rescue them. He was Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera, from the descendants of Benjamin. The Israelis sent him to King Eglon to give him their yearly protection money.
Then when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord, he gave them a saviour, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man; and the children of Israel sent an offering by him to Eglon, king of Moab.
16 Ehud had with him a double-edged dagger, about a foot and a half long. He strapped it to his right thigh, under his clothes.
So Ehud made himself a two-edged sword, a cubit long, which he put on at his right side under his robe.
17 He gave the money to King Eglon, who was a very fat man.
And he took the offering to Eglon, king of Moab, who was a very fat man.
18 Then Ehud started to go back home with the men who had carried the money.
And after giving the offering, he sent away the people who had come with the offering.
19 When they arrived at the stone carvings near Gilgal, [he told the other men to go on, but] he himself turned around and went back [to the king of Moab. When he arrived at the palace], he said to the king, “Your majesty, I have a secret message for you.” So the king told all his servants to be quiet, and sent them out of the room.
But he himself, turning back from the stone images at Gilgal, said, I have something to say to you in secret, O king. And he said, Let there be quiet. Then all those who were waiting before him went out.
20 Then, as Eglon was sitting alone in the upstairs room of his summer palace, Ehud came close to him and said, “I have a message for you from God.” As the king got up from his chair,
Then Ehud came in to him while he was seated by himself in his summer-house. And Ehud said, I have a word from God for you. And he got up from his seat.
21 Ehud reached with his left hand and pulled the dagger from his right thigh, and plunged it into the king’s belly.
And Ehud put out his left hand, and took the sword from his right side, and sent it into his stomach;
22 He thrust it in so far that the handle went into the king’s belly, and the blade came out the king’s back. Ehud did not pull the dagger out. [He left it there, with] the handle buried in the king’s fat.
And the hand-part went in after the blade, and the fat was joined up over the blade; for he did not take the sword out of his stomach. And he went out into the ...
23 Then Ehud left the room. He went out to the porch. He shut the doors to the room and locked them.
Then Ehud went out into the covered way, shutting the doors of the summer-house on him and locking them.
24 After he had gone, King Eglon’s servants came back, but they saw that the doors of the room were locked. They said, “The king must be defecating in the inner room.”
Now when he had gone, the king's servants came, and saw that the doors of the summer-house were locked; and they said, It may be that he is in his summer-house for a private purpose.
25 So they waited, but when the king did not open the doors of the room, after a while they were worried. They got a key and unlocked the doors. And they saw that their king was lying on the floor, dead.
And they went on waiting till they were shamed, but the doors were still shut; so they took the key, and, opening them, saw their lord stretched out dead on the floor.
26 Meanwhile, Ehud escaped. He passed by the stone carvings and arrived at Seirah, in the hilly area where the descendants of Ephraim lived.
But Ehud had got away while they were waiting and had gone past the stone images and got away to Seirah.
27 There he blew a trumpet [to signal that the people should join him to fight the people of Moab]. So the Israelis went with him from the hills. They went down [toward the Jordan river], with Ehud leading them.
And when he came there, he had a horn sounded in the hill-country of Ephraim, and all the children of Israel went down with him from the hill-country, and he at their head.
28 He said to the men, “Yahweh is going to allow us to defeat your enemies, the people of Moab. So follow me!” So they followed him down to the river, and they stationed some of their men at the place where people can walk across the river, in order that they could [kill any people from Moab who tried to] cross the river [to escape].
And he said to them, Come after me; for the Lord has given the Moabites, your haters, into your hands. So they went down after him and took the crossing-places of Jordan against Moab, and let no one go across.
29 At that time, the Israelis killed about 10,000 people from Moab. They were all strong and capable men, but not one of them escaped.
At that time they put about ten thousand men of Moab to the sword, every strong man and every man of war; not a man got away.
30 On that day, the Israelis conquered the people of Moab. Then there was peace in their land for 80 years.
So Moab was broken that day under the hand of Israel. And for eighty years the land had peace.
31 After Ehud [died], Shamgar became their leader. He rescued the Israelis [from the Philistines. In one battle] he killed 600 Philistines with an (ox goad/sharp wooden pole).
And after him came Shamgar, the son of Anath, who put to death six hundred Philistines with an ox-stick; and he was another saviour of Israel.
