Judges 3

Judges 3:1 These are the nations Yahveh placed to test all those in Israel who had experienced none of the wars in Canaan.

Judges 3:2 This was to teach the future generations of the Israelites how to fight in battle, especially those who had not fought before.

Judges 3:3 These included the five rulers of the Philistines and all of the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the Lebanese mountains from Mount Baal-hermon as far as the entrance to Hamath.

Judges 3:4 They were for testing Israel, to determine whether they would keep Yahveh’s commands, which he had given their fathers through Moses.

Judges 3:5 But they settled among the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

Judges 3:6 The Israelites took their daughters as wives for themselves, gave their own daughters to their sons, and worshiped their gods.

Judges 3:7 The Israelites did what was evil in Yahveh’s eyes; they forgot Yahveh, their God, and worshiped the Baals and the Asherahs.

Judges 3:8 Yahveh’s nose burned angrily against Israel, and he sold them to King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim, and the Israelites served him for eight years.

Judges 3:9 The Israelites cried out to Yahveh. So Yahveh raised Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s youngest brother, as a rescuer to rescue the Israelites.

Judges 3:10 The Breath of Yahveh came on him, and he judged Israel. Othniel went out to battle, and Yahveh handed over King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram to him so that Othniel overpowered him.

Judges 3:11 Then the land had peace for forty years, and Othniel, son of Kenaz, died.

Judges 3:12 The Israelites again did what was evil in Yahveh’s eyes. He gave King Eglon of Moab power over Israel because they had done what was evil in Yahveh’s eyes.

Judges 3:13 After Eglon convinced the Ammonites and the Amalekites to join forces with him, he attacked and struck Israel down and took possession of the City of Palms.

Judges 3:14 The Israelites served King Eglon of Moab for eighteen years.

Judges 3:15 Then the Israelites cried out to Yahveh, and he raised Ehud, son of Gera, a left-handed Benjaminite, as a rescuer for them. The Israelites sent him with the tribute for King Eglon of Moab.

Judges 3:16 Ehud made himself a double-edged sword eighteen inches long. He strapped it to his right thigh under his clothes

Judges 3:17 and brought the tribute to King Eglon of Moab, who was an extremely fat man.

Judges 3:18 When Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who had carried it.

Judges 3:19 At the carved images near Gilgal he returned and said, “King Eglon, I have a secret message for you.” The king said, “Silence!” and all his attendants left him.

Judges 3:20 Then Ehud approached him while he was sitting alone in his upstairs room where it was cool. Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you,” and the king stood up from his throne.

Judges 3:21 Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and plunged it into Eglon’s belly.

Judges 3:22 Even the handle went in after the blade, and Eglon’s fat closed in over it, so that Ehud did not withdraw the sword from his belly. And the waste came out.

Judges 3:23 Ehud escaped by way of the porch, closing and locking the doors of the upstairs room behind him.

Judges 3:24 Ehud was gone when Eglon’s servants came in. They looked and noticed the doors of the upstairs room locked, thinking he was relieving himself in the cool room.

Judges 3:25 The servants waited until they became embarrassed and noticed that he had still not opened the doors of the upstairs room. So they took the key and opened the doors – and there was their lord lying dead on the floor!

Judges 3:26 Ehud had escaped while the servants waited. He passed the Jordan near the carved images and reached Seirah.

Judges 3:27 After he arrived, he sounded the ram’s horn throughout the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites came down with him from the hill country, and he was in front.

Judges 3:28 He told them, “Follow me, because Yahveh has handed over your enemies, the Moabites, to you.” So they followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over.

Judges 3:29 At that time, they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all big and capable men. Not one of them escaped.

Judges 3:30 Moab became subject to Israel that day, and the land had peace for eighty years.

Judges 3:31 After Ehud, Shamgar, son of Anath, became a judge. He also rescued Israel, striking down six hundred Philistines with a goad.

Judges 3 quotes:

“Shamgar is remembered as a charismatic judge-leader in both Judges 1 and 5. Whatever the intriguing implications of his name, he, like Samson, is a hero capable of wiping out the enemy by unorthodox and single-handed applications of brute strength. That his origins are somewhat obscure, an ethnic mystery, only adds to his mystique as judge. Some of the traditions assigned to Jael in Judges 4-5 may have been assigned to Shamgar in other tellings, thereby explaining the confusion in 5:6 (see below). In similar fashion, David’s victory over Goliath, recounted at length in 1 Samuel 17, is much more briefly assigned to one Elhanan in 2 Sam 21:19. Such switches and reassignment of traditions are common in oral-style works.”

Niditch Susan. Judges : A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 59.

Judges 3 links:

a culture of compromise
for the testing of Israel
sin, bondage, warfare, rest
tests and lessons
the lefty and the locked room
where did all the spirits go?

The JUDGES shelf in Jeff’s library