Judgments of God

The cycle of events that led to the judgeship of Othniel here repeats itself. Israel again does evil (the nature of the evil is not recorded, but idolatry presumably is in view). In response, God again sends an enemy to oppress His people—Eglon king of Moab, reinforced by the Ammonites and Amalekites. The Israelites defeated the Amalekites after coming out of Egypt (Ex. 17). The people of Moab and Ammon, descended from the sons of Lot (Gen. 19:37–38), live to the east and southeast of Israel; God prohibited Israel from attacking them during its approach to Canaan (Deut. 2:9, 19). Moab’s king tried to induce Balaam to curse Israel, but God foiled his efforts (Num. 22–24). Now these peoples unite to subjugate Israel, taking the City of Palms near Jericho. And Israel serves Moab’s king for 18 years.

When at last Israel cries to God, He again takes pity on His people and sends a deliverer, Ehud, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, in which tribe’s land lies the City of Palms. Ehud, we are told, is left-handed, as are many Benjamites (Judg. 20:16). Ironically, the name Benjamin means “son of the right hand.” God will use this left-handed man as an instrument of deliverance in His own right hand (see Ex. 15:6; Ps. 44:3). Ehud is providentially selected to bear Israel’s tribute payment to Eglon. Perhaps hoping for an opportunity to strike his people’s oppressor, he fashions a dagger and conceals it on his right thigh, where he can draw it quickly with his left hand and where Eglon’s guards will not be likely to look for it.

Ehud and his party deliver the tribute and apparently depart, but Ehud turns back “from the stone images the were at Gilgal.” It seems he goes past Gilgal, Israel’s first camp in Canaan, where stand the memorial stones (Josh. 4:2). Moab apparently has erected idols at the site, and the sight of these idols perhaps fills Ehud with resolve to carry out his plan. Returning to Eglon, he announces that he has a secret message for the king. Ushered into Eglon’s presence, he intimates that his message is from God. Eglon respectfully stands to receive God’s Word. But the message he receives is one of judgment, for Ehud stabs him with his concealed dagger. As Matthew Henry notes, Ehud does not “murder” or “assassinate” the king; rather, “as a judge, or minister of divine justice, [he] executed the judgments of God upon him.”