Providence and Peace

Ehud has struck down Eglon, king of Moab, bringing God’s judgment upon him. Divine providence now attends Ehud’s escape, for his work of deliverance is not finished. Eglon is unable to cry out when he is stabbed; even the fall of his large body does not produce suspicious noises. Therefore, with “a strong confidence in the divine protection, [Ehud] shut the doors after him, took the key with him, and passed through the guards with such an air of innocence, and boldness, and unconcernedness, as made them not at all to suspect his having done anything amiss,” Matthew Henry writes. Furthermore, the locked doors confuse the Moabite servants. Assuming that Eglon is “ ‘attending to his needs’ ”—Henry believes the king may be taking a customary nap—the servants wait for some time. When at last they unlock the door and find the king dead, it is too late to arrest Ehud.

Escaping to Seirah and then to the mountains of Ephraim, Ehud turns recruiter. He sounds a trumpet and raises an army. His message: “ ‘Follow me, for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.’ ” With victory thus assured, they march down, first taking the fords of the Jordan so that no Moabites in the land may escape, then killing all the Moabites who are there, ten thousand all told. These are “stout men of valor,” but they cannot stand against an army whose ally is God. Thus, Moab’s grip on Israel is broken and the land has rest for some 80 years—twice as long as the period of peace that followed Othniel’s victory. But again, the underlying problem that led to the nation’s oppression in the first place—the presence of the Canaanites in Israel’s midst, with all the enticements of their pagan lifestyle—is not removed.

The peace lasts until Ehud dies (4:1), but it is not a perfect peace, for the part of Israel near Philistia apparently falls under its domination at this time; we know that, at the very least, the roads are unsafe and the people endangered (Judg. 5:6). But God sends a third judge, Shamgar. We are told nothing of this man except that he performs a mighty feat—he kills 600 Philistines with an ox goad. Perhaps he is a farmer working with his oxen when the Philistines attack, and he simply seizes the first thing he can find to use as a weapon to resist them. In any case, he breaks Philistine oppression of Israel for years to come.