3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he 1 raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. 2 The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. 3 3:16 Ehud made himself a sword – it had two edges and was eighteen inches long. 4 He strapped it under his coat on his right thigh. 3:17 He brought the tribute payment to King Eglon of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.)
3:18 After Ehud brought the tribute payment, he dismissed the people who had carried it. 5 3:19 But he went back 6 once he reached 7 the carved images 8 at Gilgal. He said to Eglon, 9 “I have a secret message for you, O king.” Eglon 10 said, “Be quiet!” 11 All his attendants left. 3:20 When Ehud approached him, he was sitting in his well-ventilated 12 upper room all by himself. Ehud said, “I have a message from God 13 for you.” When Eglon rose up from his seat, 14 3:21 Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled the sword from his right thigh, and drove it into Eglon’s 15 belly. 3:22 The handle went in after the blade, and the fat closed around the blade, for Ehud 16 did not pull the sword out of his belly. 17 3:23 As Ehud went out into the vestibule, 18 he closed the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.
3:24 When Ehud had left, Eglon’s 19 servants came and saw the locked doors of the upper room. They said, “He must be relieving himself 20 in the well-ventilated inner room.” 21 3:25 They waited so long they were embarrassed, but he still did not open the doors of the upper room. Finally they took the key and opened the doors. 22 Right before their eyes was their master, sprawled out dead on the floor! 23 3:26 Now Ehud had escaped while they were delaying. When he passed the carved images, he escaped to Seirah.
3:27 When he reached Seirah, 24 he blew a trumpet 25 in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites went down with him from the hill country, with Ehud in the lead. 26 3:28 He said to them, “Follow me, for the Lord is about to defeat your enemies, the Moabites!” 27 They followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan River 28 opposite Moab, 29 and did not let anyone cross. 3:29 That day they killed about ten thousand Moabites 30 – all strong, capable warriors; not one escaped. 3:30 Israel humiliated Moab that day, and the land had rest for eighty years.