20 And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his seat.
21 And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his body:
22 and the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, for he drew not the sword out of his body; and it came out behind.
23 Then Ehud went forth into the porch, and shut the doors of the upper room upon him, and locked them.
24 Now when he was gone out, his servants came; and they saw, and, behold, the doors of the upper room were locked; and they said, Surely he is covering his feet in the upper chamber.
25 And they tarried till they were ashamed; and, behold, he opened not the doors of the upper room: therefore they took the key, and opened `them', and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.
26 And Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped unto Seirah.
27 And it came to pass, when he was come, that he blew a trumpet in the hill-country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel went down with him from the hill-country, and he before them.
28 And he said unto them, Follow after me; for Jehovah hath delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went down after him, and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and suffered not a man to pass over.
29 And they smote of Moab at that time about ten thousand men, every lusty man, and every man of valor; and there escaped not a man.
30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest fourscore years.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Judges 3
Commentary on Judges 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
In this chapter,
Jdg 3:1-7
We are here told what remained of the old inhabitants of Canaan.
Now concerning these remnants of the natives observe,
Jdg 3:8-11
We now come to the records of the government of the particular judges, the first of which was Othniel, in whom the story of this book is knit to that of Joshua, for even in Joshua's time Othniel began to be famous, by which it appears that it was not long after Israel's settlement in Canaan before their purity began to be corrupted and their peace (by consequence) disturbed. And those who have taken pains to enquire into the sacred chronology are generally agreed that the Danites' idolatry, and the war with the Benjamites for abusing the Levite's concubine, though related in the latter end of this book, happened about this time, under or before the government of Othniel, who, though a judge, was not such a king in Israel as would keep men from doing what was right in their own eyes. In this short narrative of Othniel's government we have,
Jdg 3:12-30
Ehud is the next of the judges whose achievements are related in this history, and here is an account of his actions.
Jdg 3:31
When it is said the land had rest eighty years, some think it meant chiefly of that part of the land which lay eastward on the banks of Jordan, which had been oppressed by the Moabites; but it seems, by this passage here, that the other side of the country which lay south-west was in that time infested by the Philistines, against whom Shamgar made head.