3:12-14
We now come to the second judge, Ehud. As soon as Othniel died the Israelites reverted to their usual custom of doing evil in the eyes of the Lord. The result was that the Lord gave them over to Eglon king of Moab. In some ways this is similar to God giving man over to various sinful desires, as described in Rom 1:24,26,28. Eglon got the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him and they took over the “City of Palms”, this is actually Jericho. The Israelites were subject to Eglon for eighteen years.
3:15,16
We get a similar pattern to the previous case, with Israel crying out, and God sending a deliverer. This time it is Ehud, and it is noted that he was left-handed, and a Benjaminite. Left-handedness was, and is, relatively unusual, and some societies are suspicious of left-handedness, though nothing negative about it is said in the Bible. We get quite an involved story about Ehud. It starts with him being sent with tribute to Eglon. This is money they would have to pay each year, or suffer the consequences. I.e. It was a kind of protection racket. Ehud took the money, but had other plans. He also took a double edged sword. His left handedness may have been significant in that it enabled him to hide it by strapping it to his right hand.
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