Ehud
Ehud served as a judge of Israel during a time when the nation faced eighteen years of oppression from the Moabites under King Eglon, a consequence of Israel's disobedience to God as described in the Book of Judges. A left-handed Benjamite, Ehud was chosen to deliver tribute to Eglon but secretly crafted a double-edged sword, which he used to assassinate the king in his private chamber before escaping to rally Israelite forces. He then led a successful military campaign that defeated the Moabites at the Jordan River, ending the oppression and securing eighty years of peace. This narrative highlights God's pattern of raising up deliverers to rescue His people, illustrating themes of divine sovereignty and the cycle of sin and redemption in Scripture.
Biography
- Occupation
- Judge, Assassin
- Tribe
- Benjamin
- Father
- Gera
- Era
- Judges (c. 1316-1236 BC)
- Nationality
- Israelite
Family
Did You Know?
Ehud belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, a group repeatedly described in Judges and 1 Chronicles as fielding an elite corps of seven hundred left-handed slingers who could hit a hair with a stone and never miss, giving his handedness a tribal rather than merely personal significance.
Because Ehud was left-handed he fastened his eighteen-inch double-edged sword to his right thigh, allowing him to draw the weapon across his body with his dominant hand while guards searched only the usual left side for concealed arms.
After driving the blade into the obese Eglon, Ehud left the entire sword inside the king so that even the hilt disappeared beneath the folds of fat, preventing immediate discovery and turning the assassination into a stealth operation that bought him critical escape time.
When Eglonโs servants found the doors locked they assumed their king was โcovering his feet,โ an ancient Hebrew euphemism for relieving himself, and therefore waited in embarrassment until Ehud had already crossed the Jordan fords and rallied Israelite forces.
Ehud sounded the shofar in the hill country of Ephraim and then seized the Jordan crossing points, cutting off the Moabite retreat and resulting in the slaughter of approximately ten thousand Moabite soldiers, an early example of using river fords as a strategic choke point in Israelite warfare.
Key Passages
Ehud's Dagger
Judges 3:15-22
This passage shows how God can use an unlikely person's bold creativity to bring deliverance and hope to His people.
15ut when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
Israel Delivered from Moab
Judges 3:26-30
God uses courageous obedience to deliver His people from oppression and grant them seasons of lasting peace.
26nd Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped unto Seirath.