“But when the people of Israel cried out to Adonai, Adonai raised up for them a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, from the tribe of Binyamin, a left-handed man. The people of Israel appointed him to take their tribute to ‘Eglon the king of Mo’av. Ehud made himself a double-edged sword eighteen inches long and strapped it to his right thigh under his clothes.“-Judges 3:15
Alrighty, from verse 15, the action begins to get fast and furious.
We’re told that Ehud, our Hebrew hero of the story, traveled to deliver a “present” to Eglon.
The word “present” here is misleading because what Ehud was actually delivering to Eglon was a tribute.
When one nation conquered another, the conquerer always sought to strengthen itself by forcing the defeated to pay tribute and taxes.
The tribute could take on many forms.
It could be crops, animals or resources such as rare metals that were native to the land.
Basically, anything of value the conquerer wanted he would force the defeated to give to him in the form of tribute.
So to put and end to this oppression, the Lord had planted a devious plan in Ehud’s mind to kill King Eglon.
This assassination, if successful, would in one fell stroke cause just enough panic and instability among the Moabites to allow Israel to free herself.
Here’s what Ehud had in mind.
He got a hold of a double-edged sword that was shorter in length than your usual sword.
We’re told it was 18 inches long or 1 cubit.
Ehud concealed the dagger under his clothes by tying it to his upper right thigh.
Now here’s the thing.
Since Ehud was left-handed, when he stretched his hand across the front of his body to grab the hidden weapon, the king would never suspect he was reaching for his sword.
Again, this is because very few folks were left-handed.
This deception would give Ehud a couple of extra seconds to reach under his clothing to grab the dagger that would be the end of Eglon’s life.
It also helped that it was a double-edged blade with no cross piece at the top handle.
Ehud didn’t have to worry about positioning the blade in a certain way.
He could just grab and stab.
The scene was now set for the assassination of the king who had made Israel’s life miserable for 18 years.
Leave a Reply