3:12 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. ¹  The Lord gave King Eglon of Moab control over Israel ²  because they had done evil in the Lord’s sight. 3:13 Eglon formed alliances with ³  the Ammonites and Amalekites. He came and defeated Israel, and they seized the City of Date Palm Trees. 3:14 The Israelites were subject to ⁴  King Eglon of Moab for eighteen years.

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ⁵  raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. ⁶  The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. ⁷  3:16 Ehud made himself a sword – it had two edges and was eighteen inches long. ⁸  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. ⁹  3:19 But he went back ¹⁰  once he reached ¹¹  the carved images ¹²  at Gilgal. He said to Eglon, ¹³  “I have a secret message for you, O king.” Eglon ¹⁴  said, “Be quiet!” ¹⁵  All his attendants left. 3:20 When Ehud approached him, he was sitting in his well-ventilated ¹⁶  upper room all by himself. Ehud said, “I have a message from God ¹⁷  for you.” When Eglon rose up from his seat, ¹⁸  3:21 Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled the sword from his right thigh, and drove it into Eglon’s ¹⁹  belly. 3:22 The handle went in after the blade, and the fat closed around the blade, for Ehud ²⁰  did not pull the sword out of his belly. ²¹  3:23 As Ehud went out into the vestibule, ²²  he closed the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

3:24 When Ehud had left, Eglon’s ²³  servants came and saw the locked doors of the upper room. They said, “He must be relieving himself ²⁴  in the well-ventilated inner room.” ²⁵  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. ²⁶  Right before their eyes was their master, sprawled out dead on the floor! ²⁷  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, ²⁸  he blew a trumpet ²⁹  in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites went down with him from the hill country, with Ehud in the lead. ³⁰  3:28 He said to them, “Follow me, for the Lord is about to defeat your enemies, the Moabites!” ³¹  They followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan River ³²  opposite Moab, ³³  and did not let anyone cross. 3:29 That day they killed about ten thousand Moabites ³⁴  – all strong, capable warriors; not one escaped. 3:30 Israel humiliated Moab that day, and the land had rest for eighty years.

11:1 The whole earth ¹  had a common language and a common vocabulary. ²