1 These are the nations that Yahweh let live in order to test the Israelites through them, that is to say, all the Is raelites who had not known any of the wars in Canaan.
2 He let these people live so that the generation of the children of Israel who had not known war before might learn how to fight.
3 These people were the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites, the Sidonians and the Hivites of Mount Lebanon, from the mountain of Baal-hermon to as far as the entrance of Hamath.
4 They remained to test Israel to see if they would observe the commandments that Yahweh had prescribed to their fathers through Moses.
5 So the Israelites lived in the midst of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Pe riz zites, Hivites and Je bu sites.
6 The Israelites married the daugh ters of these people, gave their own daughters in marriage to the sons of these people and served their gods.
Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar
7 The Israelites treated Yahweh badly; they forgot Yahweh, their God, and served the Baals and the Ashe roths.
8 Because of this, the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel and he left them in the hands of Cushanrish athaim, king of Aram, to whom they were subject for eight years.
9 Then the Israelites cried to Yah-weh, and he raised up from among them a liberator who saved them—Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.
10 The spirit of Yahweh was upon him and he led Israel. When Othniel went to war, Yahweh gave Cushanrishathaim, king of Aram, into Othniel’s hands.
11 Othniel won over the king and the land had peace for forty years. Then Othniel, son of Kenaz, died.
12 The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, so he strengthened Eglon, king of Mo ab, so he could attack them; that was because they had treated Yahweh badly.
13 Eglon joined the Ammonites and the Amalekites; they set out and marched together defeating Israel and taking the City of Palms.
14 The Israelites became subject to Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years.
15 But as they cried to Yahweh, he gave them a liberator—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera, from the tribe of Benjamin.
The Israelites entrusted a gift to him to bring to Eglon, king of Moab.
16 So, Ehud made for himself a two-edged dagger, one cubit long, and strapped it on his right thigh under his clothes.
17 He then went to present the gift to Eglon, king of Moab. Eglon was a very fat man.
18 When Ehud finished offering the present, he dismissed the men who had brought all the things.
19 But when he arrived at the place of the Idols, near Gilgal, he went back to the king, and said to Eglon, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” Eglon, king of Moab, then declared, “Leave me alone!” And so everyone who was present left the room.
20 Then Ehud approached him, while the king was seated alone on his private roof chamber where it was cool. Ehud said to him, “Lord, I have a warning from God for you.” The king rose from his seat.
21 Then Ehud, with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into the king’s belly.
22 The handle even went in with the blade and the fat closed over the blade, for Ehud did not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out.
23 Ehud jumped out through the window after having locked the doors of the roof behind him.
24 When he had gone, the servants came and saw that the doors of the upper room were locked. They thought, “He must be relieving himself in the cool room.”
25 They waited for some time, but the doors of the roof room remained closed. Finally, they took the keys and opened the doors: their lord lay on the floor dead.
26 Ehud had escaped while the servants waited for their king; he had passed through the place of the Idols and reached a safe place in Seirah.
27 When he arrived he had the trumpets sounded in the mountains of Ephraim and the Israelites went down from the mountains.
28 He stood before all of them and said, “Follow me, for Yah weh has given the people of Moab, our enemies, into our hands.” They went down with him, barred the passages of the Jordan towards Moab and they let nobody pass.
29 They defeated Moab on that occasion, killing some ten thousand, all strong and brave men. No body was spared.
30 So on that day, Moab became subject to Israel, and the land remained peaceful for eighty years.
31 Then Shamgar, the son of Anath, came; he killed six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He, too, saved Israel.
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Comments Judges, Chapter 3
• 3.7 They forgot Yahweh, their God, and served the Baals… and Yahweh left them in the hands of the king of Aram. The biblical text often plays with these words: he who serves a false god by his own will will be a slave against his own will. Compare with 1 Sa muel 7:3.
The spirit of Yahweh was on Othniel. See com mentary on 11:1.
Whereas Othniel and Ehud fought against the Edomites, the Moabites and Amonites, raiders from the other side of the Jordan, Shamgar encountered the Philistines. The latter had arrived by sea on the Palestinian coast at the same time that the Israelites arrived from the desert. A people of superior civilization, who were well-armed and organized, the Philis tines occupied the “Five De partments” i.e., the five cities of Gath, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron and Gaza, with the surrounding territories.
They dominated the rich plain that bordered the Mediterranean Sea, and their troops, time and again, harassed the Israelites who settled in the hills. Only King David would finally conquer them but their name would survive: Pales tine, name of the land of Israel, comes from “Philistines.”