Judges 3

1And these [are] the nations which the Lord left to prove Israel with them, all that had not known the wars of Chanaan.

2Only for the sake of the generations of Israel, to teach them war, only the men before them knew them not.

3The five lordships of the Phylistines, and every Chananite, and the Sidonian, and the Evite who dwelt in Libanus from the mount of Aermon to Laboemath.

4And [this] was done in order to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commands of the Lord, which he charged their fathers by the hand of Moses.

5And the children of Israel dwelt in the midst of the Chananite, and the Chettite, and the Amorite, and the Pherezite, and the Evite, and the Jebusite.

6And they took their daughters for wives to themselves, and they gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

7And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the groves.

8And the Lord was very angry with Israel, and sold them into the hand of Chusarsathaim king of Syria of the rivers: and the children of Israel served Chusarsathaim eight years.

9And the children of Israel cried to the Lord; and the Lord raised up a saviour to Israel, and he saved them, Gothoniel the son of Kenez, the brother of Chaleb younger than himself.

10And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel; and he went out to war against Chusarsathaim: and the Lord delivered into his hand Chusarsathaim king of Syria of the rivers, and his hand prevailed against Chusarsathaim.

11And the land was quiet forty years; and Gothoniel the son of Kenez died.

12And the children of Israel continued to do evil before the Lord: and the Lord strengthened Eglom king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil before the Lord.

13And he gathered to himself all the children of Ammon and Amalec, and went and smote Israel, and took possession of the city of Palm-trees.

14And the children of Israel served Eglom the king of Moab eighteen years.

15And the children of Israel cried to the Lord; and he raised up to them a saviour, Aod the son of Gera a son of Jemeni, a man who used both hands alike: and the children of Israel sent gifts by his hand to Eglom king of Moab.

16And Aod made himself a dagger of two edges, of a span long, and he girded it under his cloak upon his right thigh.

17And he went, and brought the presents to Eglom king of Moab, and Eglom [was] a very handsome man.

18And it came to pass when Aod [had] made an end of offering his gifts, that he dismissed those that brought the gifts.

19And he himself returned from the quarries that are by Galgal; and Aod said, I have a secret errand to thee, O king! and Eglom said to him, Be silent: and he sent away from his presence all who waited upon him.

20And Aod went in to him; and he sat in his own upper summer chamber quite alone; and Aod said, I have a message from God to thee, O king: and Eglom rose up from his throne near him.

21And it came to pass as he arose, that Aod stretched forth his left hand, and took the dagger off his right thigh, and plunged it into his belly;

22and drove in also the haft after the blade, and the fat closed in upon the blade, for he drew not out the dagger from his belly.

23And Aod went out to the porch, and passed out by the appointed [guards], and shut the doors of the chamber upon him, and locked [them].

24And he went out: and Eglom's servants came, and saw, and behold, the doors of the upper chamber [were] locked; and they said, Does he not uncover his feet in the summer-chamber?

25And they waited till they were ashamed, and, behold, there was no one that opened the doors of the upper chamber; and they took the key, and opened them; and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead upon the earth.

26And Aod escaped while they were in a tumult, and no one paid attention to him; and he passed the quarries, and escaped to Setirotha.

27And it came to pass when Aod came into the land of Israel, that he blew the horn in mount Ephraim, and the children of Israel came down with him from the mountain, and he [was] before them.

28And he said to them, Come down after me, for the Lord God has delivered our enemies, even Moab, into our hand; and they went down after him, and seized on the fords of Jordan before Moab, and he did not suffer a man to pass over.

29And they smote Moab on that day about ten thousand men, every lusty [person] and every mighty man; and not a man escaped.

30So Moab was humbled in that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had rest eighty years; and Aod judged them till he died.

31And after him rose up Samegar the son of Dinach, and smote the Philistines to the number of six hundred men with a ploughshare [such as is drawn by] oxen; and he too delivered Israel.