1These are the nations that Yahweh let live in order to test the Israelites through them, that is to say, all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars in Canaan. 2He let these people live so that the generation of the children of Israel who had not known war before might learn how to fight. 3These 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.
4They remained to test Israel to see if they would observe the commandments that Yahweh had prescribed to their fathers through Moses. 5So the Israelites lived in the midst of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6The Israelites married the daughters of these people, gave their own daughters in marriage to the sons of these people and served their gods.
Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar
7 ① The Israelites treated Yahweh badly; they forgot Yahweh, their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroths. 8Because of this, the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel and he left them in the hands of Cushanrishathaim, king of Aram, to whom they were subject for eight years.
9Then 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. 10The 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. 11Othniel won over the king and the land had peace for forty years. Then Othniel, son of Kenaz, died.
12The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, so he strengthened Eglon, king of Moab, so he could attack them; that was because they had treated Yahweh badly.
13Eglon joined the Ammonites and the Amalekites; they set out and marched together defeating Israel and taking the City of Palms. 14The Israelites became subject to Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years. 15But 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. 16So, Ehud made for himself a two-edged dagger, one cubit long, and strapped it on his right thigh under his clothes. 17He then went to present the gift to Eglon, king of Moab. Eglon was a very fat man.
18When Ehud finished offering the present, he dismissed the men who had brought all the things. 19But 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.
20Then 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. 21Then Ehud, with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into the king’s belly. 22The 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. 23Ehud jumped out through the window after having locked the doors of the roof behind him.
24When 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.” 25They 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.
26Ehud 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. 27When he arrived he had the trumpets sounded in the mountains of Ephraim and the Israelites went down from the mountains. 28He stood before all of them and said, “Follow me, for Yahweh 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.
29They defeated Moab on that occasion, killing some ten thousand, all strong and brave men. Nobody was spared. 30So on that day, Moab became subject to Israel, and the land remained peaceful for eighty years.
31Then Shamgar, the son of Anath, came; he killed six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He, too, saved Israel.
- Jdg 3,7 They forgot Yahweh, their God, and served the Baals... and Yahweh abandoned them into 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 Samuel 7:3. The spirit of Yahweh was on Othniel. See commentary 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 Philistines occupied the Five Departments 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: Palestine, name of the land of Israel, comes from Philistines.
