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Saviours/Deliverers and Judges of the Israelites - Ehud.

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Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiatical Literature

The second judge of the Israelites, or, rather, of that part of Israel which he delivered from the dominion of the Moabites by the assassination of their king Eglon. These were the tribes beyond the Jordan, and the southern tribes on this side the river. In the Bible he is not called a judge, but a deliverer (i.e.); so Othniel (Jdg_3:9), and all the judges (Neh_9:27). As a Benjamite he was specially chosen to destroy Eglon, who had established himself in Jericho, which was included in the boundaries of that tribe. SEE EGLON. In Josephus he appears as a young man. He was very strong, and left-handed. So A.V.; but the more literal rendering is, as in the margin, "shut of his right hand." The words are differently rendered: 1. left- handed, and unable to use his right; 2. using his left hand as readily as his right. , applied to 700 Benjamites, the picked men of the army, who were not likely to be chosen for a physical defect.  The feint of drawing the dagger from the right thigh (Jdg_3:21) is consistent with either opinion. 
Ehud obtained access to Eglon as the bearer of tribute from the subjugated tribes, and being left-handed, or, rather, ambidextrous, he was enabled to use with a sure and fatal aim a dagger concealed under a part of his dress, where it was unsuspected, because it would there have been useless to a person employing his right hand. The circumstances attending this tragical event are somewhat differently given in Judges and in Josephus (see Winkler, Unters. Schurer Schriftst. 1:45 sq.; Redslob, in the Studien v. Krit. 9:912 sq.; Ewald, Isr. Gesch. 2:375 sq.). That Ehud had the entree of the palace is implied in Jdg_3:19), but more distinctly stated in Josephus.

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