1. The devastating word (3:12-30)

Despite the twice-repeated claim that Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, 3:12-15b creates positive expectations. The evil is unspecified, and the oppressor is satirized: Eglon means “Big Calf.” The tide turns when Israel cries to Yahweh. Though explicitly raised up by Yahweh, Ehud experiences no onrush of Yahweh’s spirit. He also embodies an irony: he is a Benjaminite, meaning “son of the right hand,” but is left-handed. A “left-handed right-hander” suggests an unpredictable hero.

Jdg 3:15c-17 sets the scene, an audience with Eglon to present tribute, then focuses on the double-edged dagger concealed on Ehud’s right thigh. V.7 captures Eglon’s vulnerability: the “big calf” is fatted! The assassination (vv.18-26) is bracketed by references to turning back from the idols and crossing the idols, spatial references with theological overtones (Polzin, 158-61). Ehud seizes his opportunity, returns alone, and cleverly gains privacy with Eglon by announcing a secret message. His claim of a message from God draws Eglon into striking range. Ehud’s secret divine message turns out to be fatally pointed. The dagger executes its mission in one thrust. The king’s bulk holds the dagger fast—Ehud’s message hits home! The NIV omits the next phrase of the Hebrew in which the king’s feces spill on the floor, though the narrative to follow requires this detail.

Jdg 3:23-26 frames the discovery of Eglon’s body with Ehud’s escape. He does not escape through the porch. Royal halls had two levels: a lower audience room and an elevated, enclosed dais. This upper room had a toilet emptying into a chamber below, which would have opened into the lower audience room for maintenance. After stabbing Eglon, Ehud locks the doors of the upper room from inside, passes through the passage from the upper to the lower levels and out into the audience room, then departs through the front door. The attendants return, discover the upper doors locked, and assume, probably from the odor, that the king is relieving himself. They wait until embarrassed, then open the door to discover their assassinated sovereign. (Halpern, 43-60).

Ehud’s individual achievement embraces all Israel (vv.27-30). Like their hero, the Israelites employ a clever strategem, capturing the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, who all, like their dead king, are fat! That all Israel participates in Ehud’s victory elevates Ehud above swashbuckling individualism. The summary of his career records an unparalleled eighty years of rest, and notice of Ehud’s death does not occur until 4:1.

This story is as double-edged as the dagger it celebrates. Ehud, despite the introduction’s religious billing, performs a secular deed. But this political act is bounded by theological innuendos. Though his divine message has a brutally secular point, he proclaims his deed an act of Yahweh! No Spirit-endued charismatic deliverer, Ehud’s divine enablement resides in his wits, his left-handedness, and his double-edged word of God. The story presents the mystery of God’s ways. He works not only through the Spirit-inflamed charismatic, but through the clever ruthlessness of an Ehud. That which seems “religious” may not be; the “secular” may yet conceal the double-edged word of God that still finds its mark and cannot be withdrawn.