UNROLL
Dawn over the palm oasis of Jericho: green palms and gardens around a spring, a two-story mud-brick house with a roof chamber among them, the blue wall of the mountains of Moab beyond.

The Book of

Judges 3

Three deliverers: a model judge, a left-handed man with the tribute, and a farmer with an oxgoad.

31 verses≈ 6 min4 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1–2Not finishedThe land left half-taken
  2. 3–5The cycleSin, oppression, a delivererChapter 3
  3. 6–10Gideon and afterA weak man, a strong God
  4. 11–16Jephthah and SamsonFlawed deliverers
  5. 17–21No king in IsraelEveryone did as he saw fit

Nations Left to Test Israel

These are the nations that the LORD left to test all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars in Canaan, if only to teach warfare to the subsequent generations of Israel, especially to those who had not known it formerly:

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Spring in the long valley between the Lebanon ranges: dark cedar and fir forest on the steep western slopes, snow on the high ridges, and the white mass of Mount Hermon closing the valley to the south.

the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the mountains of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath.

Reflect

Tested

The nations were left in the land “to find out whether they would keep the commandments of the LORD.” Israel did not fall in one battle. They settled in beside their neighbors, married into their families, and “served their gods.” What, in your ordinary days, shows what you really love? Write down one place where you are being tested, and what keeping His commandments would look like there.

Othniel

Morning at the gate of a small hill town in Judah: Othniel, a strong bearded man with a sheathed bronze sword at his belt, stands in the gateway looking out; men of Judah with spears gather behind him.

The cycle

Othniel: the pattern

  1. Sin

    Israel forgets the LORD

    So the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.

  2. Oppression

    Sold to Cushan for eight years

    Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram-naharaim, and the Israelites served him eight years.

  3. Deliverer

    They cry out; Othniel is raised up

    But when the Israelites cried out to the LORD, He raised up Othniel son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz as a deliverer to save them.

  4. The Spirit of the LORD on him

    The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he became Israel’s judge and went out to war.

  5. Cushan given into his hand

    And the LORD delivered Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram into the hand of Othniel, who prevailed against him.

  6. Rest

    Rest for forty years

    So the land had rest for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.

But when the Israelites cried out to the LORD, He raised up Othniel son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz as a deliverer to save them.

Judges 3:9

Ehud

Once again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. So He gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD. After enlisting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join forces with him, Eglon attacked and defeated Israel, taking possession of the City of Palms.

The Israelites served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.

And again they cried out to the LORD, and He raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjamite, as their deliverer. So they sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.

Now Ehud had made for himself a double-edged sword a cubit long. He strapped it to his right thigh under his cloak and brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was an obese man.

After Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he ushered out those who had carried it.

Question

Quick question

Each turn of the cycle ends with rest for the land.

How long did the land have rest after Othniel?

MoabAmmonJordan RiverBenjaminEphraimDead SeaJerichoGilgal (site uncertain)

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Ehud and Moab

Eglon of Moab, with the Ammonites and Amalekites, crossed the Jordan and took the City of Palms, that is, Jericho’s oasis. Ehud of Benjamin brought the tribute there, escaped past the idols near Gilgal to Seirah (its site is unknown) and blew the ram’s horn in the hill country of Ephraim. Then Israel came down and seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab. Gilgal’s site is uncertain. Aram-naharaim, where Cushan-rishathaim came from, lies far off the map to the northeast, in Mesopotamia. The Dead Sea is shown to help find the way.

Ehud

But upon reaching the idols near Gilgal, he himself turned back and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.”

Eglon, king of Moab

“Silence,” said the king, and all his attendants left him.

Then Ehud approached him while he was sitting alone in the coolness of his upper room.

Ehud

“I have a word from God for you,” Ehud said, and the king rose from his seat.

And Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled the sword from his right thigh, and plunged it into Eglon’s belly. Even the handle sank in after the blade, and Eglon’s fat closed in over it, so that Ehud did not withdraw the sword from his belly. And Eglon’s bowels emptied.

Then Ehud went out through the porch, closing and locking the doors of the upper room behind him.

After Ehud was gone, Eglon’s servants came in and found the doors of the upper room locked. “He must be relieving himself in the cool room,” they said. So they waited until they became worried and saw that he had still not opened the doors of the upper room. Then they took the key and opened the doors—and there was their lord lying dead on the floor.

Dusk on a high ridge of the hill country of Ephraim: a man seen from behind lifts a long curved ram's horn to his lips as men come out of villages on the slopes below.

Ehud, however, had escaped while the servants waited. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah.

On arriving in Seirah, he blew the ram’s horn throughout the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites came down with him from the hills, and he became their leader.

0:14

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

“Follow me,” he told them, “for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.”

So they followed him down and seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and they did not allow anyone to cross over.

At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all robust and valiant men. Not one of them escaped.

So Moab was subdued under the hand of Israel that day, and the land had rest for eighty years.

Judges 3:30

Pray

The LORD has delivered

Ehud did not point to himself. He said, “Follow me,” and gave the reason at once: “the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” Thank God that He hears when His people cry out, and that He uses the unlikely and the overlooked. Then pray: Lord, give me courage to answer when You call, and keep me quick to give You the credit. Amen.

Shamgar

After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath. And he too saved Israel, striking down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.

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Judges 3

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A verse to carry with you

But when the Israelites cried out to the LORD, He raised up Othniel son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz as a deliverer to save them.

Judges 3:9

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