¹And these are the nations which the Lord left alone, in order to test Israel through them – all those who did not know all the wars of Canaan – ²but in order for the generations of the sons of Israel to know – to teach them war – just those who had not known them previously, they are: ³five barons of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived at the mountain range of Lebanon, from Mount Baal-Hermon to the approach to Hamath. ⁴Now they were to test Israel, by means of them, so as to know whether they would obey the Lord's commandments which he commanded their fathers through the intermediacy of Moses. ⁵And the sons of Israel dwelt in the midst of the Canaanites, the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. ⁶And they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and they gave their daughters to their sons, and they served their gods. ⁷And the sons of Israel did wrong in the eyes of the Lord, and they forgot the Lord their God, and they served the Baalim and the phallic parks. ⁸And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan-Rishathaim king of Aramaea of Mesopotamia, and the sons of Israel served Chushan-Rishathaim for eight years. ⁹And the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up a saviour to the sons of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. ¹⁰And the spirit of the Lord came on him, and he judged Israel, and he went out to battle, and the Lord delivered Chushan-Rishathaim king of Aramaea into his hand, and his hand prevailed against Chushan-Rishathaim. ¹¹Then the land was quiet for forty years, then Othniel the son of Kenaz died. ¹²The sons of Israel then did wrong in the sight of the Lord again, and the Lord strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done wrong in the sight of the Lord. ¹³And he recruited the sons of Ammon and Amalek, and they set off and struck Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palm Trees. ¹⁴Then the sons of Israel served Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years. ¹⁵And the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up a saviour to them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man, and the sons of Israel sent a gift through his agency to Eglon king of Moab. ¹⁶And Ehud made himself a sword with two edges, a short-cubit in length, and he girded it under his garments at his right thigh. ¹⁷And he offered the gift to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. ¹⁸And it came to pass, when he had finished offering the gift, that he sent the people who bore the gift out. ¹⁹And he returned from the quarry which was in Gilgal, and he said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And he said, “Shush.” And all the people standing around him went out away from him. ²⁰Then Ehud went to him. Now he was sitting in an upper cool room which was for himself only, and Ehud said, “I have a message from God to you.” And he got up from his seat. ²¹Then Ehud shot out his left hand and took his sword from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly. ²²And even the handle went in after the blade, and the fat closed in around the blade, because he did not draw the sword out of his belly, and it came out at his rectum. ²³Then Ehud went out through the porch, and he closed the doors to the upper room behind him and locked them. ²⁴And when he had gone out, his servants came and looked, and they found the doors of the upper room locked, and they said, “Surely he is covering his feet in the upper cool room.” ²⁵And they waited until they were ashamed, and contrary to expectation, he didn't open the doors to the upper room, so they took the key and opened it, and what they saw was that their master had fallen to the ground dead. ²⁶And Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he crossed over the quarry and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷And it came to pass, when he arrived, that he sounded the ramshorn at Mount Ephraim, and the sons of Israel came down with him from the mountain, and he was in front of them. ²⁸And he said to them, “Pursue following me, because the Lord has delivered your enemies – Moab – into your hand.” So they went down following him, and they captured the fords of the Jordan for crossing to Moab, and they did not allow any man to cross. ²⁹And they struck Moab at that time – about ten thousand men – all brawny and all valiant men, and not a man escaped. ³⁰So Moab was humiliated on that day by the power of Israel, and the land was quiet for eighty years. ³¹And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, and he struck the Philistines – six hundred men – with an ox-goad. And he too saved Israel.