CONTEXT:
Hero stories in the Book of Judges are bracketed in a template: 1– “the
children of Israel do that which is evil in the eyes of Yahh (worshipping other
gods); 2–Yahh causes an enemy to dominate Israel; 3– after a while Israel calls
out to Yahh. He sends them a hero. Then follows the story, after which, 4– the
hero judges the people and all is well till the people return to doing what is
evil in the eyes of Yahh.
Moav
(Moab) is the mountain country northeast of the Dead Sea. The City of Palms is
Jericho (cf Ju 1:16, Dt 34:3), west of the Yarden. Nearby, in the valley, is Gilgal where some sort of carvings
were a landmark. B’neyAmon lived
in what is now Jordan. Amalek seems to have been a roving tribe of warriors.
Ehud
is introduced as a Benjaminite. The last born of Jacob is generally called
Binyamin (בִּנְיָמִן) but the tribal name has a variant form, used here:
BenY’mini (ְמִנִי־יןבֶּ) which emphasizes the reference to dexterity, “one with
a strong right hand.” The narrator signals what will become fatal irony with an
elegant idiom for “left handed: “a man of encumbered right hand”( יַד־יְמִינוֹ אִטֵּר אִישׁ).
The
“sword” here sounds like a dagger lacking a crossguard. Agricultural implements
were used as weapons in those days but the period of Judges was the dawn of the
iron age and the story here may be calling attention to the new technology.
This
brief narrative has three words used nowhere else in Tanach: gomed (גֹמֶד), frequently translated
“cubit”, but I render it “short”; parsh’donah
(פַּרְשְׁדֹנָה), which can be rendered “feces” on the basis of a possible root
reading, a writerly touch of realism; misd’ron
(ןמִּסְדְּרוֹ), for which the context and root suggest “steps.”
“Covering
his feet,” cf 1 Samuel 24:4.
The word elef
literally means 1,000. In war stories the term refers to a military unit most
likely far fewer than 1,000, though the narrator could be exaggerating for
effect. An empire like Assyria or Babylonia could field an army of thousands
but in the days of the kings of Israel, 300 was probably a force that could be
raised and armed, provisioned, and sent against a town or another army. In
these stories, I render elef as
“battalion,” a unit of 300-1000 fighters in the U.S. Army. A “company” counts 62-190 soldiers, and
this may come closer to the word elef in
a historical sense. (DA Pamphlet 10-1)
Eglon,
king of Moav, gathered B’neyAmon and Amalek for an incursion into Israel. They
took possession of Ir Hatamarim, The City of Palms. The B’neyYisrael served
King Eglon for eighteen years. Then they cried out to Yahh and Yahh raised them
a liberator: Ehud benGera. He was of Binyamin–“Son of Right Hand”–but was left-handed.
The B’neyYisrael sent by his hand a tribute to King Eglon.
Ehud
made himself a sword. It had two cutting edges and was short. He belted it under his clothing on his
right thigh.
He
presented the tribute before King Eglon who was a very fat man. When he
finished presenting the tribute he led off the crew of tribute porters.
From the carvings at Gilgal he
returned and said, “I have a secret word for you, O King.”
“Quiet,” said the king , and all
they who stood by left his presence.
Ehud drew near him as he sat in his
cool penthouse, alone. “I have for you,” said Ehud, “a word of God.”
He rose from the seat. Ehud thrust
his left hand and took the sword from his right thigh, and drove it into
Eglon’s belly. The haft followed the blade–the fat closed behind the blade for
Ehud did not draw the sword from his belly. Feces came out.
Ehud left via the steps, closing
and locking behind him the penthouse doors. As he left, the servants arrived
and saw: the doors of the penthouse were locked! They said, “He must be
covering his feet in the cool room.” They waited till they were embarrassed,
and Eglon had not opened the penthouse doors. So they took the key and opened,
and there was their master fallen dead to the ground.
During their delay Ehud escaped,
passed the carvings and made it to S’irah. When he got to the Ephraim mountain he blew the shofar and
the B’neyYisrael descended with him, he in the lead.
“After me! Pursue!” said he, “for
Yahh has given your enemies, Moav, into your hands.” So they pursued, after him, and captured the Yarden crossings
to Moav, permitting none to cross. They struck Moav, at that time, about ten
battalions, every one of them fat and valorous. Not a man escaped.
That day Moav was subdued under the
hand of Yisrael, and the land was quiet eighty years.
© Rabbi David L. Kline http://good-to-be-a-jew.blogspot.com/
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