But when the Israelites cried out to the Lord [for help], the Lord raised up a man to rescue them, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a left-handed man. And the Israelites sent a gift of tribute by him to Eglon king of Moab.

Now Ehud made for himself a sword a cubit long, which had two edges, and he bound it on his right thigh under his robe.

And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who had carried it.

Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his [private] cool upper chamber, and Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And the king got up from his seat.

Then Ehud reached out with his left hand and took the sword from his right thigh, and plunged it into Eglon’s belly.

And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, because Ehud did not draw the sword out of his belly; and the refuse came out.

Then Ehud went out into the vestibule and shut the doors of the upper chamber behind him, and locked them.

When Ehud departed, Eglon’s servants came. And when they saw that the doors of the upper room were locked, they said, “He is only relieving himself in the cool room.”

Now Ehud escaped while they lingered, and he passed beyond the sculptured stones and escaped to Seirah.

After Ehud came Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistine men with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.

But the Israelites again did evil in the sight of the Lord, after Ehud died.

“In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath,
In the days of Jael, the highways were deserted,
And travelers went by roundabout ways.