Bible Strands
Judges 3:17
and brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was an obese man.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Ehud arriving to deliver the tribute to King Eglon of Moab. This moment follows immediately after Ehud concealed a double-edged sword on his right thigh under his cloak.
The words — וַיַּקְרֵב (va-yakrev) means "and he brought near," and אִישׁ (ish) means "man." The text uses these terms to state that Ehud presented the tribute to Eglon, identifying him simply as a man.
The thread — The physical description of Eglon parallels Job 15:27 and Ezekiel 34:20, which use bodily fatness to mark physical bulk or divine judgment. The tribute delivery sets up the confrontation in Judges 3:29, where Ehud's subsequent strike results in the slaughter of ten thousand robust Moabites.
Why it lands — The text records Eglon's obesity before the assassination to establish the physical reality of the target. It asks the reader to note how Ehud's concealed weapon and the king's physical stature create the conditions for the coming violence.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man.
Cross-references
- Job 15:27 Though his face is covered with fat and his waistline bulges with flesh,
- Ezekiel 34:20 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says to them: ‘Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.
- Judges 3:29 At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all robust and valiant men. Not one of them escaped.
- Psalms 73:19 How suddenly they are laid waste, completely swept away by terrors!
- Jeremiah 5:28 They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.
- Jeremiah 50:11 “Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph—you who plunder My inheritance—because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions,
- 1 Samuel 2:29 Why then do you kick at My sacrifice and offering that I have prescribed for My dwelling place? You have honored your sons more than Me by fattening yourselves with the best of all the offerings of My people Israel.’
- Psalms 73:7 From their prosperity proceeds iniquity; the imaginations of their hearts run wild.