Judges 3:21

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

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Ehud confronts Moabite king Eglon alone in an upper room immediately after Eglon rises from his seat in response to Ehud’s claim of delivering a message from God.

The words — The Hebrew וַיִּשְׁלַח (va-yishlach) means he stretched out or reached, and חֶרֶב (cherev) denotes the sword, together describing the deliberate physical motion of drawing a concealed blade and thrusting it forward.

The thread — The narrative of a leader drawing a weapon to execute judgment echoes Phinehas taking a spear in Numbers 25:7, Samuel’s warning about the sword in 1 Samuel 15:33, and the graphic depiction of a weapon piercing the liver in Job 20:25.

Why it lands — The passage records the exact sequence of the assassination without editorializing, leaving the reader to observe how the king’s isolation and the weapon’s concealment enable the violent resolution.

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

וַיִּשְׁלַ֤חva/i.yish.Lachand/ he stretched out אֵהוּד֙'e.HudEhud אֶת־'et-<obj.>יַ֣דyad[the] hand of שְׂמֹאל֔וֹse.mo.L/oleft/ his וַיִּקַּח֙va/i.yi.Kachand/ he took אֶת־'et-<obj.>הַחֶ֔רֶבha./Che.revthe/ sword מֵעַ֖לme./'Alfrom/ on יֶ֣רֶךְYe.rekh[the] thigh of יְמִינ֑וֹye.mi.N/oright/ his וַיִּתְקָעֶ֖הָva/i.yit.ka.'E./haand/ he thrust/ it בְּבִטְנֽוֹ׃be./vit.N/oin/ belly/ his

King James Version

And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly:

Cross-references

1 Samuel 15:33 But Samuel declared: “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal.
Numbers 25:7 On seeing this, Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand,
Job 20:25 It is drawn out of his back, the gleaming point from his liver. Terrors come over him.
Zechariah 13:3 And if anyone still prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, ‘You shall not remain alive, because you have spoken falsely in the name of the LORD.’ When he prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will pierce him through.
2 Corinthians 5:16 So from now on we regard no one according to the flesh. Although we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

People named

Ehud