Bible Strands
Judges 3:24
After Ehud was gone, Eglon’s servants came in and found the doors of the upper room locked. “He must be relieving himself in the cool room,” they said.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports that Eglon’s servants entered the upper room after Ehud departed and found the doors secured. They speak among themselves, offering a casual explanation for the prolonged silence.
The words — The phrase דּלְתֹת הָעֲלִיָּה (daləṯōṯ hāʿăliyyāh) literally translates to "doors of the roof chamber," pinpointing the exact architectural space Ehud sealed. The verb יָצָא (yāṣāʾ) means "he went forth," marking the precise narrative moment Ehud exits to trigger the lock.
The thread — The locked chamber motif reappears when Saul enters a cave to relieve himself while David conceals himself within (1 Samuel 24:3). Both passages deploy a secured, private space to frame a moment of royal vulnerability and hidden divine action.
Why it lands — The text presents the servants' unexamined assumption as the direct mechanism that delays discovery of the assassination. It asks the reader to observe how narrative tension relies on human rationalization obscuring accomplished judgment.
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
When he was gone out, his servants came; and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked, they said, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 24:3 Soon Saul came to the sheepfolds along the road, where there was a cave, and he went in to relieve himself. And David and his men were hiding in the recesses of the cave.