15. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and He raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjaminite, as a deliverer for them. The Israelites sent him to Eglon king of Moab with tribute money.
16. Ehud made himself a double-edged sword 18 inches long. He strapped it to his right thigh under his clothes
17. and brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was an extremely fat man.
18. When Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who had carried it.
19. At the carved images near Gilgal he returned and said, “King Eglon, I have a secret message for you.” The king called for silence, and all his attendants left him.
20. Then Ehud approached him while he was sitting alone in his room upstairs where it was cool. Ehud said, “I have a word from God for you,” and the king stood up from his throne.
21. Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and plunged it into Eglon’s belly.
22. Even the handle went in after the blade, and Eglon’s fat closed in over it, so that Ehud did not withdraw the sword from his belly. And Eglon’s insides came out.
23. Ehud escaped by way of the porch, closing and locking the doors of the upstairs room behind him.
24. Ehud was gone when Eglon’s servants came in. They looked and found the doors of the upstairs room locked and thought he was relieving himself in the cool room.
25. The servants waited until they became worried and saw that he had still not opened the doors of the upstairs room. So they took the key and opened the doors — and there was their lord lying dead on the floor!
26. Ehud escaped while the servants waited. He crossed over the Jordan near the carved images and reached Seirah.
27. After he arrived, he sounded the ram’s horn throughout the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites came down with him from the hill country, and he became their leader.