15 But when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised them up a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a man left-handed. The children of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer - The very same words as are used at Judges 3:9. See, too, Judges 2:16, Judges 2:18, and Nehemiah 9:27.
Ehud "the Benjamite" was of the family or house of Gera 2-Samuel 16:5, the son of Bela, Benjamin's first-born, born before Jacob's descent into Egypt Genesis 46:21, and then included among "the sons of Benjamin." The genealogy in 1-Chronicles 8:6 intimates that Ehud (apparently written Abihud in Judges 3:3) became the head of a separate house.
Left-handed - See the margin. The phrase is thought to describe not so much a defect as the power to use left and right hands equally well (compare Judges 20:16; 1-Chronicles 12:2).
A present - i. e. tribute 2-Samuel 8:2, 2-Samuel 8:6; 1-Kings 4:21; Psalm 72:10. The employment of Ehud for this purpose points him out as a chief of some distinction. He would be attended by a numerous suite Judges 3:18. We may conclude that the destruction of the Benjamites Judg. 20 had not taken place at this time.
Ehud the son of Gera - a man left handed - איש אטר יד ימינו ish itter yad yemino, a man lame in his right hand, and therefore obliged to use his left. The Septuagint render it ανδρα αμφοτεροδεξιον, an ambidexter, a man who could use both hands alike. The Vulgate, qui utraque manu pro dextera utebatur, a man who could use either hand as a right hand, or to whom right and left were equally ready. This is not the sense of the original, but it is the sense in which most interpreters understand it. It is well known that to be an ambidexter was in high repute among the ancients: Hector boasts of it: -
Αυταρ εγων εν οιδα μαχας τ,ανδροκτασιας τε·
Οιδ' επι δεξια, οιδ' επ' αριστερα νωμησαι βων
Αζαλεην, το μοι εστι ταλαυρινον πολεμιζειν.
Iliad, lib. vii., ver. 237.
"But am in arms well practiced; many a Greek
Hath bled by me, and I can shift my shield
From right to left; reserving to the last
Force that suffices for severest toil."
Cowper.
Asteropaeus is also represented by Homer as an ambidexter, from which he derives great advantages in fight: -
Ὡς φατ' απειλησας· ὁ δ' ανεσχετο διος Αχιλλευς
Πηλιαδα μελιην· ὁ δ' ὁμαρτη δουρασιν αμφις
Ἡρως Αστεροπαιος, επει περιδεξιος ηε.
Iliad, lib. xxi., ver. 161.
So threatened he. Then raised Achilles high
The Pelian ash: - and his two spears at once
Alike, (a practiced warrior), with both hands
Asteropaeus hurled."
Cowper.
We are informed by Aristotle, that Plato recommended to all soldiers to acquire by study and exercise an equal facility of using both hands. Speaking of Plato, he says: Και την εν τοις πολεμικοισασκεσιν, ὁπως αμφιδεξιοι γινωνται κατα την μελετην, ὡς δεον μη την μεν χρησιμον ειναι ταιν χεροιν, την δε αχρηστον. - De Repub., lib. ii., cap. 12. "He (Plato) also made a law concerning their warlike exercises, that they should acquire a habit of using both hands alike; as it is not fit that one of the hands should be useful and the other useless." In Judges 20:16 of this book we have an account of seven hundred men of Benjamin, each of whom was אטר יד ימינו itter yad yemino, lame of his right hand, and yet slinging stones to a hair's breadth without missing: these are generally thought to be ambidexters.
Sent a present unto Eglon - This is generally understood to be the tribute money which the king of Moab had imposed on the Israelites.
But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord,.... After being long oppressed, and groaning under their burdens, and brought to a sense of their sins, and humiliation for them, they asked forgiveness of God, and deliverance from their bondage; for it is very probable they were until towards the close of those years stupid and hardened, and did not consider what was the reason of their being thus dealt with:
the Lord raised them up a deliverer; another saviour, one that he made use of as an instrument of their deliverance:
Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded; who is described by his parentage, a son of Gera, but who his father was is not known; by his tribe a Benjamite, in which Jericho was, Eglon possessed, and so might be more oppressed than any other part; and therefore the Lord stirred up one of that tribe to be the deliverer; and by his being a lefthanded man, as several of that tribe were, Judges 20:16; though a Benjamite signifies a son of the right hand; and he perhaps was one of those lefthanded Benjamites that fled to the rock Rimmon, as Dr. Lightfoot (u) conjectures, Judges 20:47; for that affair, though there related, was before this: the Septuagint calls him an "ambidexter", one that could use both hands equally alike; but the Hebrew phrase signifies one that is "shut up in his right hand" (w); who has not the true use of it, cannot exercise it as his other hand, being weak and impotent, or contracted through disuse, or some disease; or, as Josephus (x) expresses it, who could use his left hand best, and who also calls him a young man of a courageous mind and strong of body, and says he dwelt at Jericho, and was very familiar with Eglon, and who by his gifts and presents had endeared himself to all about the king:
and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab; either their yearly tribute, or rather a gift unto him, to soften him, and reconcile him to them, and make their bondage easier; or to give him access to him with more confidence and safety, though it does not seem that they knew anything of Ehud's design.
(u) Works, vol. 1. p. 46. (w) "obturatum manu dextera sua", Montanus; "habens manum dexterum obturatum", Munsterus; "erat clausa manu dextera", Tigurine version; "clausum manu dextera", Drusius; "perclusum", Junius & Tremellius; "praaeclusum", Piscator. (x) Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 4.) sect. 2.
Ehud the son of Gera--descended from Gera, one of Benjamin's sons (Genesis 46:21).
left-handed--This peculiarity distinguished many in the Benjamite tribe (Judges 20:16). But the original word is rendered in some versions "both-handed," a view countenanced by 1-Chronicles 12:2.
by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab--the yearly tribute, which, according to Eastern fashion, would be borne with ostentatious ceremony and offered (Judges 3:18) by several messengers.
But when the Israelites cried to the Lord for help, He set them free through the Benjaminite Ehud, whom He raised up as their deliverer. Ehud was "the son of Gera." This probably means that he was a descendant of Gera, since Gera himself, according to 1-Chronicles 8:3, was a son of Bela the son of Benjamin, and therefore was a grandson of Benjamin; and Shimei the contemporary of David, a man belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, is also called a son of Gera in 2-Samuel 16:5; 2-Samuel 19:17. At the same time, it is possible that the name Gera does not refer to the same person in these different passages, but that the name was repeated again and again in the same family. "A man shut with regard to his right hand," i.e., hindered in the use of his right hand, not necessarily crippled, but in all probability disabled through want of use from his youth upwards. That the expression does not mean crippled, is confirmed by the fact that it is used again in connection with the 700 brave slingers in the army of the Benjaminites in Judges 20:16, and it certainly cannot be supposed that they were all actual cripples. So much is certain, however, that it does not mean ἀμφοτεροδέξιος, qui utraque manu pro dextera utebatur (lxx, Vulg.), since אטר signifies clausit (shut) in Psalm 69:16. It is merely with reference to what follows that this peculiarity is so distinctly mentioned. - The Israelites sent a present by him to king Eglon. בידו does not mean in, but through, his hand, i.e., through his intervention, for others were actually employed to carry the present (Judges 3:18), so that Ehud merely superintended the matter. Minchah, a gift or present, is no doubt a euphemism for tribute, as in 2-Samuel 8:2, 2-Samuel 8:6; 1-Kings 5:1.
A Benjamite - This tribe was next to Eglon, and doubtless most afflicted by him; and hence God raiseth a deliverer. Left handed - Which is here noted, as a considerable circumstance in the following story.
*More commentary available at chapter level.