JUDGE OF ISRAEL · THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL

Ehud. Struck down Eglon of Moab; the land had rest eighty years.

LED ISRAELi

Not given Not given; after the victory "the land had rest fourscore years"

TRIBE

Benjamin

IN THE LINE

4th of 15

SCRIPTURE SAYS

“The LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded.”

PROPHETS

None named

THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL: 15 RULERS MOSES → SAMUEL

THE CYCLE

Forgetting, oppression, a cry, a deliverer, rest

  • 1 · FORGOT GOD "The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD." Judges 3:12
  • 2 · OPPRESSED: EGLON, KING OF MOAB, 18 YEARS With Ammon and Amalek, Eglon took "the city of palm trees", and Israel served him eighteen years. Judges 3:12–14
  • 3 · CRIED OUT "When the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer." Judges 3:15
  • 4 · DELIVERED Ehud killed Eglon, then led Israel down from mount Ephraim, held the fords of the Jordan and killed about ten thousand Moabites. Judges 3:21–29
  • 5 · REST The land had rest 80 years. Judges 3:30

SUCCESSION

Before and after

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

What Scripture says of him

  • "The LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded." Judges 3:15
  • To Eglon he said: "I have a message from God unto thee." Judges 3:20
  • To Israel: "Follow after me: for the LORD hath delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand." Judges 3:28
  • "So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel." Judges 3:30

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

THE LAND

The places Scripture names

The tribes of Israel · tribe of Benjamin. Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

MOAB, WITH AMMON AND AMALEK

Eglon, king of Moab

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

SCRIPTURE'S OWN NUMBERS

No years given

Eighteen years of oppression and eighty of rest (Judges 3:14, 3:30). No year BC is given.

Some periods overlap

Sebastian Schmid (1684), Keil (1865), Ewald and Hengstenberg, as listed by Moore; Mack in the ISBE (1915)

Judges 10:7 sells Israel to the Philistines and the Ammonites together, so the two oppressions can run at the same time; Samson judged "in the days of the Philistines". On Keil's reckoning the totals then fit 1 Kings 6:1. Mack also makes Ibzan, Elon and Abdon partly overlap Jephthah and Samson.[1][19][30]

A scheme of forty-year generations

Moore (1895), following Nöldeke (1869) and Wellhausen

Moore notes how often 40, 80 and 20 recur and reads 1 Kings 6:1's 480 years as twelve generations of forty, a systematic chronology in which years of foreign rule are not counted.[19]

A much shorter period

Lepsius and Bunsen, as reported by Keil

Starting from the view that the numbers are round, Lepsius and Bunsen held that the whole period lasted only 169 to 187 years. Keil reports this in order to reject it.[1]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 2

Judges 3 Judges 4

PASSAGES · 2

Judges 3:12–30 Judges 4:1

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Judges calls Ehud a "deliverer" (3:15) but never says that he "judged Israel".
  • Scripture does not say what Ehud did during the eighty years of rest; the next notice is "when Ehud was dead" (Judges 4:1).
  • Shamgar, who "also delivered Israel" with an ox goad after Ehud (Judges 3:31), is not given a page here: the text never says he judged.

IDENTIFICATIONS THIS PAGE RELIES ON

  • From the textThe site's family data, from STEP Bible, links "Gera" to the son of Benjamin in Genesis 46:21 and attaches the "sons of Ehud" of 1 Chronicles 8:6 to this Ehud. Judges states neither link. Judges 3:15 Genesis 46:21 1 Chronicles 8:6

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 276–286 (chronology of the judges).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 322–323 (Judges 5:25–27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 357–358 (Judges 8:27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 373 (Judges 10:3–5).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 387–394 (Judges 11:34–40).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 398 (Judges 12:8–10).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 156–157 (Joshua 15:13–19).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 208 (Joshua 19:50).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), pp. 17–18 (1 Samuel 1:1).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), p. 39 (1 Samuel 2:27–36).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), p. 56 (1 Samuel 4:18).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), pp. 117–118 (1 Samuel 12:11).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. Andrew Harper, Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Chronicles (1872), pp. 123–124 (1 Chronicles 6:28, Hebrew 6:13).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. Andrew Harper, Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Chronicles (1872), p. 165 (1 Chronicles 9:22).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 2 (1872 printing) (1872), p. 87 (Exodus 18:24–27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), pp. 71–72 and note (Numbers 11:24–30).
  • George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (International Critical Commentary) (1903), pp. 113–115 (Numbers 11:25–29).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), p. 499 (Deuteronomy 33:4–5).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. xxxvii–xlii (Introduction §7, Chronology).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. xxviii–xxix (Introduction, the Minor Judges).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 27 and notes (Judges 1:13).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 66–67 (Judges 2:9).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 107–108 (Judges 4, the two accounts).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 113–114 (Judges 4:5).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 231–232 (Judges 8:27).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 274–275 (Judges 10:4).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 302–305 and note (Judges 11:39).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 310 (Judges 12:8).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 311 (Judges 12:13–15, on 1 Samuel 12:11).
  • Edward Mack, in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, "Chronology of the Old Testament" (1915), section VII (From the Disruption to the Exodus).
  • S. R. Driver, The Book of Exodus (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1911), p. xxx (Introduction §4).
  • James Henry Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. III (1906), §617, p. 264 (Merneptah's Hymn of Victory).
  • Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, vol. 1 (Genesis to Deuteronomy) (1706), on Deuteronomy 33:5.
  • Julius Wellhausen, tr. J. S. Black and A. Menzies, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (1885), ch. VI (Chronicles), §III.2.

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