he himself turned back at the carved stones near Gilgal, and he said, "I have a secret message for you, King."
So Eglon said, "Hush!" and all his attendants went out of his presence. 20Ehud approached him while he was sitting alone in his cool second-story room, and he said, "I have a message from God for you." At that, Eglon got up from his throne. 21Ehud reached with his left hand and grabbed the sword from his right thigh. He stabbed it into Eglon's stomach, 22and even the handle went in after the blade. Since he did not pull the sword out of his stomach, the fat closed over the blade, and his guts spilled out.i 23Ehud slipped out to the porch, and closed and locked the doors of the second-story room behind him.
24After Ehud had slipped out, the king's servants came and found that the room's doors were locked. So they thought, He must be relieving himself in the cool chamber. 25They waited so long that they were embarrassed, but he never opened the doors of the room. Then they used the key to open them, and there was their master lying dead on the ground!
26Ehud had gotten away while they were waiting and had passed the carved stones and escaped to Seirah. 27When he arrived, he blew the ram's horn in the Ephraim highlands. So the Israelites went down from the highlands with Ehud leading them. 28He told them, "Follow me, for the LORD has handed over your enemies the Moabites." So they followed him, and they took control of the crossing points of the Jordan in the direction of Moab, allowing no one to cross. 29This time, they defeated the Moabites, about ten thousand big and strong men, and no one escaped. 30Moab was brought down by the power of Israel on that day, and there was peace in the land for eighty years.
Shamgar
31After Ehud, Shamgar, Anath's son, struck down six hundred Philistines with an animal prod. He too rescued Israel.
Deborah, Barak, and Jael
Judges 4After Ehud had died, the Israelites again did things that the LORD saw as evil. 2So the LORD gave them over to King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, and he was stationed in Harosheth-ha-goiim. 3The Israelites cried out to the LORD because Siseraj had nine hundred iron chariots and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly for twenty years.
4Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth,k was a leader of Israel at that time. 5She would sit under Deborah's palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the Ephraim highlands, and the Israelites would come to her to settle disputes. 6She sent word to Barak, Abinoam's son, from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "Hasn't the LORD, Israel's God, issued you a command? 'Go and assemble at Mount Tabor, taking ten thousand men from the people of Naphtali and Zebulun with you. 7I'll lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, to assemble with his chariots and troops against you at the Kishon River, and then I'll help you overpower him.'"
8Barak replied to her, "If you'll go with me, I'll go; but if not, I won't go."
9Deborah answered, "I'll definitely go with you. However, the path you're taking won't bring honor to you, because the LORD will hand over Sisera to a woman." Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10He summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men marched out behind him. Deborah marched out with him too.
11Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses' father-in-law, and had settled as far away as Elon-bezaanannim, which is near Kedesh.
12When it was reported to Sisera that Barak, Abinoam's son, had marched up to Mount Tabor, 13Sisera summoned all of his nine hundred iron chariots and all of the soldiers who were with him from Harosheth-ha-goiim to the Kishon River. 14Then Deborah said to Barak, "Get up! This is the day that the LORD has handed Sisera over to you. Hasn't the LORD gone out before you?" So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men behind him. 15The LORD threw Sisera and all the chariots and army into a panicl before Barak; Sisera himself got down from his chariot and fled on foot. 16Barak pursued the chariots and the army all the way back to Harosheth-ha-goiim, killing Sisera's entire army with the sword. No one survived.
17Meanwhile, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Hazor's King Jabin and the family of Heber the Kenite. 18Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come in, sir, come in here. Don't be afraid." So he went with her into the tent, and she hid him under a blanket.
19Sisera said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink. I'm thirsty." So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink, and hid him again. 20Then he said to her, "Stand at the entrance to the tent. That way, if someone comes and asks you, 'Is there a man here?' you can say, 'No.'"
21But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent stake and a hammer. While Sisera was sound asleep from exhaustion, she tiptoed to him. She drove the stake through his head and down into the ground, and he died. 22Just then, Barak arrived after chasing Sisera. Jael went out to meet him and said, "Come and I'll show you the man you're after." So he went in with her, and there was Sisera, lying dead, with the stake through his head.
23So on that day God brought down Canaan's King Jabin before the Israelites. 24And the power of the Israelites grew greater and greater over Canaan's King Jabin until they defeated him completely.
Deborah's song
Judges 5At that time, Deborah and Barak, Abinoam's son, sang:
2When hair is long in Israel,
when people willingly offer themselves--bless the LORD!
3Hear, kings!
Listen, rulers!
I, to the LORD,
I will sing.
I will make music to the LORD,
Israel's God.
4LORD, when you set out from Seir,
when you marched out from Edom's fields, the land shook,
the sky poured down,
the clouds poured down water.
5The mountains quaked
before the LORD, the one from Sinai,
before the LORD, the God of Israel.
6In the days of Shamgar, Anath's son,
in the days of Jael, caravans ceased.
Those traveling by road
kept to the backroads.
7Villagers disappeared;
they disappeared in Israel,
until you,m Deborah, arose,
until you arose as a mother in Israel.
8When they chose new gods,
then war came to the city gates.n
Yet there wasn't a shield or spear to be seen
among forty thousand in Israel!
9My heart is with Israel's commanders,
who willingly offered themselves among the people--bless the LORD!
10You who ride white donkeys,
who sit on saddle blankets,o
who walk along the road: tell of it.
11To the sound of instrumentsp at the watering places,
there they repeat the LORD's victories,
his villagers' victories in Israel.