Judges 3:28

_AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, FOLLOW AFTER ME: FOR THE LORD HATH DELIVERED YOUR ENEMIES THE MOABITES INTO YOUR HAND. AND THEY WENT DOWN AFTER HIM, AND TOOK THE FORDS OF JORDAN TOWARD MOAB, AND SUFFERED NOT A MAN TO PASS OVER._ The Lord hath delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. They were enemies, not at that time only, but they almost invariably acted the part of an enemy to Israel; sometimes at open war with them, at other times tyrannizing over them, until at last, by these hostile course, they drew upon themselves national extermination (2 Samuel 8:2). TOOK THE FORDS (see the note at Joshua 2:7) - with the view of preventing all escape to the Moabite coast, and by the slaughter of 10,000 men, rescued his country from a state of ignominious vassalage....

12-30 When Israel sins again, God raises up a new oppressor. The Israelites did ill, and the Moabites did worse; yet because God punishes the sins of his own people in this world, Israel is weakened, and Moab strengthened against them. If lesser troubles do not do the work, God will send greater. When Israel prays again, God raises up Ehud. As a judge, or minister of Divine justice, Ehud put to death Eglon, the king of Moab, and thus executed the judgments of God upon him as an enemy to God and Israel. But the law of being subject to principalities and powers in all things lawful, is the rule of our conduct. No such commissions are now given; to pretend to them is to blaspheme God. Notice Ehud's address to Eglon. What message from God but a message of vengeance can a proud rebel expect? Such a message is contained in the word of God; his ministers are boldly to declare it, without feari...

Verse Judges 3:28. _TOOK THE FORDS OF JORDAN_] It is very likely that the Moabites, who were on the western side of Jordan, hearing of the death of Eglon, were panic-struck, and endeavoured to escape over Jordan at the _fords_ near Jericho, when Ehud blew his trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim, and thus to get into the land of the Moabites, which lay on the east of Jordan; but Ehud and his men, seizing the only pass by which they could make their escape, slew _ten thousand_ of them in their attempt to cross at those fords. What is called here the _fords_ was doubtless the place where the Israelites had passed Jordan when they (under Joshua) took possession of the promised land....

Ehud “went down” from the mountain of Ephraim into the Jordan valley beneath it, straight to the Jordan fords Joshua 2:7, so as to intercept all communication between the Moabites on the west side and their countrymen on the east....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 3:13 THE CHILDREN OF AMMON. The technical name of the Ammonite people (see Genesis 19:38; Deuteronomy 2:19, Deuteronomy 2:37; Judges 10:6, Judges 10:11, Judges 10:17, etc.). Sometimes, however, they are called _Ammon_, or _Ammonites _(see...

AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, FOLLOW AFTER ME,.... This he said to encourage them, putting himself at the head of them showing himself ready to expose his own life, if there was any danger: FOR THE LORD HATH DELIVERED YOUR ENEMIES THE MOABITES INTO YOUR HANDS; which he concluded from the success he had had in cutting off the king of Moab which had thrown the Moabites into great confusion and distress, and from an impulse on his mind from the Lord, assuring him of this deliverance: AND THEY WENT DOWN AFTER HIM: from the mountain of Ephraim: AND TOOK THE FORDS OF JORDAN TOWARDS MOAB; where the river was fordable, and there was a passage into the country of Moab, which lay on the other side Jordan; this they did to prevent the Moabites, which were in the land of Israel, going into their own land upon this alarm, and those in the land of Moab from going over to help them: AND SUFFERED NOT A MAN...

2. SECOND DECLENSION UNDER MOAB--EHUD AND SHAMGAR CHAPTER 3:12-31 _ 1. The second declension: serving Eglon, king of Moab (Judges 3:12)_ 2. Ehud raised up (Judges 3:15) 3. Eglon, king of Moab, slain by Ehud (Judges 3:16) 4. The deliverance by Shamgar (Judges 3:31) When they continued to do evil Jehovah used Eglon, king of Moab to punish their disobedience and evil-doings. With him there is Ammon and Amalek, a trinity of evil. The city of Palms is Jericho (Deuteronomy 34:3) a type of the world, as we saw from Joshua

EHUD, THE BENJAMITE. D's setting of the story of Ehud is apparent in Judges 3:12_ a_ and Judges 3:30. The story itself is a genuine folk-tale, handed down from century to century before being committed to writing. One can readily imagine with what zest it was told in the tribe of Benjamin, where the left-handed Ehud was a popular hero. On the moral question raised by his conduct, the facts at our disposal do not enable us to pronounce with confidence. To our minds Ehud is not very attractive either as a man or as a patriot Judges 3:12. The Edomites were in possession of the country to the E. of the Dead Sea, with the Arnon (pp. 32f.) as their northern border ...

_Ehud delivers Israel from Moab_ The story of Ehud is furnished by the editor with an introduction (Judges 3:12 a) and conclusion (Judges 3:30) in his usual manner. The narrative thus enclosed is one of the oldest in the Book; it has the freshness and vigour which belong to the best style of Hebrew story-telling. Traces of editorial interference may perhaps be detected here and there, Judges 3:19_; Judges 3:22; Judges 3:27_are taken by some to be doublets; but the narrative as a whole (J

_Ehud Delivers Israel from Moab Judges 3:12-30_ 12 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. 13 And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees. 14 So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years. 15 But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab. 16 But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh. 17 And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man....