NOTES for Jdg 3:1-31

Unfaithfulness to the Lord bears its fruit: Israel is defeated by peoples it once conquered. More than that, the nation may dissolve among its pagan neighbors, for Israel came into being precisely as a people called to follow the Lord. By falling away from Him, the nation rejects the meaning of its own existence.

Ehud kills the Moabite king outside open battle. Nevertheless, even when acting alone, Ehud puts his hope not in his own cunning and agility, but in the Lord, as his battle cry after the regicide shows. With small forces but with God’s help, the Israelites rise up and free themselves from oppression.

In Ehud’s time paganism is still strong in the Promised Land, but he himself no longer turns to idols: he passes “beyond the carved images,” escapes, and saves the people.