**Judges 3:12-31**
The people of Israel begin again to fall back in to sin, God hands them over into enemy hands.
Its important to note that having any form of government does not prevent sin. You cannot use legislation to control a person's heart. So the question will always arise which is the better mechanics, no human ruler(s) and freedom or human ruler(s) and coercion. Economics will show the former to be true however I believe even as we read on through judges and I present my summary at the end of the book we will see when it comes to looking at the numbers the less coercive based society show the healthier stats. If we need further proof, economics can be called on too.
So Ehud! is raised up (by God I'll add). Ehud can mean "undivided" ....all though the word is much more richer than that! and i encourage readers to look into this unique name/word "Ehud", it appears to have very little links with other Semitic languages and so is very unique in its "Hebrewness", here is a great resource on the word:
http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Ehud.html#.VWdCA0bZhaY
Ehud, a soul undivided for the Lord. He goes and meets the current King, Eglon who has subjugated them, with the intention of assassinating him. I'd like to point out that I believe had the Israelites acted out of love towards their enemies as Jesus often did i believe the end result would've been far far greater, though the martyrs may have been many.
On a funny note, Eglon means "calf-like" which may point to this King's large size. He was a very fat man.
Ehud brings a tribute to the King as a way to get an audience with him then we hit vs 19.
"But he himself turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal,"
this long sentence is actually only a few words:
shub pesi yl gilgal
shub is to turn away from
pesi yl is difficult to translate, but has the sense a quarry, to cut, hew into a shape, as well as image, idol, graven image.
gilgal is the name of a certain place we have heard before. This is where Samuel reluctantly made Saul king (a disobedience of the people, i.e. rejected God as king) and became a place used for illicit worship
It is unusual for the passage to mention this as a way of talking about Ehud's direction and geographical location. However mention it, it does.
Ehud first turning away from idols, and from the place that would later symbolise other illicit worship and the place of God's rejection and man's subjugation to human rulers; this turning away is the beginning of Israels liberation. Ehud turns and carries on the plan. Eglon sends his people out as he believes Ehud has some great secret to share and Ehud kills him ending Eglon's reign over Israel.
Ehud escapes and sounds a trumpet calling any to come join with him and push back their oppressors. It is voluntary it seems and the people join the cause. Their is no draft. Just a call to freedom. And the land had rest for 80 years.
