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Judges describes how Ehud kills the obese king Eglon and escapes while servants think the king is using the bathroom. Josephus retells this but drops the reference to Eglon’s weight and the crude humor to avoid demeaning a foreign ruler.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Judges 3:20
Hebrew Bible
19 But he went back once he reached the carved images at Gilgal. He said to Eglon, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” Eglon said, “Be quiet!” All his attendants left. 20 When Ehud approached him, he was sitting in his well-ventilated upper room all by himself. Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” When Eglon rose up from his seat, 21 Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled the sword from his right thigh, and drove it into Eglon’s belly.
Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 5.4.2
Classical
2 There was a young man of the tribe of Benjamin named Ehud, the son of Gera, a man of great courage and physical strength, though he was best at using his left hand, where his full power lay. He lived at Jericho, became friendly with Eglon by frequently presenting him with gifts, and earned favor among the king’s courtiers. One day, while presenting gifts, Ehud secretly strapped a dagger on his right thigh. It was midday in summer, and Eglon was resting in a cool chamber after his meal, with his attendants off guard, the heat having lulled them to dine. Alone with the king, Ehud said he had a message from God. Eglon rose excitedly from his throne to hear it, and Ehud, fearing a miss might not be fatal, quickly struck him to the heart, leaving the dagger buried in the wound. Then he slipped out and shut the doors behind him. Eglon’s servants assumed the king had lain down to rest and left him undisturbed until evening, when at last they feared something was amiss, entered, and found him dead. Before they could rally the guards, Ehud had warned the people of Jericho to rise and reclaim their freedom.
Date: 93-94 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... Josephus is eager not to cast aspersions on non-Jews, especially their leaders. Hence, instead of blaming Eglon for subjugating the Israelites he places the onus upon the Israelites themselves for their anarchy and for their failure to obey the laws, another common theme in Josephus. For the same reason he also omits such disparaging elements as Eglon's obesity and his defecating. Josephus clarifies a number of obscurities in the biblical text. Thus he makes it clear that the Israelites were previously unaware of Ehud's plan to assassinate Eglon. ...
Feldman, Louis H.
"Josephus' Portrait of Ehud" in Reeves, John C. and Kampen, John (eds.) Josephus' Portrait of Ehud
(p. 201) Sheffield Academic Press, 1994
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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