20
Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace and said, “I have a message from God for you.” As the king rose from his seat,
21
Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly.
22
Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it.
23
Then Ehud went out to the porch ; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.
24
After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, “He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the palace.”
25
They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead.
26
While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the stone images and escaped to Seirah.
27
When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them.
28
“Follow me,” he ordered, “for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.” So they followed him down and took possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab; they allowed no one to cross over.
29
At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not one escaped.
30
That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.