Judges 3:18

18 When he had finished delivering the tribute payment, Ehud sent on their way the people who had carried it.

Judges 3:18 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 3:18

And when he had made an end to offer the present
Had delivered the several things contained in it, and very probably made a speech to the king in the name of the people of Israel from whom he brought it:

he sent away the people that bare the present;
not the servants of Eglon that introduced him, as if they assisted in bringing in the present to the king; for over them he could not have so much power as to dismiss them at pleasure; but the children of Israel that came along with him, and carried the present for him: these he dismissed, not in the presence of the king of Moab, but after he had taken his leave of him, and when he had gone on some way in his return home; and this he did for the greater secrecy of his design, and that he might when he had finished it the more easily escape alone, and be without any concern for or care of the safety of others.

Judges 3:18 In-Context

16 Now Ehud made for himself a double-edged sword that was about a foot and a half long, and he strapped it on his right thigh under his clothes.

17 Then he presented the tribute payment to Moab's King Eglon, who was a very fat man.

18 When he had finished delivering the tribute payment, Ehud sent on their way the people who had carried it.

19 But he himself turned back at the carved stones near Gilgal, and he said, "I have a secret message for you, King." So Eglon said, "Hush!" and all his attendants went out of his presence.

20 Ehud approached him while he was sitting alone in his cool second-story room, and he said, "I have a message from God for you." At that, Eglon got up from his throne.