Judges 3:18

18 When he had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who had brought 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 Ehud made himself a double-edged sword eighteen inches long and strapped it to his right thigh under his clothes.

17 Then he presented the tribute to 'Eglon king of Mo'av. Now 'Eglon was a very fat man.

18 When he had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who had brought it.

19 But he himself, after reaching the quarries at Gilgal, went back and said, "King, I have a secret message for you." The king commanded silence, and all his attendants withdrew.

20 Ehud came to him; he was sitting alone by himself in his upstairs room, where it was cool. Ehud said: "I have a message from God for you." As the king arose from his seat,