Judges 3:26

26 While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the stone images and escaped to Seirah.

Judges 3:26 in Other Translations

26 And Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped unto Seirath.

26 Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the idols and escaped to Seirah.

26 While the servants were waiting, Ehud escaped, passing the stone idols on his way to Seirah.

26 While they were standing around wondering what to do, Ehud was long gone. He got past the stone images and escaped to Seirah.

26 Ehud escaped while the servants waited. He crossed over [the Jordan] near the carved images and reached Seirah.

Judges 3:26 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 3:26

And Ehud escaped while they tarried
While the servants of the king of Moab tarried waiting for the opening of the doors of the parlour, this gave him time enough to make his escape, so as to be out of the reach of pursuers; or else the sense is, that even when they had opened the doors, and found the king dead, while they were in confusion at it, not knowing what to ascribe it to, the dagger being enclosed in the wound, and perhaps but little blood, if any, issued out, being closed up with fat, and so had no suspicion of his being killed by Ehud; but rather supposing it to be an accidental fall from his seat, and might call in the physicians to examine him, and use their skill, if there were any hopes of recovery; all which prolonged time, and facilitated the escape of Ehud:

and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped to Seirath;
he got beyond the quarries, which were by Gilgal, which shows that it could not be at Jericho where the king of Moab was, as Josephus thinks, but either in his own country beyond Jordan, though no mention is made of Ehud's crossing Jordan, or however some place nearer the fords of Jordan; since Gilgal, from whence he returned, and whither he came again after he had killed the king of Moab, lay on that side of Jericho which was towards Jordan; and this Seirath he escaped to was in or near the mountain of Ephraim, as appears from ( Judges 3:27 ) :, but of it we have no account elsewhere; but it is thought by some learned men ^F12 to be the place where Seth's pillars stood, and they to be the engravings here spoken of, which we translate "quarries": the words of Josephus ^F13 are, that the posterity of Seth, who very much studied astronomy, having heard that Adam foretold the destruction of the universe at one time by fire, and at another by water, erected two pillars, one of stone, and the other of brick, on which they inscribed their inventions (in astronomy), that they might be preserved, and which remain to this day in the land of Siriad; but this account of Josephus seems to be taken from a fabulous relation of Manetho, the Egyptian, and is abundantly confuted by Dr. Stillingfleet ^F14. Jarchi interprets this of Seirath, a thick wood or forest, the trees of which grew as thick as the hair on a man's head, and so a proper place to escape to, and hide in: it may be it was the woody part of the mount Ephraim, see ( Joshua 17:18 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Marsham. Chronicon, p. 39. Vossius de 70 Interpret. p. 271.
F13 Antiqu. l. 1. c. 2. sect. 3.
F14 Origines Sacrae, l. 1. c. 2.

Judges 3:26 In-Context

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.