Judges 3:22

22 that the pommel, either hilt, followed the iron in(to) the wound, and was holden strait in the thickest fatness within; and Ehud drew not out the sword, but so as he had smitten Eglon (but as he had so struck Eglon), he left it in his body; and at once by the privates of (man)kind, the turds of the womb burst out.

Judges 3:22 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 3:22

And the haft went in, after the blade
The handle of the dagger, as well as the blade; so strong and violent was the thrust, he determining to do his business effectually;

and the fat closed upon the blade;
being an excessive fat man, the wound made by the dagger closed up at once upon it, through the fat:

so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly;
being not able to take hold of the haft or handle, that having slipped in through the fat after the blade, so that he was obliged to leave it in him:

and the dirt came out;
the margin of our Bibles is, "it came out at the fundament"; that is, the dagger did, the thrust being so strong and vehement; but that is not so likely, the dagger being so short, and Eglon a very fat man. The Targum is,

``his food went out;''

which was in his bowels; but as the wound was closed up through fat, and the dagger stuck fast in it, it could not come out that way: rather therefore this is to he understood of his excrements, and of their coming out at the usual place, it being common for persons that die a violent death, and indeed others, to purge upon it; some, as Kimchi observes, interpret it of the place where the guards were, the guard room, through which Ehud went out, but that is expressed in another word in ( Judges 3:23 ) ; the Syriac and Arabic versions read, "he went out in haste", that is, Ehud.

Judges 3:22 In-Context

20 Ehud entered (un)to him; and the king sat alone in a summer parlour. And Ehud said, I have the word of God to thee (And Ehud said, I have a word from God for thee). The which rose at once from his throne.

21 And Ehud held forth his left hand, and took his sword from his right hip; and he put it into the king's womb so strongly,

22 that the pommel, either hilt, followed the iron in(to) the wound, and was holden strait in the thickest fatness within; and Ehud drew not out the sword, but so as he had smitten Eglon (but as he had so struck Eglon), he left it in his body; and at once by the privates of (man)kind, the turds of the womb burst out.

23 Forsooth when the doors of the parlour were closed most diligently, and fastened with lock, (And when he had quietly closed the parlour doors, and fastened them with a lock,)

24 Ehud went out by a porch (Ehud went out by the porch). And (soon after) the king's servants entered, not into the parlour, but into the porch, and they saw the doors of the parlour closed, and they said, In hap he purgeth the womb in the summer parlour.