Ehud
d. c. 1150 BCE · Biblical era · Jericho (Tell es-Sultan)
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Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed man of the tribe of Binyamin, is the second deliverer in the Book of Judges. Eglon, king of Moab, allied with Ammon and Amalek, defeated Israel, occupied 'the City of Palms', and held Israel subject for eighteen years (Judges 3:12-14). Ehud was chosen to carry Israel's tribute to Eglon. He made a short two-edged dagger and strapped it to his right thigh under his cloak, where a right-handed guard would not expect it (Judges 3:15-16). After delivering the tribute he came back alone, claiming 'a message from God'. Alone with the very fat king in his cool upper chamber, he drew the dagger with his left hand and killed him (Judges 3:19-22). He locked the doors and escaped while the courtiers waited outside. Then he sounded the shofar in the hill country of Ephraim. His men seized the fords of the Jordan, cut off the Moabite retreat and killed about ten thousand. The land then had peace for eighty years (Judges 3:23-30).
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Jericho (Tell es-Sultan)Lower Jordan Valley (West Bank)
What they did here
Eglon occupied 'the City of Palms' (Judges 3:13), and Deuteronomy 34:3 uses that name for Jericho. The text does not state that Eglon's palace was there. Ehud's route passed 'Pesilim near Gilgal' and he fled to Seirah (Judges 3:19, 26), both unidentified. So the pin marks the occupied city, not a confirmed scene of the assassination.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Ehud’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn from recorded birth and death years (reign years for rulers whose lives are undated); where only one end of a life is known, a span of about 70 years is assumed.
Jewish world
- Pinchas ben Elazar HaKohen· 1280 BCE–1180 BCE
- Devorah (the Judge-Prophetess)· 1200 BCE–1124 BCE
- Naomi (of Megillat Rus)· b. 1190 BCE
- Boaz of Beit Lechem· b. 1180 BCE
- Barak ben Avinoam· b. 1160 BCE
- Yael eshet Chever HaKeini (Jael)· b. 1160 BCE
- Rut HaMoaviah (Ruth the Moabite)· b. 1155 BCE
- Gidon ben Yoash (Gideon)· d. 1100 BCE
- Otniel ben Kenaz (Othniel, the first Judge)· d. 1200 BCE
- Yiftach HaGiladi (Jephthah the Gileadite)· d. 1090 BCE
Mesopotamian world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.