to be lcft-hrtnded (eoe eh. xx. 16; 1 Chron. eluded that he was taking his siesta in the xii. 2). A left-handed man wearing no sword heat of the day. or dagger on his left side, and using his right Ver. 26.-The quarries.· See above, ver. hand for other purposes, would naturally 19. Seirath, or rather has-seirah, is not throw a man off his guard. Thus J oab took known as the name of a place. It seems to Amaaa. by the beard with his right hand to mean the rough or woody district, the fores;; kiss him, and then smote him with the in the hill country of Ephraim, where there sword in his left hand (2 Sam. xx. 10). A was good shelter to hide in. deliverer. Hebrew, a saviowr (ver. 9). A Ver. 27.-He blew a trumpet, Like present, i. e. their tribute. Alfred in the marshes of Somerset, he gather- Ver. 19.-The quarries. It is uncertain ed a host around him in the shelter of the whether this is the meaning of the Hebrew forest ; and then, full of faith in his Divine word. Its common meaning ia vmages, as mission, " strong in the Lord, and in the Deut. vii. 25, and elsewhere. power of his might," dashed down boldly Ver. 20.-For himself alone. It seems to into the plain, and, seizing the fords, cut have been Eglon's habit to sit quite alone off all communication between the llfoabites in this summer parlour for coolness sake, hi.a at Jericho and their countrymen east of the attendants waiting in the adjoining ante- Jordan. They could neither escape into chamber, On this occasion he appears to Moab nor get help from ~loab. Thrown have dismissed them from the antechamber, into confusion by the death of their king for greater privacy, while Ehud spake to and the suddenness of the attack, the Moab- him. ites fell to the number of 10,000 men ; and Ver. 22.-The haft, &c. Ehud, feeling so ended the second servitude, to be followed the necessity of killing Eglon at one blow, by a rest (if the numeral in the text is plunged the dagger into his body with such sound) of eighty years. force that the handle went in with the blade, Ver. 31.---0f the Philistines. This is an and he was unable to draw it out. Leaving isolated movement of the Philistines, alluded it, therefore, buried in his fat, he went out to in eh. x. 11, but of which we have no at once into the parshedon, or antechamber, further details. In eh. x. 6 we read of for so it is best to render the last words of Israel worshipping the gods of the Philis- the verse, and thence into the misederon, the tines, and of an alliance between the Am- outer porch, having first locked the door of monites a.nd Philistines to vex Israel ; but the summer chamber. The words parshedon the precise connection between the events of and misederon occur only here, and the former the two chapters, or the exact time when is very variously rendered. either occurred, cannot be determined with Ver. 24.-Covereth his feet, i. e. is asleep certainty. Nothing more is known of Sham- (see 1 Sam. xxiv. 3). The servants, finding gar, except the mention of him in Deborah's the door locked, and all quiet within, con- song (eh. v. 6).
HOMILETICS. Vera. 12-31.-Miscellaneous Thoughts. Sin and punishment, repentance and ready mercy, prayer and answer to prayer, and the providential government of God, ordering all things after the counsel of his own will, are the general subjects which the course of the narrative etill sets before us. But other questions of considerable difficulty arise from the history of Ehud to which we shall do well to direct our attention. To avoid repetition the analogous case of Jael recorded in eh. iv. may be considered at the same time. • I. MORAL PROBLEMS. Ehud and Jael are both represented to us as signa. deliverers raised up by God to save Israel from his oppressors. Ehud holds a con - spicuous place among· the-judges, and Jael is declared in the song of Deborah to bE'I " blessed among women." But if we try this hero and this heroine by the standard of morality set up by Christianity and by modem Christian civilisation, we find that they were both guilty of acts of assassination coupled with deceit and treachery. Ehud deceived Eglon into his confidence by pretending to have a message to deliver to him from God, and then stabbed him; and Jae! enticed Sisera into her tent with the off.er of hospitality that she might murder him in his sleep. Some commentators on this history have justified both these actions on the dangerous ground that they were done by God's special command, and that what would in themselve11 have been crimes became virtues under the dispensing power of God's sovereign will. But such an explanation is neither warranted by Scripture nor satisfactory in itself. The true expl1mation is to be found in deeper views of God's providential govtrnment of the D2 86 THE BOOK OF JUDGES. [err. m. 12-31.