Discovery BoxJudges 3:15 
Context3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he 1 raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. 2 The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. 3
Judges 16:3
Context16:3 Samson spent half the night with the prostitute; then he got up in the middle of the night and left. 4 He grabbed the doors of the city gate, as well as the two posts, and pulled them right off, bar and all. 5 He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill east of Hebron. 6
1 tn Heb “the
2 tn The phrase, which refers to Ehud, literally reads “bound/restricted in the right hand,” apparently a Hebrew idiom for a left-handed person. See Judg 20:16, where 700 Benjaminites are described in this way. Perhaps the Benjaminites purposely trained several of their young men to be left-handed warriors by restricting the use of the right hand from an early age so the left hand would become dominant. Left-handed men would have a distinct military advantage, especially when attacking city gates. See B. Halpern, “The Assassination of Eglon: The First Locked-Room Murder Mystery,” BRev 4 (1988): 35.
3 tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”
4 tn Heb “And Samson lay until the middle of the night and arose in the middle of the night.”
5 tn Heb “with the bar.”
6 tn Heb “which is upon the face of Hebron.”
