1. So then, the Lord left some nations in the land to test the Israelites who had not been through the wars in Canaan.
2. He did this only in order to teach each generation of Israelites about war, especially those who had never been in battle before.
3. Those left in the land were the five Philistine cities, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the Lebanon Mountains from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Hamath Pass.
4. They were to be a test for Israel, to find out whether or not the Israelites would obey the commands that the Lord had given their ancestors through Moses.
5. And so the people of Israel settled down among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
6. They intermarried with them and worshipped their gods.
7. The people of Israel forgot the Lord their God; they sinned against him and worshipped the idols of Baal and Asherah.
8. So the Lord became angry with Israel and let King Cushan Rishathaim of Mesopotamia conquer them, and he ruled over them for eight years.
9. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he sent a man who freed them. This was Othniel, the son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz.
10. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he became Israel's leader. Othniel went to war, and the Lord gave him victory over the king of Mesopotamia.
11. There was peace in the land for forty years, and then Othniel died.
12. The people of Israel sinned against the Lord again. Because of this the Lord made King Eglon of Moab stronger than Israel.
13. Eglon joined the Ammonites and the Amalekites; they defeated Israel and captured Jericho, the city of palm trees.
14. The Israelites were subject to Eglon for eighteen years.
15. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he sent a man to free them. This was Ehud, a left-handed man, who was the son of Gera, from the tribe of Benjamin. The people of Israel sent Ehud to King Eglon of Moab with gifts for him.
16. Ehud had made himself a double-edged sword nearly fifty centimetres long. He had it fastened on his right side under his clothes.