¹ And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

² Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

³ And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.

⁴ And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

⁵ And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

⁶ In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

⁷ And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

⁸ Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.

⁹ And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

¹⁰ And they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.

¹¹ Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

¹² He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them.

¹³ Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.

¹⁴ So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

¹ Now these are the nations which Yahweh left, to prove Israel by them, even as many [of Israel] as had not known all the wars of Canaan;

² only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing of it:

³ [namely], the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath.

⁴ They were [left], to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would listen to the commandments of Yahweh, which he commanded their fathers by Moses.

⁵ The children of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites:

⁶ and they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods.

⁷ The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and forgot Yahweh their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth.

⁸ Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Cushan Rishathaim eight years.

⁹ When the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior to the children of Israel, who saved them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.

¹⁰ The Spirit of Yahweh came on him, and he judged Israel; and he went out to war, and Yahweh delivered Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand: and his hand prevailed against Cushan Rishathaim.

¹¹ The land had rest forty years. Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

¹² The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

¹³ He gathered to him the children of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of palm trees.

¹⁴ The children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

¹⁵ But when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised them up a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a man left-handed. The children of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab.

¹⁶ Ehud made him a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length; and he wore it under his clothing on his right thigh.

¹⁷ He offered the tribute to Eglon king of Moab: now Eglon was a very fat man.

¹⁸ When he had made an end of offering the tribute, he sent away the people who bore the tribute.

¹⁹ But he himself turned back from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, "I have a secret errand to you, king." The king said, "Keep silence!" All who stood by him went out from him.

²⁰ Ehud came to him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. Ehud said, "I have a message from God to you." He arose out of his seat.

²¹ Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his body:

²² and the handle also went in after the blade; and the fat closed on the blade, for he didn't draw the sword out of his body; and it came out behind.

²³ Then Ehud went forth into the porch, and shut the doors of the upper room on him, and locked them.

²⁴ Now when he was gone out, his servants came; and they saw, and behold, the doors of the upper room were locked; and they said, "Surely he is covering his feet in the upper room."

²⁵ They waited until they were ashamed; and behold, he didn't open the doors of the upper room: therefore they took the key, and opened [them], and behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.

²⁶ Ehud escaped while they waited, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped to Seirah.

²⁷ It happened, when he had come, that he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he before them.

²⁸ He said to them, "Follow me; for Yahweh has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand." They followed him, and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and didn't allow any man to pass over.

²⁹ They struck of Moab at that time about ten thousand men, every lusty man, and every man of valor; and there escaped not a man.

³⁰ So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. The land had rest eighty years.

³¹ After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck of the Philistines six hundred men with an oxgoad: and he also saved Israel.