One by one the judges step up to enter the hall of fame. They respond to the cries of their oppressed and suffering people with resolve, although we rarely find out what their qualifications are for leadership and how they get to lead into battle and the even more desired peace.
First there was Otniel, Achsa’s husband, whom we’ve briefly met already earlier, a local Canaanite turned ally of Judah, who won this lady’s hand in marriage thanks to his fighting skills. In chapter 3 he rises up in ranks, ‘with the spirit of Adonai resting on him’ he leads the battle against the mysterious Kushanites-Arameans who have been ruling Israel for 8 years, then achieves 40 years of independent peace.
Not bad. But then the neighbors from Moab take over and for 18 years the people of Israel are ruled with this local superpower’s strong hand. As the people struggle for release from the oppression of the conqueror (much as the Canaanites who survived must have felt under them before) they follow the five step formula, return with tears to seek salvation from Adonai, and seek to be free not through diplomacy but through violence. Enter the next judge:
וַיִּזְעֲק֣וּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֮ אֶל־יְהֹוָה֒ וַיָּ֩קֶם֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה לָהֶ֜ם מוֹשִׁ֗יעַ אֶת־אֵה֤וּד בֶּן־גֵּרָא֙ בֶּן־הַיְמִינִ֔י אִ֥ישׁ אִטֵּ֖ר יַד־יְמִינ֑וֹ וַיִּשְׁלְח֨וּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֤ל בְּיָדוֹ֙ מִנְחָ֔ה לְעֶגְל֖וֹן מֶ֥לֶךְ מוֹאָֽב׃
“Then the Israelites cried out to Adonai, and Adonai raised up a champion for them: Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed man, from the tribe of Benjamin.
And the Israelites sent tribute to King Eglon of Moab, by Ehud’s hand.”
Ehud is named champion or ‘savior’, identified for being the left handed hero from the tribe of the people known for being ‘the right hand’ - the literal meaning of ‘Benjamin’. He’s also a shrewd assassin, hiding a short two-bladed dagger on his right thigh, thus confusing the guards, as he enters the king of Moab’s palace, gift in hand, lures King Eglon into a secret attic and instead of delivering him a secret message from Adonai, stabs him to death and leaves the dagger inside the very fat king’s gut, fleeing in a daring exit to rally the people and fight. Game over. Moab retreats and thanks to Ehud the people are at peace for the next 80 years.
Is Ehud our idea of a hero?
Most scholars suspect this fragment of a story, down to the detail of the left handed two-blade dagger’s design, is an ancient war poem that was preserved in people’s imagination and longing for revenge that somehow made its way into this chapter.
Since we are in the early Iron Age here some speculate that there is special pride in this weapon - the newest tech tool of the times. But there’s no denying that the fantasy of force and the yearning for freedom ends up creating role models, real or not, who represent brutality and brilliance. How little has changed.
Last year, commenting on this chapter in Judges, Naphtali Bennet, then Israel’s prime minister, wrote:
‘ Many commentators over the generations have blamed the judges for this ever-recurring pattern of war. The leaders are to blame. I think otherwise. Among the judges we find the names of giants, real leaders - Otniel and Ehud, Deborah and Samson - are these not true leaders? They are not the problem. So why do the people of Israel again and again go through the course of transgression and punishment, war and peace? Why do the people not learn from their own mistakes? The answer: Because we ourselves must be the judges. The real judge is within each one of us. The judges in these chapters only reflect what the people want: The judge is not the creator of the situation - but the result of the people’s spirit and will. If we will it - we will be the judges, with responsibility to each other’s well being. Only then we will sit at peace under our fig and vine.``
Bennet’s admiration for the likes of Ehud as role models for leadership and his call for people to break the pattern of remorse, return, war and attrition - is an interesting side note from a debated leader who had a brief turn at the top and then vanished back into the private sector.
Ehud’s ethically questionable behavior - defying diplomacy, betraying trust, killing the king in what reads almost like a joke - but few seem to mind as long as he brings people peace - for the next 80 years.
The chapter ends with one more minor leader who only gets one verse - Shamgar son of Anat defeats 600 Phillstines with just his cow whip, to become Israel’s next champion. He too is not well known, although his mother’s name - Anat - the local Goddess of Canaan, seems to indicate he was a local ally who somehow rose up in the ranks.
From dagger and whip to rifle and twitter - who and how modern leaders become next in line to judge and rule their people seems to not change much. The court of public opinion still favors a hero who will fight the bad guys whoever and wherever, real or imagined, those may be, and not always with ethics at the top of the list of qualifications. Maybe even Naphtali Bennet understands today that real leaders do not just model violence, and don’t just reflect the people’s passions - they take the matters into both hands, beyond left/right preferences, ideally with more discipline and strategic vision, compassion and courage, and not stab their opponents in the gut or in the back?
Coming up next: Deborah. And Yael, tent stake in one hand, cup of milk in the other.
Image: Ehud stabs Eglon. Speculum Humanae Salvationis, Westfalen oder Köln, 1360, Darmstadt
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