Ehud, a left-handed Benjamite, made a double-edged sword and strapped it to his right thigh (Judges 3:15–16). He gained a private audience with Eglon and stabbed him, then escaped while Eglon’s servants delayed outside (Judges 3:20–26).
In Judges 3:15–26, Israel sends tribute to Eglon king of Moab through Ehud, a Benjaminite. Ehud secretly prepares a short double-edged sword and hides it under his clothes. After delivering the tribute, he returns alone, gains a private audience by claiming a secret message, and kills Eglon by stabbing him. This scene sits inside Judges’ recurring pattern: Israel falls into trouble, cries out, and a deliverer is raised up (see the immediate setup in Judges 3:12–14). The passage focuses tightly on how deliverance is accomplished, not by a battlefield report at first but by a carefully staged private encounter.
The passage presents deliverance as something Yahweh initiates and then accomplishes through an individual (explicit: “Yahweh raised… Ehud as a rescuer,” and the rescue happens through Ehud’s actions). The oppression is political and economic: Israel is paying enforced tribute to Moab (explicit: Israel sends “tribute… to Eglon”).
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Judges 3:15-16, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
15But 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.
16Ehud made him a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length; and he girded it under his clothing on his right thigh.