Judges, Ruth: Revised Edition (The NIV Application Commentary)

by K. Lawson Younger

This savior is “left-handed” (v. 15). Actually, the Hebrew means “a man restricted in his right hand (’itter yad yemino).” This phrase has created interpretive problems for centuries. One interpretation understands this as a physical deformity; that is, that Ehud’s left-handedness is the result of a physical abnormality.8 However, this is probably taking the phrase too literally. In 20:16 there are seven hundred picked troops, (lit.) “their right hands restricted” (same phrase as v. 15), who “could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.” As Halpern notes, “This excludes physical deformity: it would be comical to invent elite brigades organized on such a principle.”9 Moreover, only if Ehud has use of his right hand can he, by using his left, surprise Eglon. Ehud’s plot only works if he appears normal to the Moabite guards. Another interpretation understands this phrase to mean ambidextrous (i.e., skilled in the use of both hands). The Greek Old Testament translates the phrase by a word meaning ambidextrous (in both LXXa and LXXb). Block has argued for this meaning.10 This seems unlikely, for this is a most odd way of expressing ambidextrity (“a man restricted in his right hand”)! It is doubtful whether ambidextrity would ever be expressed by describing restriction of the use of one of the hands. Rather, it is expressed positively with the use of both. Note, for example, 1 Chronicles 12:2, which describes, positively, warriors who “were able to shoot arrows or to sling stones...