Judges 3:30

The land -i. e. that portion of it which had suffered from the oppression of Moab, probably Benjamin and Ephraim chiefly (seeJudges 3:11). In judging of the nature of Ehud’s act there are many considerations which must greatly modify our judgment. Acts of violence or cunning, done in an age when human society applauded such acts, when the best men of the age thought them right, and when men were obliged to take the law into their own hands in self-defense, are very different from the same acts done in an age when the enlightened consciences of men generally condemn them, and when the law of the land and the law of nations give individuals adequate security.