Judges 3:19

the quarries Everywhere else (e.g. Isaiah 21:9; Micah 5:13 etc.), and in the margin of A. and RV. here, the word (pesîlîm) is rendered graven images(cf. pesel-graven image"), and such is the meaning in this place; idols, or perhaps in a more general sense, sculptured stones (Moore). They were connected with the sanctuary of Gilgal(see on Judges 2:1), which was marked by a circleof sacred stones, traditionally those which Joshua set up to commemorate the crossing of the Jordan (Joshua 4:20). The rendering quarriesgoes back to the Targum, and is due to the wish to avoid an objectionable reference. The idols by Gilgalmay be mentioned merely as a familiar land-mark on the W. of the Jordan, cf. Judges 3:26; or rather, perhaps, to account for what follows in Judges 3:20. Ehud waited at the sanctuary to find a pretext for returning unexpectedly to speak with the king; he had received an oracle there, -a message from God," which he must communicate to the king personally (so Lagrange). The position of Gilgal, between Jericho and the Jordan, shews that Eglon's residence must have been not at Jericho, but on the other side of the river, in Moab.

Keep silence Cf. Amos 6:10. The command is addressed to the courtiers, who are dismissed in order that the king may speak to Ehud in private. Ehud had entered the presence publicly.

20 And Ehud came unto him i.e. from the public hall to a private room: the king was sitting in his cool roof-chamber, such as is often built on the flat roof of an Eastern house. Ehud's words in Judges 3:19, spoken publicly in the king's presence, contain a request for a private audience; the king thereupon dismisses his attendants, retires to his chamber on the roof, where he receives Ehud in the manner desired. The transition from Judges 3:19 is not clearly expressed: we should gather from Judges 3:19 that, after the attendants had left, the interview took place in the public room; but in Judges 3:20 Ehud finds the king alone in his cool chamber. There is no need, however, to regard the two verses as doublets; the narrative is compressed, and the omission of details leaves something to be supplied by the imagination.

a message from God unto thee i.e. a divine communication. Josephus explains that it had been conveyed by a dream, Ant.Judges 3:4; Judges 3:2. The LXX adds O king, which may be right. Out of respect for the oracle the king rises from his chair; cf. Numbers 23:18.