One of the things that I have noticed throughout the Bible so far is that there is not very much detail given to people's appearance or the minute details of stories. However, that is definitely not true in the story of Ehud! There is a great amount of detail given to the appearance of Eglon, the King that Ehud kills. It says that he is a fat man. This is the first time that I can remember the Bible referring to a man/woman as being fat or skinny or any other similar adjectives. But the use of this adjective explains why I had not previously heard this story before. Most people believe that the Bible is supposed to teach values and adults do not want to tell stories to children about someone killing "a very fat man" with details about how he died. Reading about Ehud killing Eglon gave me chills. As a child it would have given me nightmares! I am curious as to why this change of writing took place in the middle of Judges. It would be less surprising if it was a whole book that gave this much detail but only have a chapter of Judges gives that much detail to how a single individual looked and how he died.
I am currently halfway through Judges and Ehud is my favorite judge so far. His story is not one of the stories that I had previously heard but I found that it was the most interesting. Most of the other judges have to be guided by God but Ehud is a self-started. I can definitely see how this story could be an influence on writers throughout history. It is one of the first narratives in the Bible to have intrigue and espionage, especially given in detail!
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