AOD (Heb. Ēhâdh). - The second "judge" of Israel, son of Gera (distinct from the son of Balan in I Chron. 7:10), of the tribe of Benjamin, raised up by Yahweh as a "savior" 40 years after Othniel (v.): Judg. 3:12-30. The king of the Moabites, Eglon, with whom the Ammonites and Amalekites had allied themselves, occupied the territory of Reuben and, having crossed the Jordan, settled at Jericho, imposing an annual tribute on the Israelites. After 18 years of servitude, A. was sent with others to bring the tribute to Eglon; having delivered it, he let his companions depart (according to the Vulgate, he went out with them as far as the vicinity of Gilgal and then returned to the king), and to Eglon he said that he had a secret to communicate to him on God's behalf. While the fat king, left alone, was rising to listen, A. with his left hand, since he was ambidextrous, pierced him with the sword that he kept hidden under his garments.

Having fled through the rear door (through the window, according to Lagrange), A. reached his companions at Gilgal. In the palace they did not immediately notice the assassination, since they did not dare to open the door locked by the king. From Gilgal A. went to Seira, whence he sent heralds into the mountains of Ephraim to gather the Israelites against the Moabites. Having assembled an army, he occupied the fords of the Jordan to prevent the enemies' flight, whom he attacked from behind. The Moabite armed men were defeated and all perished, to the number of about 10,000. Israel was then at peace for 80 years.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: M. J. Lagrange, Le livre des Juges, Paris 1903, pp. 50-61; L. Desnoyers, Histoire du peuple hébreu, I, Paris 1922, pp. 133-37, 389 ff.; E. Auerbach, Ehud, in Zeitschr. für attest. Wissenschaft, 10 (1933), pp. 47-51; E. G. Kraeling, Difficulties in the Story of Ehud, in Journal of Biblical Literature, 54 (1935), pp. 205-10.

Antonio Romeo

@incollection{ec1_aod_ebr_ehadh, author = {Romeo, Antonino}, title = {Aod (Ebr. Éhâdh)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {1589}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/aod-ebr-ehadh} }

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