And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab: The story now jumps from the time Ehud prepared his weapon, to the time when he is in front of the king. In many languages a transition will be needed, such as “So having prepared himself, Ehud arrived in front of Eglon, king of Moab, and presented his tribute” or more simply “Then Ehud went to present his tribute to Eglon.” Since there is a change in location and participants, Contemporary English Version puts a paragraph break here. If a new paragraph begins, then translators may want to replace the pronoun he with the name “Ehud.”

He presented the tribute means Ehud handed over the tax required by the Moabites. Presented translates a Hebrew verb meaning “brought near,” but translators can say “he took the tribute” or “he went with the tribute to give.” It is likely that the tribute was not something Ehud could carry alone, and the next verse makes it clear that other people were accompanying him. Contemporary English Version decides to bring this information forward by saying “Ehud and some other Israelites took the taxes,” which is one possibility. For tribute see verse 3.15.

Eglon king of Moab repeats the king’s full title once again. This repetition highlights the mocking tone here. However, some versions prefer to say simply “Eglon” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) or “the king.”

Now Eglon was a very fat man: This sentence is yet another aside or comment giving background information. It notes that Eglon was very fat. As with the previous aside, at first this seems an unimportant detail, but it prepares the reader for something that is about to happen. Of course, the Israelites would know that the name Eglon in Hebrew sounds like the word for “fatted calf” or “young bull” (verse 3.12), so this would make the audience smile. These kinds of descriptions also slow the story down, which is a well-known technique for creating suspense. The readers/hearers are clearly waiting to see what will happen next. Now renders the Hebrew waw conjunction, here marking an aside rather than a time period. A word such as “incidentally” might show that this information is going to be important later on. Some versions put this description of Eglon into a relative clause, for example, “who was a very fat man” (Good News Translation). Translators need to decide how to best introduce this idea, which has special relevance to the story.

The adjective fat does not refer to height but to weight. Eglon was not necessarily big or muscular, but fat. This notion should be easy to express in any language, though in some languages it will be expressed by a verb rather than by an adjective. The word for fat in Hebrew is followed by an adverb for very, so an appropriate intensifier should be used.

This verse can be translated as follows:

• Then Ehud went to present the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who, incidentally, was a very fat man.

Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .