Judges 3:15
But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab. But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
Judges belongs to the accounts of the twelve judges whose deeds give the book its name, and this verse presents Ehud as one of those leaders. Those called judges were not judges in the modern sense of the term but defenders and saviors raised up by God and called to service in a time of great national crisis and captivity, which is why they are called saviours. Its setting involves the Lord leaving the Canaanites in the land to test the generation of Israelites too young to have fought in Joshua's day, since their effort to drive them out was needed for their development and for essential traits of character to grow.
The verse shows one instance of the repeated pattern in chapters 3 to 17 of backsliding from God and failure to follow him, followed by suffering, oppression, captivity and servitude to surrounding enemies, then crying to the Lord followed by forgiveness and deliverance through a deliverer such as Ehud. The children of Israel cried unto the LORD and the LORD raised up Ehud as deliverer, with returning to God followed by forgiveness and deliverance after backsliding followed by suffering, oppression, captivity and servitude. Against Israel's fearful backsliding, perversity and unbelief, and amid the awful moral surroundings and the demoralizing influences of the tribes Israel permitted to remain in the land of promise, the raising up of deliverers displays God's great mercy, goodness and long-suffering.