The sinister story of a gauche deliverer and his corrie-fisted tribesmen: Ehud and the left-handed artillery

ABSTRACT

Bias against left-handers is well-documented and seen in the etymology of “left” and “right” in most languages. The subject of this study, Ehud, lived between the exodus of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt and the establishment of the Israelite kingdom (c1200–1000 BC), at the transition between the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age 1. His left-handedness was crucial to his deliverance of the proto-nation from tyranny, recorded in Judges in the Hebrew Bible. The description of Ehud as left-handed (’iṭṭēr yaḏ-yεmînô) is used once more in the Hebrew Bible, also in Judges, to describe the artillery of Ehud’s tribe. The words apparently mean “bound/restricted in the right hand”, sometimes interpreted as “ambidextrous”. This is unlikely: ambidexterity is uncommon. The artillery used the sling with either hand, but Ehud used his left (śεm’ōl) hand to draw his sword. śεm’ōl, used throughout the Hebrew Bible, means left, without bias or derogatory implications. We suggest that ‘iṭṭēr yaḏ-yεmînô was a right-handed bias towards left-handed people, but Ehud’s left-handed victory was recognized as significant. Significant enough that (a) the language changed and the biased description was dropped in favour of simple description, and (b) the army changed with the development of left-handed slingers (artillery).

KEYWORDS:

• Language
• mixed-handedness
• stigma
• Eglon
• sword

Acknowledgements

Khaliq O Malik. AGS and ARM conceived the paper. AGS wrote the first draft and ARM improved it. Both authors agreed the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). In the interest of full transparency, the authors would like to add that they are both left-handed.

Ethics

The authors do not know if Ehud gave informed consent to the historian who recorded his actions for posterity.

Data availability statement

There is no data beyond what is disclosed in the paper.

Additional information

Funding

The authors did not receive any funding for this work.