Left-Handed

Left-handedness is named in Scripture twice, both times in Judges and both times of Benjamites. In each case the trait is not incidental; it is the operative detail of the action. Ehud the Benjamite uses his left hand to deliver the concealed dagger that kills Eglon, and a corps of seven hundred Benjamite slingers is singled out as left-handed in the muster against Gibeah.

Ehud the Left-Handed Deliverer

When Israel cries out under Eglon king of Moab, Yahweh raises up a deliverer whose handedness is named at the point of his introduction: "Yahweh raised them up a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab" (Jdg 3:15). The notice that Ehud is "a left-handed man" stands inside the same sentence that names him as deliverer and as the bearer of Israel's tribute, anchoring the trait to his vocation in the narrative.

The Left-Handed Slingers of Benjamin

In the muster of Benjamin against the rest of Israel after the outrage at Gibeah, the Chronicler-style numbering names "twenty and six thousand swordsmen, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men" (Jdg 20:15), and then specifies the unique contingent: "Among all this people there were seven hundred left-handed chosen men; every one could sling stones at a hair-width, and not miss" (Jdg 20:16). The seven hundred are picked out by handedness and by precision — the sling at a hair's width, "and not miss." Both Judges occurrences cluster the trait inside the tribe of Benjamin.