Toilets and Toilet Humor in the Story of Eglon’s Murder by Ehud (Judges 3:15–26)
Affiliation:
1. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Abstract
Abstract
Judges 3:15–26 describes the murder of Eglon, the king of Moab by a Benjaminite named Ehud son of Gera. In this article I propose that archaeological remains of ancient Judahite and Judean toilets, particularly the arrangement of two installations in the eighth-century BCE gate at Lachish, shed light on some of the obscure elements in this story. My analysis supports the humorous and scatological understanding of the Eglon story favored by many scholars and suggests that toilets and excrement might have been associated with ritual impurity even before the Second Temple period.
Publisher
Society of Biblical Literature/SBL Press
Subject
Literature and Literary Theory,Religious studies,Management Science and Operations Research,Mechanical Engineering,Energy Engineering and Power Technology