Judges 3:26 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ehud escaped while they tarried— It has been asked, how this action of Ehud can be at all justified. It is certainly among the number of those which are not to be imitated without that which gave it all its sanction; namely, a divine commission. The text expressly says, the Lord raised up Ehud; and it is well known, that all the deliverances which the Jews had under the judges were directed and conducted by the immediate hand of God, according as the people by their repentance became fit to receive them. A divine warrant, in such a case, is a clear foundation to go upon: it can, however, be no precedent for others to go upon, who have no divine warrant at all, but quite the contrary. What is reason and understanding given us for, but to discriminate cases and circumstances? See Grotius de jure Belli ac Pacis, lib. 1 cap. 24 and Barbeyrac's note on Puffendorff's Law of Nature and Nations, lib. 7: cap. 8.