שופטים, פרק ג׳, פסוק י״ב

Periods of peace and freedom often face a fragile turning point when a leader passes away. Following the death of the judge Othniel the son of Kenaz, the Israelites fell back into corrupt behavior and broke their covenant with God [רלב״ג, אברבנאל]. This downward spiral highlights a recurring historical pattern where the loss of a strong leader inevitably pulls the nation into a spiritual decline [מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Even if the people did not completely revert to the outright worship of foreign idols, their conduct was still deeply offensive to God [אלשיך]. By persisting in these wrongdoings, they reawakened the ancient, unresolved guilt of the Golden Calf, compounding their spiritual failure [חומת אנך].

As a direct consequence of their actions, God orchestrated a new punishment by empowering Eglon, the king of Moab. By his very nature, Eglon was a weak and cowardly individual whom the Israelites should have easily defeated under normal circumstances. His sudden rise to power was not the result of personal strength, but entirely due to divine intervention designed specifically to discipline the Israelites [מצודת דוד, מלבי״ם, אברבנאל]. Furthermore, the moral failure of the Israelites provided Eglon with newfound political courage. Recognizing that God had withdrawn His protection from His people, Eglon seized the opportunity to incite neighboring nations to unite against them [מלבי״ם].

The underlying cause of this oppression was strictly the people's evil actions, a reality that ultimately sealed Eglon's own fate. God's original intention was only to grant Eglon a small measure of power to pressure the Israelites. However, the Moabite king overstepped his divinely appointed boundaries. He escalated the hostility by allying with Ammon and Amalek and capturing the City of Palms, known as Jericho [רלב״ג]. By inflicting far more suffering upon the Israelites than Heaven had decreed, Eglon made himself guilty and ultimately deserving of death [אלשיך].