שופטים, פרק ג׳, פסוק כ״ה

Standing outside a locked door, the king’s servants face a sharp shift from a routine duty to a sudden, shocking discovery. At first, they stand by and wait patiently [מצודת ציון, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. However, the delay continues for a very long time [רש״י, רד״ק, מצודת ציון]. This is not a normal wait; it stretches far beyond the reasonable and expected amount of time a person would need to relieve himself [מצודת דוד, מלבי״ם]. As the delay extends past any logical measure, the servants eventually give up hope and despair of waiting any longer [ביאור שטיינזלץ].

Realizing that the doors are not going to open from the inside, they decide to take action and use a key to unlock them [מצודת ציון]. As for where this key comes from at that exact moment, commentators offer different explanations. Some suggest that the servants already had a key in their possession, allowing them to open the door from the outside whenever necessary [מצודת דוד]. Others explain that they simply find the key outside, in the exact spot where Ehud had left it after locking the door, as the lock was designed to be operated from either side [רד״ק]. Using the key to open the doors from the outside, the servants are finally met with the sight of their master lying dead on the ground [רלב״ג, ביאור שטיינזלץ].