After he had gone, the servants came and found
the doors of the upper room locked.
the doors of the upper room locked.
They said,
He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the palace.
Judges 3:24 NIV
"In the story of Ehud and Eglon in Judges 3, an Israelite named Ehud delivered the Israelite tribute to the Moabite king Eglon. At the time, Eglon, a very fat man, was apparently sitting on the toilet, and Ehud thrust his dagger into Eglon’s belly.
When Ehud left, he locked the door of “the cool upper chamber.” Eglon’s courtiers returned and assumed Eglon must be on the toilet. When they finally broke the lock and entered, they found Eglon lying on the floor dead.
According to a recent best-selling biography that includes some toilet history, in 16th-century Europe sitting on the toilet—history reveals—was “a common way for royals to receive visitors.”
Royalty was unconcerned with privacy. But the issue may not have been privacy at all. Royalty could do what it wanted.
What might be distasteful for the average person was a prerogative of status. It seems at least possible to conclude from the Biblical text that this was also true of ancient toilets in Eglon’s time." BibleHistoryDaily