Eglon
The bullock; place of heifers. (1.) Chieftain or king of one of the Moabite tribes (Judg 3:12–14). Having entered into an alliance with Ammon and Amalek, he overran the trans-Jordanic region, and then crossing the Jordan, seized on Jericho, the “city of palm trees,” which had been by this time rebuilt, but not as a fortress. He made this city his capital, and kept Israel in subjection for eighteen years. The people at length “cried unto the Lord” in their distress, and he “raised them up a deliverer” in Ehud (q.v.), the son of Gera, a Benjamite.
(2.) A city in Judah, near Lachish (Josh 15:39). It was destroyed by Joshua (Josh 10:5, Josh 10:6). It has been identified with Tell Nejileh, 6 miles south of Tell Hesy or Ajlan, north-west of Lachish. (See Lachish.)
Named in the Bible
12 verses
- Joshua 10:3 Wherefore Adonizedek king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron, and unto Piram king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia king of Lachish, and unto Debir king of Eglon, saying,
- Joshua 10:5 Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it.
- Joshua 10:23 And they did so, and brought forth those five kings unto him out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.
- Joshua 10:34 And from Lachish Joshua passed unto Eglon, and all Israel with him; and they encamped against it, and fought against it:
- Joshua 10:36 And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:
- Joshua 10:37 And they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof, and all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon; but destroyed it utterly, and all the souls that were therein.
- Joshua 12:12 The king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one;
- Joshua 15:39 Lachish, and Bozkath, and Eglon,
- Judges 3:12 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.
- Judges 3:14 So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
- Judges 3:15 But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
- Judges 3:17 And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man.
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
