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EGLON

(Heb. ʿeglôn)

(PLACE)

A city of the Judean Shephelah or the adjacent coastal plain. Eglon’s Canaanite king was part of the coalition defeated by Joshua in the Gibeon affair (Josh. 10:3, 5, 23; 12:12) and the city itself was taken on the same campaign (10:34-35). The name of the Canaanite king, Debir (Josh. 10:3), may represent a textual confusion, as everywhere else in the OT Debir refers to another city of the Shephelah region destroyed in the same campaign (Josh. 10:36-39). Eglon is listed as one of the cities in the Shephelah region of the tribe of Judah (Josh. 15:39).

The location of Eglon is disputed. Early identifications included the Philistine Plain sites of Tel Nagila/Tell Nejîleh (127101) and Khirbet {Ajlân/µorvat Egla, the latter possibly preserving an arabized form of the name Eglon. The advent of modern archaeological work placed the focus on Tell el-µesī (124106), near Khirbet ʿAjlan and formerly identified with Lachish. Tell el-µesī, noteworthy as the first systematic excavation in Palestine, conducted in 1890 by Flinders Petrie, has yielded finds from the Bronze and Iron Ages. It is somewhat unlikely, however, that Tell el-µesī represents Eglon, as the biblical accounts seem to place the latter in the Shephelah. A more recent suggestion places Eglon at Tell ʿAitun (143099) in the Shephelah, an identification gaining more recognition due to the correspondence of the archaeological remains and topography.

Bibliography. A. F. Rainey, “The Biblical Shephelah of Judah,” BASOR 251 (1983): 1-22.

Daniel C. Browning, Jr.

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

EGLON

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)