Judge Abdon

Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel eight years (Judges 12:13–15). Like Jair before him, he is remembered for his household: 40 sons and 30 grandsons who rode on 70 donkeys, a mark of wealth and status. He was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, "in the hill country of the Amalekites", a puzzling note that may recall an earlier Amalekite presence there. Pirathon is usually identified with the village of Far'ata, southwest of Shechem; it was also the hometown of Benaiah, one of David's thirty warriors (2 Samuel 23:30).

Abdon is the last of the five so-called minor judges listed in Judges 10 and 12, whose brief notices record years of office, families and burial places but no wars. A Levitical city in Asher also bore the name Abdon (Joshua 21:30). After him the book turns to the long story of Samson and the Philistines.