Eglon () was a

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

ite

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Book of Joshua The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile. It tells of the ...

Debir A Biblical word, debir or dvir () may refer to: Names * Debir King of Eglon, a Canaanite king of Eglon, slain by Joshua (). Aided by miracles, Joshua's army routed the Canaanite military, forcing Debir and the other kings to seek refuge in a cav ...

, king of Eglon, joined a

confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

against Gibeon when that city made peace with Israel. The five kings involved were slain and Eglon was later conquered and its inhabitants condemned to destruction. It was thereafter included in the territory of the

Tribe of Judah According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe of Judah (, ''Shevet Yehudah'') was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel, named after Judah (son of Jacob), Judah, the son of Jacob. Judah was one of the tribes to take its place in Canaan, occupying it ...

, although it is not mentioned outside of the Book of Joshua. According to Avraham Faust, most scholars identify the location of Eglon with the site of Tel 'Eton.

Tel 'Eton

Tel 'Eton () is an archaeological site excavated by the

Bar Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

, managed by

Avraham Faust Avraham Faust () is an Israeli archaeologist and professor at Bar-Ilan University. He directs excavations at Tel Eton, widely regarded as the probable site of biblical Eglon. Early life and education Faust was born and raised in Israel. He com ...

. It is the probable site of ancient Eglon. The site of Tel Eton was transformed in the 10th century BCE, and some of the structures built in this site involved

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

in construction. Prior to these findings, the lack of ashlar construction in this period in the region of Judah was an "oftquoted evidence against the historical plausibility of a kingdom centered in Judah".Faust, Avraham, and Yair Sapir. "The “Governor’s Residency” at Tel ‘Eton, the united monarchy, and the impact of the old-house effect on large-scale archaeological reconstructions." Radiocarbon 60.3 (2018): 801-820. The archaeologist

William G. Dever William Gwinn Dever (born November 27, 1933, Louisville, Kentucky) is an American archaeologist, Biblical scholar, historian, semiticist, and theologian. He is an active Biblical scholar, scholar of the Old Testament, and historian, specialized ...

estimates its population at around 1,200 during the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. At the end of the 8th century BCE, a governor's residence at the site appears to have been destroyed.

References

Canaanite cities Hebrew Bible places City-states Former kingdoms {{Bible-stub