EGLON ĕg’ lŏn (ְעֶגְלֹ֕ון, young bull [?], Akkad. Ig-la-nu). An obese Moabite king, who early in the Judges period occupied territory W of Jordan near Jericho. The military campaign of this king was assisted by the neighboring Ammonites, who attacked an area to the E of the Jabbok River (Num 21:24; Josh 12:2; 13:10, 25; Judg 11:13, 22), and also by the desert Bedouin Amalekites. The exploits of Eglon resulted in the occupation of the “city of palm trees” (Judg 3:13 KJV), but since this site (Jericho) had been destroyed in the previous cent. (if not earlier) by Joshua, the 12th cent. b.c. Moabite occupation doubtless involved the subjection of the surrounding territory, including Bethel. The Israelites were dominated by the Moabites for eighteen years, after which God raised up Ehud to deliver Israel from this humiliation (Judg 3:21). Ehud brought the annual tribute to Eglon, gained a private audience, and when the obese king stood up to receive the tribute Ehud inflicted a fatal abdominal wound upon him.
Bibliography V. Tallquist, Assyrian Personal Names (1914), 95.
EGLON ĕg’ lŏn (עֶגְלֹ֖ון, most LXX MSS have substituted Adullam, q.v., but numerous variants occur e.g. ̓Αγλων, ̓Εγλών, et al.). An Amorite town in the western Shephelah. W. F. Albright’s contention that Eglon be identified with Tell el-Ḥesī has gained general acceptance. The ancient name is preserved at nearby Khirbet ’Ajlân to where the town had been moved by Byzantine times (Eusebius, Onomasticon, ed. Klostermann, 48:18). The archeological excavations of W. M. F. Petrie (1890) and F. J. Bliss (1891-1893) were the genesis of modern archeology in Pal. Eight distinct levels were uncovered dating from the Early Bronze III to the Pers. Periods.
The earliest mention of Eglon is the reference to ’q3y in the Egyp. execration texts (Posener, No. E 58). The cuneiform tablet discovered at Tell el-Ḥesī is contemporary with the Late Bronze texts from El Amarna (EA 333). The letter describes the high treason that was brewing at nearby Lachish and Jarmuth against the pharaoh.
The king of Jerusalem took action against his subjects the Gibeonites (q.v.) because they had made a pact with Joshua. The Amorite kings of Jarmuth, Hebron, Lachish and Eglon were called upon for assistance (Josh 10:3-6). The Israelites came to the rescue of the Gibeonites and defeated the Amorites. Subsequently, the five kings were captured (10:23); and during the campaign in southern Pal., the city of Eglon was conquered (10:34-37; 12:12). It was assigned to the inheritance of Judah, in the second district of the Shephelah region (15:39).
Bibliography E. Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions (1856), II, 388-392; C. R. Conder, Tent work in Palestine (1878), II, 168, 169; id., and H. H. Kitchener, SWP, Memoirs, III (1883), 261; W. M. F. Petrie, Tell el Hesy (Lachish) (1891), 18-20; F. J. Bliss, A Mound of Many Cities, or Tell Hesy Excavated (1898); P. Thompsen, Loca Sancta (1907), 14, 15, 58; W. F. Albright, “Researches of the School in Western Judaea,” BASOR, No. 15 (1924), 7, 8; id., “The American Excavation of Tell Beit Mirsim,” ZAW n.f. VI (1929), 3, n. 2; J. Garstang, Joshua and Judges (1931), 174; K. Elliger, “Joshua in Judäa,” PJb XXX (1934), 66-68; M. Noth, Das Buche Josua (1938), 68; J. Obermann, “A Revised Reading of the Tell el-Hesi Inscription. With a Note on the Gezer Sherd,” AJA (1940), 93-104; W. F. Albright, “A Case of lèse-majesté in Pre-Israelite Lachish, with some Remarks on the Israelite Conquest,” BASOR, No. 87 (1942), 32-38; O. Tufnell, “Excavator’s Progress, Letters of F. J. Bliss, 1889-1900,” PEQ, 1965, 112-127.