Judges 12:15

And Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the mount of the Amalekites.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) In Pirathon.—The city of David’s hero, Benaiah (2Samuel 23:30; 1 Maccabees 9:50; Jos. Antt. xiii. 1, § 3). It is now Feratah, six miles west of Shechem.

In the mount of the Amalekites.—The phrase is explained in Judges 12:14. It points to an early settlement of Amalekites in Central Palestine.

Benson Commentary

Jdg 12:15. Mount of the Amalekites — So called from some remarkable exploit, done by or upon the Amalekites in that place. It is strange, that in the history of all these judges, there is not so much as once mention of the high-priest, or of any other priest or Levite, appearing either for counsel or action in any public affair, from Phinehas to Eli, which may well be computed two hundred and fifty years! Surely this intimates that the institution was chiefly intended to be typical, and that the benefits which were promised by it were to be chiefly looked for in its antitype, the everlasting priesthood of Christ, in comparison of which that priesthood had no glory.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:8-15 We have here a short account of three more of the judges of Israel. The happiest life of individuals, and the happiest state of society, is that which affords the fewest remarkable events. To live in credit and quiet, to be peacefully useful to those around us, to possess a clear conscience; but, above all, and without which nothing can avail, to enjoy communion with God our Saviour while we live, and to die at peace with God and man, form the substance of all that a wise man can desire.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A Pirathonite - He was, therefore, an Ephraimite 1 Chronicles 27:14. Its name still lingers in "Feratah," 6 miles west of Shechem. The 25 years, apparently consecutive, occupied by the judgeship of Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, seem to have been very uneventful and prosperous, since the only record of them, preserved in the annals of their country, relates to the flourishing families and peaceful magnificence of two of the number.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. Jephthah died—After a government of six years, this mighty man of valor died; and however difficult it may be for us to understand some passages in his history, he has been ranked by apostolic authority among the worthies of the ancient church. He was followed by a succession of minor judges, of whom the only memorials preserved relate to the number of their families and their state [Jud 12:8-15].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

So called from some remarkable exploit done either by or upon the Amalekites in that place.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Abdon the son of Hillell the Pirathonite died,.... At the end of his eight years' government:

and was buried at Pirathon, in the land of Ephraim, in the mount of the Amalekites; in the place where he was born, and from whence he had the name of a Pirathonite; and this was in the tribe of Ephraim, and the particular spot was Mount Amalek; so called either from the name of the person to whom it belonged, or because the Amalekites formerly dwelt in it; or rather because of some remarkable advantage got over them at this place: here, Josephus says (e), this judge had a magnificent funeral.

(e) Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7.) sect. 15.

Geneva Study Bible

And Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the mount of the Amalekites.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites] The Amalekites, however, were settled not in Ephraim, but in the Negeb, S. of Judah. It is true that ch. Jdg 5:14 brings Ephraim into connexion with Amalek, but the text is too uncertain (see note in loc.) to be used in support of the present passage. Moore (Polychr. Bible) notices that a group of mss. of LXX read ‘in the hill country of Ephraim, in the land of Sellçm,’ cf. 1 Samuel 9:4, where the Saaleim of LXX. cod. A. = the Hebr. Shaâlim. Since there is no way of accounting for the reading of these mss. by any confusion of letters, it may well be that they have preserved the true text here: in the hill country of E., in the land of Shaâlim.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - The mount of the Amalekites. This name points to some incident of which the memory is lost, though, with the usual tenacity of names, the name which once recorded it survives. It may have been some ancient settlement of the Amalekites, who were a very wandering, wide-spread race, which gave the name; or it may have been some great defeat and slaughter which they suffered from the Israelites, whose land they invaded (Judges 6:3, 33), just as the rock Oreb and the wine-press of Zeeb (Judges 7:25) commemorated the victory over those princes.



Judges 12:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

He was followed by the judge Abdon, the son of Hillel of Pirathon. This place, where Abdon died and was buried after holding the office of judge for eight years, was in the land of Ephraim, on the mountains of the Amalekites (Judges 12:15). It is mentioned in 2 Samuel 23:30 and 1 Chronicles 11:31 as the home of Benaiah the hero; it is the same as Φαραθώ (read Φαραθόν) in 1 Macc. 9:50, and Joseph. Ant. xiii. 1, 3, and has been preserved in the village of Ferta, about two hours and a half to the S.S.W. of Nabulus (see Rob. Bibl. Res. p. 134, and V. de Velde, Mem. p. 340). On the riding of his sons and daughters upon asses, see at Judges 10:4.