Lives of Scripture

Abdon, son of Hillel the Pirathonite of the tribe of Ephraim, judged Israel for eight years, the last of the so-called "minor judges" recorded before Samson's much longer and more turbulent account begins (Judges 12:13-15). Scripture notes that he had forty sons and thirty grandsons, all seventy of whom rode on donkeys -- the same marker of prosperity and standing used earlier of Jair's family (12:14; compare 10:4). He died and was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim. As with Tola, Jair, Ibzan, and Elon before him, no crisis or deliverance defines Abdon's account; he represents another interval of stability within the repeating cycle of apostasy and deliverance that structures Judges. His brief entry closes this quieter stretch of the book immediately before the angel's announcement of Samson's birth (Judges 13), setting up a sharp contrast between Abdon's uneventful, prosperous household and the chaotic, compromised life of the judge who follows him.