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Eglon

cityOld TestamentJudea8 verses
Today Tell EtonCountry IsraelCoordinates 31.492, 34.928

Eglon is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Tell Eton. It appears across 8 verses in Scripture.

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Archaeological Data
Occupation Phases
Early Bronze Age III2850 BCE – 2500 BCE
Middle Bronze Age2000 BCE – 1550 BCE
Late Bronze Age1550 BCE – 1150 BCE
Iron Age I1150 BCE – 980 BCE
Iron Age II980 BCE – 539 BCE
Iron Age IIa980 BCE – 830 BCE
Iron Age IIb830 BCE – 720 BCE
Iron Age IIc720 BCE – 539 BCE
Iron Age III (Persian)539 BCE – 333 BCE
Hellenistic333 BCE – 63 BCE
Roman-Byzantine63 BCE – 638 CE
Roman63 BCE – 324 CE
Byzantine324 CE – 638 CE
UnitoAssyrianGovernance, Villages to Empires Dataset (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732Uppsala University, ANE Site Placemarks (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.6384044

Biblical History

Eglon was a Canaanite royal city whose king joined the southern coalition that attacked Gibeon after its treaty with Joshua (Joshua 10:3–5). Israel's swift campaign defeated the coalition in a miraculous battle in which the Lord hurled large hailstones on the fleeing enemy and, in response to Joshua's prayer, held the sun still over Gibeon (Joshua 10:12–14). Eglon's king was among the five Amorite kings captured and executed (Joshua 10:23–26). Joshua subsequently took the city itself, destroying it utterly (Joshua 10:34–35). Eglon later appears in the list of Canaanite kings defeated by Israel (Joshua 12:12) and is assigned to the tribal territory of Judah (Joshua 15:39). The city's capture illustrates the systematic nature of Joshua's southern campaign, which brought the entire hill country and lowland region under Israelite control. Eglon's inclusion in multiple lists and narratives across Joshua establishes it as a city of genuine regional significance, and its defeat stands as a testimony to the divine mandate that drove Israel's occupation of the Promised Land.

Archaeological & Historical Notes

Tell Eton, the leading candidate for biblical Eglon, is a large mound in the Shephelah of Judah that has been excavated in recent years by Avraham Faust and colleagues. Excavations have revealed substantial Late Bronze Age occupation followed by Iron Age Israelite settlement, consistent with the biblical narrative of Canaanite Eglon's conquest and subsequent Judahite use. Iron Age finds include four-room houses and storage facilities characteristic of Israelite domestic architecture. A large public building with ashlar masonry may indicate administrative use. The site's stratigraphy reflects a transition from Canaanite to Israelite material culture in the twelfth century BC, broadly supporting the biblical account of conquest and resettlement.

Verse Appearances (8)

References

  1. Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
  2. OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
  3. Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
  4. Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
  5. Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
  6. Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]

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