Pirathonite
Pirathonite is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Samaria in modern-day Israel. Known today as Farata. It appears across 5 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Pirathon, the city from which the designation Pirathonite derives, is located in the hill country of Ephraim and appears in several biblical contexts. Its most prominent mention comes in Judges 12:13-15, where Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, is listed as a minor judge who governed Israel for eight years. He was notable for having forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkeys, a sign of wealth and status. Abdon was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, specifically described as being in the hill country of the Amalekites. The city also produced one of David's mighty warriors: Benaiah the Pirathonite, listed among the Thirty, David's elite fighting corps (2 Samuel 23:30; 1 Chronicles 11:31). In 1 Chronicles 27:14, Benaiah the Pirathonite served as commander of the eleventh monthly division of David's army, overseeing 24,000 men. Pirathon thus contributed both a judge and a distinguished military leader to Israel's history.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Pirathon is identified with the village of Farata (Far'ata), located approximately 10 kilometers southwest of Nablus in the Samarian hill country of the West Bank. The identification rests on the preservation of the ancient name in the modern Arabic toponym. The site occupies a prominent position in the Ephraimite highlands, consistent with the biblical description. Surface surveys have documented pottery from the Iron Age and later periods on the tell and surrounding area. No systematic excavation has been conducted at the site. The village of Farata continues to be inhabited today, and the surrounding landscape of terraced hillsides with olive groves reflects the agricultural character of the region throughout its long history.
Verse Appearances (5)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]