EGLON

EGLON (Heb. עֶגְלוֹן), Canaanite royal city. According to the Bible, Debir, king of Eglon, joined the confederation of Amorite kings, led by adoni-zedek of Jerusalem, against gibeon . They were defeated by Joshua at Aijalon and slain near the cave of Makkedah, where they had sought refuge (Josh. 10). Eglon was subsequently captured, sacked, and destroyed (ibid. 10:34–35). The king of Eglon is again mentioned in the list of conquered cities (ibid. 12:12). The city was allotted to the tribe of Judah in the Lachish district (ibid. 15:39). It does not appear in later sources; Eusebius mentions an Agla, present-day Khirbat ʿAjlān, 12 mi. (19 km.) west of Bet Guvrin (Eleutheropolis) (Onom. 48:19). Scholars are divided as to the location of Eglon; the identification generally accepted is that of Tell al-Ḥasī proposed by Albright. This tell is situated 7 mi. (11 km.) southwest of Lachish, at the edge of the foothills that extend into the Coastal Plain. Elliger has suggested the more westerly   Tell Beit Mirsim, and recent studies have shown that this identification is no less probable (cf. debir ). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Albright, in BASOR, 17 (1925), 7ff.; Elliger, in: PJB, 30 (1934), 67f. (Michael Avi-Yonah)