Eglon

The bullock; place of heifers. (1.) Chieftain or king of one of the Moabite tribes (Judg. 3:12-14). Having entered into an alliance with Ammon and Amalek, he overran the trans-Jordanic region, and then crossing the Jordan, seized on Jericho, the “city of palm trees,” which had been by this time rebuilt, but not as a fortress. He made this city his capital, and kept Israel in subjection for eighteen years. The people at length “cried unto the Lord” in their distress, and he “raised them up a deliverer” in Ehud (q.v.), the son of Gera, a Benjamite.

(2.) A city in Judah, near Lachish (Josh. 15:39). It was destroyed by Joshua (10:5, 6). It has been identified with Tell Nejileh, 6 miles south of Tell Hesy or Ajlan, north-west of Lachish. (See LACHISH.)

(calf-like).

(1.) A king of the Moabites, (Judges 3:12) ff., who, aided by the Ammonites and the Amelekites, crossed the Joran and took "the city of palm trees." (B.C. 1359.) here, according to Josephus, he built himself a palace, and continued for eighteen years to oppress the children of Israel, who paid him tribute. He was slain by Ehud. [EHUD]

(2.) A town of Judah in the low country. (Joshua 15:39) The name survives in the modern Ajlan , a shapeless mass of ruins, about 10 miles from Eleutheropolis and 14 from Gaza, on the south of the great maritime plain.