Biblical Account
The whole of what Scripture records of Abdon is contained in three verses of the Book of Judges (12:13-15). He is identified as the son of Hillel, a Pirathonite, of the tribe of Ephraim, and is reckoned among the minor judges who appear after Jephthah, alongside Ibzan and Elon. The text notes that he had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkey colts, a detail conventionally taken to signify the standing and prosperity of his household.
Some scholars distinguish these minor judges, who may have functioned as adjudicators or legal authorities, from the major judges, who are presented chiefly as military and charismatic deliverers. His home town of Pirathon, rendered Pharathon in the Greek Septuagint, has commonly been identified with the site of Fara'ata, set on a prominent hill several miles to the west-southwest of Shechem.