(15) In Pirathon.--The city of David's hero, Benaiah (2 Samuel 23:30; 1 Maccabees 9:50; Jos. Antt. xiii. 1, ? 3). It is now Feratah, six miles west of Shechem.
In the mount of the Amalekites.--The phrase is explained in Judges 12:14. It points to an early settlement of Amalekites in Central Palestine.
Verse 15. - The mount of the Amalekites. This name points to some incident of which the memory is lost, though, with the usual tenacity of names, the name which once recorded it survives. It may have been some ancient settlement of the Amalekites, who were a very wandering, wide-spread race, which gave the name; or it may have been some great defeat and slaughter which they suffered from the Israelites, whose land they invaded (Judges 6:3, 33), just as the rock Oreb and the wine-press of Zeeb (Judges 7:25) commemorated the victory over those princes.
12:8-15 We have here a short account of three more of the judges of Israel. The happiest life of individuals, and the happiest state of society, is that which affords the fewest remarkable events. To live in credit and quiet, to be peacefully useful to those around us, to possess a clear conscience; but, above all, and without which nothing can avail, to enjoy communion with God our Saviour while we live, and to die at peace with God and man, form the substance of all that a wise man can desire.
And Abdon the son of Hillell the Pirathonite died,.... At the end of his eight years' government:
and was buried at Pirathon, in the land of Ephraim, in the mount of the Amalekites; in the place where he was born, and from whence he had the name of a Pirathonite; and this was in the tribe of Ephraim, and the particular spot was Mount Amalek; so called either from the name of the person to whom it belonged, or because the Amalekites formerly dwelt in it; or rather because of some remarkable advantage got over them at this place: here, Josephus says (e), this judge had a magnificent funeral.
In the mount of the Amalekites.--The phrase is explained in Judges 12:14. It points to an early settlement of Amalekites in Central Palestine.
and was buried at Pirathon, in the land of Ephraim, in the mount of the Amalekites; in the place where he was born, and from whence he had the name of a Pirathonite; and this was in the tribe of Ephraim, and the particular spot was Mount Amalek; so called either from the name of the person to whom it belonged, or because the Amalekites formerly dwelt in it; or rather because of some remarkable advantage got over them at this place: here, Josephus says (e), this judge had a magnificent funeral.
(e) Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7.) sect. 15.