People of the Bible
Eglon
Years: 1342 BC – 1325 BC
Chieftain or king of one of the Moabite tribes ([Judg. 3:12-14](/judg#Judg.3.12)). 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.