Pirathon

Pirathon is a settlement in the hill-country of Ephraim. The UPDV names it directly at Abdon's burial (Jud 12:15), and the gentilic "Pirathonite" attaches to two figures of weight in Israel's history: Abdon the judge and Benaiah, one of David's mighty men. Through them Pirathon shows up in the period of the judges and again in the rosters of David's standing army.

A place in the hill-country of Ephraim

The geography of Pirathon is fixed by a single verse. When Abdon dies, he is "buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill-country of the Amalekites" (Jud 12:15). The notice locates the town in Ephraimite territory but inside an enclave still named for the Amalekites — a remembered older population layer rather than a current political claim. The roster note in Chronicles confirms the tribal frame from a different angle: Benaiah the Pirathonite is listed "of the sons of Ephraim" (1Ch 27:14).

Abdon the judge

Pirathon enters the narrative through the line of judges who follow Jephthah. "And after him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel" (Jud 12:13). The text gives him no military exploit; the chief notice of consequence is his death and burial in his hometown (Jud 12:15). The verses tie Pirathon's name to the office of judge and to Ephraim's hill-country in a single short notice.

Benaiah the Pirathonite among David's mighty men

The town reappears in David's reign through Benaiah the Pirathonite — a different Benaiah from the well-known son of Jehoiada. He is named in the catalogue of David's thirty heroes: "Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash" (2Sa 23:30). The Chronicler's parallel list runs "Ithai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the sons of Benjamin, Benaiah the Pirathonite" (1Ch 11:31). The same man surfaces in the standing-army roster as one of David's twelve monthly division-captains: "The eleventh [captain] for the eleventh month was Benaiah the Pirathonite, of the sons of Ephraim: and in his course were twenty and four thousand" (1Ch 27:14). The Chronicles notice supplies what 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles 11 leave implicit — that the Pirathonite is an Ephraimite, the same tribal frame as Abdon's — and shows the town producing men placed at the head of twenty-four thousand each.

What the name carries

Across the four UPDV passages that use it, "Pirathonite" travels with two associations: the office of judge in the Ephraimite hills (Abdon) and a captain's place at the top of David's army (Benaiah). The town itself surfaces directly at Abdon's burial. The rest of its presence in scripture is carried by the men whose origin it names.