Abdon and Izban, Judges of Israel

Today the Church celebrates two of the judges from the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament, Abdon and Izban.

Ibzan appears in the Hebrew Bible as the tenth of the Judges of Israel. Very little is said about him, except the following: “And after him [i.e. Jephthah], Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. And he had thirty sons, whom he sent abroad, and took in thirty daughters from abroad for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years. Then died Ibzan, and was buried at Bethlehem.”

Many scholars believe that the Bethlehem referred to in this passage is the Bethlehem in the territory of the Tribe of Zebulun, in Galilee, rather than the more famous Bethlehem in the Tribe of Judah. However, the Talmud asserts that Ibzan is to be identified with Boaz from the Book of Ruth, who lived in the Bethlehem in Judah, and that he consummated his marriage with Ruth on the last night of his life.

Abdon was the son of Hillel, a Pirathonite, and was the twelfth Judge of Israel mentioned in the Book of Judges (Judges 12:13-15). He was a member of the tribe of Ephraim, and in the biblical account was credited with having forty sons and thirty grandsons. He restored order in the central area of Israel "after the disastrous feud with Jephtha and the Gileadites". He judged Israel for eight years. He was buried on Ephraimite land, in Pirathon, in the hill-country of the Amalekites.