PHARATHON făr’ ə thŏn (פִּרְעָתﯴן, H7284; a height, a summit). In the KJV of 1 Maccabees 9:50, the rendering is PIRATHONI. This was a town in the mount of the Amalekites, within Ephraimite territory, and fortified by Bacchides (1 Macc 9:50). In the OT, Abdan, the judge and Benaiah, the military official were Pirathonites (Judg 12:13-15; 2 Sam 23:30; 1 Chron 27:14). Some scholars, however, do not agree with Robinson’s identification of Pharathon with the home of Abdan, which is Fer’ata, over 7 m. SW of Shechem. They distinguish between the Pharathon referred to in 1 Maccabees 9:50, and the Pirathon that was the home of the Ephraimite judge Abdon of the son of Hillel (Judg 12:13, 15) and of David’s captain Benaiah (2 Sam 23:30; 1 Chron 11:31; 27:14).