Bedan

{{Short description|Biblical deliverer of the Israelites}} {{About|the Biblical figure Bedan|other uses|Bedan (disambiguation)}} {{more citations needed|date=January 2021}}

'''Bedan''' ({{langx|he|בְּדָן}} ''Bəḏān'') is named as one of the deliverer of [[Israelite]]s in 1 [[Books of Samuel|Samuel]] 12:11.<ref>{{bibleverse|1|Samuel|12:11|HE}}</ref>

He is not mentioned elsewhere as a [[Biblical judges|judge of Israel]].<ref name="bedan">[http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=Bedan&qs_version=9 BibleGateway – Quick search: Bedan]</ref> Bishop [[Simon Patrick]] and others (including the [[Talmud]]<ref>{{Cite Jewish Encyclopedia|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=S&artid=122|article=Samson}}</ref>) posit the name to be a contraction of ''ben Dan'' ("the son of Dan") by which they suppose [[Samson]] is meant, as the [[Targum]] reads.<ref>[https://www.studylight.org/commentary/1-samuel/12-11.html Study Light Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary 1 Samuel 12:11]</ref> The [[Septuagint]], [[Syriac versions of the Bible|Syriac]], and [[Bible translations into Arabic|Arabic]], however, refer to the name as [[Barak]], instead of Bedan; and the two latter versions list in that verse Samson as the last deliverer of the Israelites, instead of [[Samuel]].<ref>[https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/1-samuel-12-11.html Bible Study Tools Commentaries:1 Samuel 12:11]</ref> These readings are adopted by [[Charles François Houbigant]], and appear to be genuine, for it is not probable that Samuel would enumerate himself.<ref>[https://www.studylight.org/commentary/1-samuel/12-11.html Study Light Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary 1 Samuel 12:11]</ref> The letters forming Bedan (בדן) Barak (ברק) in the Hebrew are very similar, and a scribe might easily have written the one for the other, and the mistake might well have been perpetuated.<ref>[https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/bedan/#:~:text=Easton's%20Bible%20Dictionary%20%2D%20Bedan&text=one%20of%20the%20judges%20of,(%20Judges%2012%3A13%20)]</ref> Others contend that this is no mistake, but that Bedan (B'dan) is simply a variant or contracted form of the name [[Abdon (Judges)|Abdon]].<ref>[https://www.studylight.org/commentary/1-samuel/12-11.html Study Light Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary 1 Samuel 12:11]</ref>

Bedan is the name of a descendant of [[Manasseh (tribal patriarch)|Manasseh]] in 1 [[Books of Chronicles|Chronicles]] 7:17 <ref>[https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt25a07.htm 1 Chronicices 7:17]</ref>

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

[[Category:Books of Samuel people]]