Bedan

This article is about the Biblical figure Bedan. For other uses, see Bedan (disambiguation).

Bedan is named as the deliverer of Israelites in 1 Samuel 12:11. He is not mentioned elsewhere as a judge of Israel. Bp. Patrick and others hypothesis the name to be a contraction of ben Dan ("the son of Dan") by which they suppose Samson is meant, as the Targum reads. The LXX, Syriac, and Arabic, however, refer to the name as Barak, instead of Bedan; and the two latter versions refer to Samson, instead of Samuel. These readings are adopted by Houbigant, and appear to be genuine, for it is not probable that Samuel would enumerate himself.