Madon
Ma'don (Heb. hadon', מָדוֹן, strife, as in Pr 15:18, etc.; Sept. Μαδών v. r. Μαρῶν), a Canaanitish city in the north of Palestine, ruled over by a king named Jobab in the time of Joshua, who captured it (Jos 11:1; Jos 12:19). Calmet (Dict. s.v.), arbitrarily conjecturing that Maron is the true reading, refers to Maronia, a small village of Syria thirty miles east of Antioch (Jerome, Vit. Malachi 2), probably the place alluded to by Ptolemy (5:15, 8, Μαρωνιάς) as lying in the province of Chalcidtice. Schwarz infers (Palest. p. 90, 173) from labbinical notices (chiefly a statement of the early Jewish traveler hap-Parchi in Asher's Benj. of Tudela, p. 430) that the site is that of the present Kefrenda, a considerable village at the foot of the hills north of Diocaesarea, containing a very deep well and some traces of antiquity, which Dr. Robinson (new edit. of Researches, 3:109-111) is inclined to regard as marking the place of the Asochis of Josephus (Lije, 41, 45, 68; War, 1:4, 2; int. 13:12, 4), although admitting that the latter may be referred to Tell ed-Bedawiveh, in the vicinity.
"In the Sept. version of 2Sa 21:20, the Hebrew words אֵישׁ מָדוֹן 'a man of stature,' are rendered ἀνὴρ Μαδών, 'a man of Madon.' This may refer to the town Madon, or may be merely an instance of the habit which these translators had of rendering literally in (Greek letters Hebrew words which they did not understand. Other instances will be found in 2Ki 6:8; 2Ki 9:13; 2Ki 12:9; 2Ki 15:16, etc."
