Peace – Pension

Peace

pes (shalom; eirene):

1. In the Old Testament:

Is a condition of freedom from disturbance, whether outwardly, as of a nation from war or enemies, or inwardly, within the soul. The Hebrew word is shalom (both adjective and substantive), meaning, primarily, "soundness," "health," but coming also to signify "prosperity," well-being in general, all good in relation to both man and God. In early times, to a people harassed by foes, peace was the primary blessing. In Psalms 122:7, we have "peace" and "prosperity," and in 35:27; 73:3, shalom is translated "prosperity." In 2 Samuel 11:7 the King James Version, David asked of Uriah "how Joab did" (margin "of the peace of Joab"), "and how the people did (the Revised Version (British and American) "fared," literally, "of the peace of the people"), and how the war prospered" (literally, "and of the peace (welfare) of the war").

(1) Shalom was the common friendly greeting, used in asking after the health of anyone; also in farewells (Genesis 29:6, "Is it well with him?" ("Is there peace to him?"); 43:23, "Peace be to you"; 43:27, "He asked them of their welfare (of their peace)"; Judges 6:23, "Yahweh said unto him, Peace be unto thee"; 18:15 (the King James Version "saluted him," margin "Hebrew asked him of peace," the Revised Version (British and American) "of his welfare"); Judges 19:20, etc.). See also GREETING.

(2) Peace from enemies (implying prosperity) was the great desire of the nation and was the gift of God to the people if they walked in His ways (Leviticus 26:6; Numbers 6:26, "Yahweh lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace"; Psalms 29:11; Isaiah 26:12, etc.). To "die in peace" was greatly to be desired (Genesis 15:15; 1 Kings 2:6; 2 Chronicles 34:28, etc.).

(3) Inward peace was the portion of the righteous who trusted in God (Job 22:21, "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace (shalam)"; Psalms 4:8; Psalms 85:8, "He will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints"; 119:165; Proverbs 3:2,Proverbs 3:17; Isaiah 26:3, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace (Hebrew "peace, peace"), whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee"; Malachi 2:5); also outward peace (Job 5:23,Job 5:24; Proverbs 16:7, etc.).

(4) Peace was to be sought and followed by the righteous (Psalms 34:14, "Seek peace, and pursue it"; Zechariah 8:16,Zechariah 8:19, "Love truth and peace").

(5) Peace should be a prominent feature of the Messianic times (Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 9:6, "Prince of Peace"; Isaiah 11:6; Ezekiel 34:25; Micah 4:2–4; Zechariah 9:10).

In the New Testament, where eirene has much the same meaning and usage as shalom (for which it is employed in the Septuagint; compare Luke 19:42, the Revised Version (British and American) "If thou hadst known .... the things which belong unto peace"), we have still the expectation of "peace" through the coming of the Christ (Luke 1:74,Luke 1:79; Luke 12:51) and also its fulfillment in the higher spiritual sense.

2. In the New Testament:

(1) The gospel in Christ is a message of peace from God to men (Luke 2:14; Acts 10:36, "preaching .... peace by Jesus Christ"). It is "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," in Romans 5:1; the King James Version 10:15; peace between Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:14,Ephesians 2:15); an essential element in the spiritual kingdom of God (Romans 14:17).

(2) It is to be cherished and followed by Christians. Jesus exhorted His disciples, "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another" (Mark 9:50); Paul exhorts, "Live in peace: and the God of love and peace shall be with you" (2 Corinthians 13:11; compare Romans 12:18; 1 Corinthians 7:15).

(3) God is therefore "the God of peace," the Author and Giver of all good ("peace" including every blessing) very frequently (e.g. Romans 15:33; Romans 16:20; 2 Thessalonians 3:16, etc., "the Lord of peace"). "Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" is a common apostolic wish or salutation (compare 1 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2, etc.).

(4) We have also "peace" as a greeting (Matthew 10:13; Luke 10:5); "a son of peace" (Luke 10:6) is one worthy of it, in sympathy with it; the Lord's own greeting to His disciples was "Peace be unto you" (Luke 24:36; John 20:19,John 20:21,John 20:26), and ere He left them He gave them specially His blessing of "Peace" (John 14:27); we have also frequently "Go in peace" (Mark 5:34; Luke 7:50). In Luke 19:38, we have "peace in heaven" (in the acclamation of Jesus on His Messianic entry of Jerusalem).

(5) The peace that Christ brought is primarily spiritual peace from and with God, peace in the heart, peace as the disposition or spirit. He said that He did not come "to send peace on the earth, but a sword," referring to the searching nature of His call and the divisions and clearances it would create. But, of course, the spirit of the gospel and of the Christian is one of peace, and it is a Christian duty to seek to bring war and strife everywhere to an end. This is represented as the ultimate result of the gospel and Spirit of Christ; universal and permanent peace can come only as that Spirit rules in men's hearts.

"Peace" in the sense of silence, to hold one's peace, etc., is in the Old Testament generally the translation of charash, "to be still, or silent" (Genesis 24:21; Genesis 34:5; Job 11:3); also of chashah, "to hush," "to be silent" (2 Kings 2:3,2 Kings 2:5; Psalms 39:2), and of other words. In Job 29:10 ("The nobles held their peace," the King James Version), it is qol, "voice."

In the New Testament we have siopao, "to be silent," "to cease speaking" (Matthew 20:31; Matthew 26:63; Acts 18:9, etc.); sigao, "to be silent," "not to speak" (Luke 20:26; Acts 12:17); hesuchazo, "to be quiet" (Luke 14:4; Acts 11:18); phimoo, "to muzzle or gag" (Mark 1:25; Luke 4:35).

In Apocrypha eirene is frequent, mostly in the sense of peace from war or strife (Tobit 13:14; Judith 3:1; Ecclesiasticus 13:18; 1 Macc 5:54; 6:49; 2 Macc 14:6, eustatheia equals "tranquillity").

The Revised Version (British and American) has "peace" for "tongue" (Esther 7:4; Job 6:24; Amos 6:10; Habakkuk 1:13); "at peace with me" for "perfect" (Isaiah 42:19, margin "made perfect" or "recompensed"); "security" instead of "peaceably" and "peace" (Daniel 8:25; Daniel 11:21,Daniel 11:24); "came in peace to the city," for "came to Shalem, a city" (Genesis 33:18); "it was for my peace" instead of "for peace" (Isaiah 38:17); "when they are in peace," for "and that which should have been for their welfare" (Psalms 69:22).

W. L. Walker

Peace Offering

See SACRIFICE.

Peacemaker

pes'-mak-er: Occurs only in the plural (Matthew 5:9, "Blessed are the peacemakers (eirenopoioi): for they shall be called sons of God" (who is "the God of peace")). We have also what seems to be a reflection of this saying in James 3:18, "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for (the Revised Version margin "by") them that make peace" (tois poiousin eirenen). In classical Greek a "peacemaker" was an ambassador sent to treat of peace. The word in Matthew 5:9 would, perhaps, be better rendered "peace-workers," implying not merely making peace between those who are at variance, but working peace as that which is the will of the God of peace for men.

W. L. Walker

Peacock

pe'-kok (tukkiyim (plural); Latin Pavo cristatus): A bird of the genus Pavo. Japan is the native home of the plainer peafowl; Siam, Ceylon and India produce the commonest and most gorgeous. The peacock has a bill of moderate size with an arched tip, its cheeks are bare, the eyes not large, but very luminous, a crest of 24 feathers 2 inches long, with naked shafts and broad tips of blue, glancing to green. The neck is not long but proudly arched, the breast full, prominent and of bright blue green, blue predominant. The wings are short and ineffectual, the feathers on them made up of a surprising array of colors. The tail consists of 18 short, stiff, grayish-brown feathers. Next is the lining of the train, of the same color. The glory of this glorious bird lies in its train. It begins on the back between the wings in tiny feathers not over 6 inches in length, and extends backward. The quills have thick shafts of purple and green shades, the eye at the tip of each feather from one-half to 2 inches across, of a deep peculiar blue, surrounded at the lower part by two half-moon-shaped crescents of green. Whether the train lies naturally, or is spread in full glory, each eye shows encircled by a marvel of glancing shades of green, gold, purple, blue and bronze. When this train is spread, it opens like a fan behind the head with its sparkling crest, and above the wondrous blue of the breast. The bird has the power to contract the muscles at the base of the quills and play a peculiar sort of music with them. It loves high places and cries before a storm in notes that are startling to one not familiar with them. The bird can be domesticated and will become friendly enough to take food from the hand. The peahen is smaller than the cock, her neck green, her wings gray, tan and brown--but she has not the gorgeous train. She nests on earth and breeds with difficulty when imported, the young being delicate and tender. The grown birds are hardy when acclimated, and live to old age. By some freak of nature, pure white peacocks are at times produced. Aristophanes mentioned peafowl in his Birds, II. 102, 269. Alexander claimed that he brought them into Greece from the east, but failed to prove his contention. Pliny wrote that Hortensius was the first to serve the birds for food, and that Aufidius Lurco first fattened and sold them in the markets. It was the custom to skin the bird, roast and recover it and send it to the table, the gaudy feathers showing.

The first appearance of the bird in the Bible occurs in a summing-up of the wealth and majesty of Solomon (1 Kings 10:22 "For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram: once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks"). (Here the Septuagint translates peleketoi (s.c. lithoi), equals "(stones) carved with an ax.") The same statement is made in 2 Chronicles 9:21: "For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks" Septuagint omits). There is no question among scholars and scientists but that these statements are true, as the ships of Solomon are known to have visited the coasts of India and Ceylon, and Tarshish was on the Malabar coast of India, where the native name of the peacock was tokei, from which tukkiyim undoubtedly was derived (see GOLD, and The Expository Times, IX, 472). The historian Tennant says that the Hebrew names for "ivory" and "apes" were also the same as the Tamil. The reference to the small, ineffectual wing of the peacock which scarcely will lift the weight of the body and train, that used to be found in Job, is now applied to the ostrich, and is no doubt correct:

"The wings of the ostrich wave proudly;

But are they the pinions and plumage of love?" (Job 39:13).

While the peacock wing seems out of proportion to the size of the bird, it will sustain flight and bear the body to the treetops. The wing of the ostrich is useless for flight.

Gene Stratton-Porter

Pearl

purl.

See STONES, PRECIOUS.

Peculiar

pe-kul'-yar: The Latin peculium means "private property," so that "peculiar" properly equals "pertaining to the individual." In modern English the word has usually degenerated into a half-colloquial form for "extraordinary," but in Biblical English it is a thoroughly dignified term for "esp. one's own"; compare the "peculiar treasure" of the king in Ecclesiastes 2:8 (the King James Version). Hence, "peculiar people" (the King James Version Deuteronomy 14:2, etc.) means a people especially possessed by God and particularly prized by Him. The word in the Old Testament (the King James Version Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 14:2; Deuteronomy 26:18; Psalms 135:4; Ecclesiastes 2:8) invariably represents ceghullah, "property," an obscure word which Septuagint usually rendered by the equally obscure periousios (apparently meaning "superabundant"), which in turn is quoted in Titus 2:14. In Malachi 3:17, however, Septuagint has peripoiesis, quoted in 1 Peter 2:9. the English Revised Version in the New Testament substituted "own possession" in the two occurrences, but in the Old Testament kept "peculiar" and even extended its use (Deuteronomy 7:6; Malachi 3:17) to cover every occurrence of ceghullah except in 1 Chronicles 29:3 ("treasure"). the American Standard Revised Version, on the contrary, has dropped "peculiar" altogether, using "treasure" in 1 Chronicles 29:3; Ecclesiastes 2:8, and "own possession" elsewhere. the King James Version also has "peculiar commandments" (idios, "particular," the Revised Version (British and American) "several") in The Wisdom of Solomon 19:6, and the Revised Version (British and American) has "peculiar" where the King James Version has "special" in The Wisdom of Solomon 3:14 for eklekte, "chosen out."

Burton Scott Easton

Pedahel

ped'-a-hel, pe-da'-el (pedhah'-el, "whom God redeems"): A prince of Naphtali; one of the tribal chiefs who apportioned the land of Canaan (Numbers 34:28; compare Numbers 34:17).

Pedahzur

pe-da'zur (pedhahtsur): Mentioned in Numbers 1:10; Numbers 2:20; Numbers 7:54,Numbers 7:59; Numbers 10:23 as the father of Gamaliel, head of the tribe of Manasseh, at the time of the exodus. See The Expository Times, VIII, 555 ff.

Pedaiah

pe-da'-ya, pe-di'-a (pedhayahu, "Yah redeems"):

(1) Father of Joel, who was ruler of Western Manasseh in David's reign (1 Chronicles 27:20). Form pedhayah (see above).

(2) Pedaiah of Rumah (2 Kings 23:36), father of Zebudah, Jehoiakim's mother.

(3) A son of Jeconiah (1 Chronicles 3:18); in 1 Chronicles 3:19 the father of Zerubbabel. Pedaiah's brother, Shealtiel, is also called father of Zerubbabel (Ezra 3:2; but in 1 Chronicles 3:17 the King James Version spelled "Salathiel"). There may have been two cousins, or even different individuals may be referred to under Shealtiel and Salathiel respectively.

(4) Another who helped to repair the city wall (Nehemiah 3:25), of the family of PAROSH (which see). Perhaps this is the man who stood by Ezra at the reading of the Law (Nehemiah 8:4; 1 Esdras 9:44, called "Phaldeus").

(5) A "Levite," appointed one of the treasurers over the "treasuries" of the Lord's house (Nehemiah 13:13).

(6) A Benjamite, one of the rulers residing in Jerusalem under the "return" arrangements (Nehemiah 11:7).

Henry Wallace

Pedestal

ped'-es-tal (ken): In two places (1 Kings 7:29,1 Kings 7:31) the Revised Version (British and American) gives this word for the King James Version "base" (in Solomon's "Sea").

Pedias

ped'-i-as, pe-di'-as (Pedias; Codex Alexandrinus Paideias; the King James Version by mistake Pelias): One of those who had taken "strange wives" (1 Esdras 9:34) equals "Bedeiah" of Ezra 10:35.

Pedigree

ped'-i-gre (hithyalledh, "to show one's birth"): The English word "pedigree" occurs only once in the Bible, according to the concordance. In Numbers 1:18, it is said: "They declared their pedigrees"; that is, they enrolled or registered themselves according to their family connections. The same idea is expressed frequently, employing a different term in the Hebrew, by the common phrase of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, "to reckon by genealogy," "to give genealogy," etc. (compare 1 Chronicles 7:5,1 Chronicles 7:9; Ezra 2:62 ff; Nehemiah 7:64). These last passages indicate the importance of the registered pedigree or genealogy, especially of the priests in the post-exilic community, for the absence of the list of their pedigrees, or their genealogical records, was sufficient to cause the exclusion from the priesthood of certain enrolled priests.

Walter R. Betteridge

Peel; Pill

pel, pil: "Pill" (Genesis 30:37,Genesis 30:38; Tobit 11:13 (the Revised Version (British and American) "scaled")) and "peel" (Isaiah 18:2,Isaiah 18:7 (the King James Version and the Revised Version margin); Ezekiel 29:18 (the King James Version and the English Revised Version)) are properly two different words, meaning "to remove the hair" (pilus) and "to remove the skin" (pellis), but in Elizabethan English the two were confused. In Isaiah 18:2,Isaiah 18:7, the former meaning is implied, as the Hebrew word here (marat) is rendered "pluck off the hair" in Ezra 9:3; Nehemiah 13:25; Isaiah 50:6. The word, however, may also mean "make smooth" (so the Revised Version margin) or "bronzed." This last, referring to the dark skins of the Ethiopians, is best here, but in any case the King James Version and the Revised Version margin are impossible. In the other cases, however, "remove the skin" (compare "scaled," Tobit 11:13 the Revised Version (British and American)) is meant. So in Genesis 30:37,Genesis 30:38, Jacob "peels" (so the Revised Version (British and American)) off portions of the bark of his rods, so as to give alternating colors (compare 30:39). And in Ezekiel 29:18, the point is Nebuchadrezzar's total failure in his siege of Tyre, although the soldiers had carried burdens until the skin was peeled from their shoulders (compare the American Standard Revised Version "worn").

Burton Scott Easton

Peep

pep (tsphaph; the King James Version Isaiah 8:19; Isaiah 10:14 (the Revised Version (British and American) "chirp")): In 10:14, the word describes the sound made by a nestling bird; in 8:19, the changed (ventriloquistic?) voice of necromancers uttering sounds that purported to come from the feeble dead. The modern use of "peep" equals "look" is found in Sirach 21:23, as the translation of parakupto: "A foolish man peepeth in from the door of another man's house."

Pekah

1. Accession:

Son of Remaliah, and 18th king of Israel. Pekah murdered his predecessor, Pekahiah, and seized the reins of power (2 Kings 15:25). His usurpation of the throne is said to have taken place in the 52nd year of Uzziah, and his reign to have lasted for 20 years (2 Kings 15:27). His accession, therefore, may be placed in 748 BC (other chronologies place it later, and make the reign last only a few years).

Pekah came to the throne with the resolution of assisting in forming a league to resist the westward advance of Assyria. The memory of defeat by Assyria at the battle of Karkar in 753, more than 100 years before, had never died out.

2. Attitude of Assyria:

Tiglath-pileser III was now ruler of Assyria, and in successive campaigns since 745 had proved himself a resistless conqueror. His lust for battle was not yet satisfied, and the turn of Philistia and Syria was about to come. In 735, a coalition, of which Pekah was a prominent member, was being formed to check his further advance. It comprised the princes of Comagene, Gebal, Hamath, Arvad, Ammon, Moab, Edom, Gaza, Samaria, Syria, and some minor potentates, the list being taken from a roll of the subject-princes who attended a court and paid tribute after the fall of Damascus. Ahaz likewise attended as a voluntary tributary to do homage to Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 16:10).

3. Judah Recalcitrant:

While the plans of the allies were in course of formation, an obstacle was met with which proved insurmountable by the arts of diplomacy. This was the refusal of Ahaz, then on the throne of David, to join the confederacy. Arguments and threats having failed to move him, resort was had to force, and the troops of Samaria and Damascus moved on Jerusalem (2 Kings 16:5). Great alarm was felt at the news of their approach, as seen in the 7th and 8th chapters of Isa. The allies had in view to dispossess Ahaz of his crown, and give it to one of their own number, a son of Tabeel. Isaiah himself was the mainstay of the opposition to their projects. The policy he advocated, by divine direction, was that of complete neutrality. This he urged with passionate earnestness, but with only partial success. Isaiah (probably) had kept back Ahaz from joining the coalition, but could not prevent him from sending an embassy, laden with gifts to Tiglath-pileser, to secure his intervention. On the news arriving that the Assyrian was on the march, a hasty retreat was made from Jerusalem, and the blow soon thereafter fell, where Isaiah had predicted, on Rezin and Pekah, and their kingdoms.

4. Chronicles Ancillary to Kings:

The severely concise manner in which the writer of Kings deals with the later sovereigns of the Northern Kingdom is, in the case of Pekah, supplemented in Chronicles by further facts as to this campaign of the allies. The Chronicler states that "a great multitude of captives" were taken to Damascus and many others to Samaria. These would be countrymen and women from the outlying districts of Judah, which were ravaged. Those taken to Samaria were, however, returned, unhurt, to Jericho by the advice of the prophet Oded (2 Chronicles 28:5–15).

5. Fall of Damascus; Northern and Eastern Palestine Overrun:

The messengers sent from Jerusalem to Nineveh appear to have arrived when the army of Tiglath-pileser was already prepared to march. The movements of the Assyrians being expedited, they fell upon Damascus before the junction of the allies was accomplished. Rezin was defeated in a decisive battle, and took refuge in his capital, which was closely invested. Another part of the invading army descended on the upper districts of Syria and Samaria. Serious resistance to the veteran troops of the East could hardly be made, and city after city fell. A list of districts and cities that were overrun is given in 2 Kings 15:29. It comprises Gilead beyond Jordan--already partly depopulated (1 Chronicles 5:26); the tribal division of Naphtali, lying to the West of the lakes of Galilee and Merom, and all Galilee, as far South as the plain of Esdraelon and the Valley of Jezreel. Cities particularly mentioned are Ijon (now `Ayun), Abel-beth-maacah (now `Abi), Janoah (now Yanun), Kedesh (now Kados) and Hazor (now Hadireh).

6. Deportation of the Inhabitants:

These places and territories were not merely attacked and plundered. Their inhabitants were removed, with indescribable loss and suffering, to certain districts in Assyria, given as Halah, Habor, Hara, and both sides of the river Gozan, an affluent of the Euphrates. The transplantation of these tribes to a home beyond the great river was a new experiment in political geography, devised with the object of welding the whole of Western Asia into a single empire. It was work of immense difficulty and must have taxed the resources of even so great an organizer as Tiglath-pileser. The soldiers who had conquered in the field were, of course, employed to escort the many thousands of prisoners to their new locations. About two-thirds of the Samarian kingdom, comprising the districts of Samaria, the two Galilees, and the trans-Jordanic region, was thus denuded of its inhabitants.

7. Death of Pekah:

Left with but a third of his kingdom--humbled but still defiant--Pekah was necessarily unpopular with his subjects. In this extremity--the wave of invasion from the North having spent itself--the usual solution occurred, and a plot was formed by which the assassination of Pekah should be secured, and the assassin should take his place as a satrap of Assyria. A tool was found in the person of Hoshea, whom Tiglath-pileser claims to have appointed to the throne. The Biblical narrative does not do more than record the fact that "Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead" (2 Kings 15:30). The date given to this act is the 20th year of Jotham. As Jotham's reign lasted but 16 years, this number is evidently an error.

8. References in Isaiah:

For the first time, the historian makes no reference to the religious conduct of a king of Israel. The subject was beneath notice. The second section of Isaiah's prophecies (Isaiah 7:1–10:4) belongs to the reign of Ahaz and thus to the time of Pekah, both of whom are named in it. Pekah is named in Isaiah 7:1, and is often, in this and the next chapter, referred to as "the son of Remaliah." His loss of the territorial divisions of Zebulun and Naphtali is referred to in 9:1, and is followed by prophecy of their future glory as the earthly home of the Son of Man. The wording of Isaiah 9:14 shows that it was written before the fall of Samaria, and that of Isaiah 10:9–11 that Damascus and Samaria had both fallen and Jerusalem was expected to follow. This section of Isaiah may thus be included in the literature of the time of Pekah.

W. Shaw Caldecott

Pekahiah

pek-a-hi'-a, pe-ka'-ya (peqachyah, "Yah hath opened" (the eyes) (2 Kings 15:23–26); Phakesias; Codex Alexandrinus Phakeias):

1. Accession:

Son of Menahem, and 17th king of Israel. He is said to have succeeded his father in the "50th year of Azariah" (or Uzziah), a synchronism not free from difficulty if his accession is placed in 750-749 (see MENAHEM; UZZIAH). Most date lower, after 738, when an Assyrian inscription makes Menahem pay tribute to Tiglath-pileser (compare 2 Kings 15:19–21).

2. Regicide in Israel:

Pekahiah came to the throne enveloped in the danger which always accompanies the successor of an exceptionally strong ruler, in a country where there is not a settled law of succession. Within two years of his accession he was murdered in a foul manner--the 7th king of Israel who had met his death by violence (the others were Nadab, Elah, Tibni, Jehoram, Zechariah and Shallum). The chief conspirator was Pekah, son of Remaliah, one of his captains, with whom, as agent in the crime, were associated 50 Gileadites. These penetrated into the palace (the Revised Version (British and American) "castle") of the king's house, and put Pekahiah to death, his bodyguards, Argob and Arieh, dying with him. The record, in its close adherence to fact, gives no reason for the king's removal, but it may reasonably be surmised that it was connected with a league which was at this time forming for opposing resistance to the power of Assyria. This league, Pekahiah, preferring his father's policy of tributary vassalage, may have refused to join. If so, the decision cost him his life. The act of treachery and violence is in accordance with all that Hosea tells us of the internal condition of Israel at this time: "They .... devour their judges; all their kings are fallen" (Hosea 7:7).

3. Pekahiah's Character:

The narrative of Pekahiah's short reign contains but a brief notice of his personal character. Like his predecessors, Pekahiah did not depart from the system of worship introduced by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, "who made Israel to sin." Despite the denunciations of the prophets of the Northern Kingdom (Amos 5:21–27; Hosea 8:1–6), the worship of the calves remained, till the whole was swept away, a few years later, by the fall of the kingdom.

After Pekahiah's murder, the throne was seized by the regicide Pekah.

W. Shaw Caldecott

Pekod

pe'-kod (peqodh): A name applied in Jeremiah 50:21 and Ezekiel 23:23 to the Chaldeans. Various English Versions of the Bible (margins) in the former passage gives the meaning as "visitation."

Pelaiah

pe-la'-ya, pe-li'-a (pela'yah):

(1) A son of Elioenai, of the royal house of Judah (1 Chronicles 3:24).

(2) A Levite who assisted Ezra by expounding the Law (Nehemiah 8:7), and was one of those who sealed the covenant with Nehemiah (10:10). He is called "Phalias" in 1 Esdras 9:48 (Revised Version).

Pelaliah

pel-a-li'-a (pelalyah, "Yahweh judges"): A priest, father of Jeroham, one of the "workers" in the Lord's house (Nehemiah 11:12).

Pelatiah

pel-a-ti'-a (pelatyah, "Yahweh delivers"):

(1) One who "sealed" the covenant (Nehemiah 10:22).

(2) A descendant of Solomon, grandson of Zerubbabel (1 Chronicles 3:21).

(3) A Simeonite, one of the captains who cleared out the Amalekites and dwelt on the captured land (1 Chronicles 4:42,1 Chronicles 4:43).

(4) A prince of the people whom Ezekiel (in Babylon) pictures as `devising mischief' and giving `wicked counsel' in Jerusalem. He is represented as falling dead while Ezekiel prophesies (Ezekiel 11:1,Ezekiel 11:13). His name has the "-u," ending.

Peleg

pe'-leg (pelegh, "watercourse," "division"): A son of Eber, and brother of Joktan. The derivation of the name is given: "for in his days was the earth divided" (niphleghah) (Genesis 10:25; compare Luke 3:35, the King James Version "Phalec"). This probably refers to the scattering of the world's population and the confounding of its language recorded in Genesis 11:1–9. In Aramaic pelagh and Arabic phalaj mean "division"; in Hebrew pelegh means "watercourse." The name may really be due to the occupation by this people of some well-watered (furrowed), district (e.g. in Babylonia), for these patronymics represent races, and the derivation in Genesis 10:25 is a later editor's remark.

S. F. Hunter

Pelet

pe'-let (peleT, "deliverance"):

(1) Son of Iahdai (1 Chronicles 2:47).

(2) Son of Azmaveth, one of those who resorted to David at Ziklag while he was hiding from Saul (1 Chronicles 12:3).

Peleth

pe'-leth (peleth, "swiftness"):

(1) Father of On, one of the rebels against Moses and Aaron (Numbers 16:1); probably same as PALLU (which see).

(2) A descendant of Jerahmeel (1 Chronicles 2:33).

Pelethites

pel'-e-thits, pe'-leth-its (pelethi): A company of David's bodyguard, like the CHERETHITES (which see) (2 Samuel 8:18; 2 Samuel 15:18); probably a corrupt form of "Philistines."

Pelias

pe-li'-as: the King James Version equals the Revised Version (British and American) "Pedias."

Pelican

pel'-kan (qa'ath; Latin Pelecanus onocrotalus Septuagint reads pelekan, in Leviticus and Psalms, but has 3 other readings, that are rather confusing, in the other places)): Any bird of the genus Pelecanus. The Hebrew qi' means "to vomit." The name was applied to the bird because it swallowed large quantities of fish and then disgorged them to its nestlings. In the performance of this act it pressed the large beak, in the white species, tipped with red, against the crop and slightly lifted the wings. In ancient times, people, seeing this, believed that the bird was puncturing its breast and feeding its young with its blood. From this idea arose the custom of using a pelican with lifted wings in heraldry or as a symbol of Christ and of charity. (See Fictitious Creatures in Art, 182-86, London, Chapman and Hall, 1906.) Palestine knew a white and a brownish-gray bird, both close to 6 ft. long and having over a 12 ft. sweep of wing. They lived around the Dead Sea, fished beside the Jordan and abounded in greatest numbers in the wildernesses of the Mediterranean shore. The brown pelicans were larger than the white. Each of them had a long beak, peculiar throat pouch and webbed feet. They built large nests, 5 and 6 ft. across, from dead twigs of bushes, and laid two or three eggs. The brown birds deposited a creamy-white egg with a rosy flush; the white, a white egg with bluish tints. The young were naked at first, then covered with down, and remained in the nest until full feathered and able to fly. This compelled the parent birds to feed them for a long time, and they carried such quantities of fish to a nest that the young could not consume all of them and many were dropped on the ground. The tropical sun soon made the location unbearable to mortals. Perching pelicans were the ugliest birds imaginable, but when their immense brown or white bodies swept in a 12 ft. spread across the land and over sea, they made an impressive picture. They are included, with good reason, in the list of abominations (see Leviticus 11:18; Deuteronomy 14:17). They are next mentioned in Psalms 102:6:

"I am like a pelican of the wilderness;

I am become as an owl of the waste places."

Here David from the depths of affliction likened himself to a pelican as it appears when it perches in the wilderness. See Isaiah 34:11: "But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it; and the owl and the raven shall dwell therein: and he will stretch over it the line of confusion, and the plummet of emptiness." Here the bird is used to complete the picture of desolation that was to prevail after the destruction of Edom. The other reference concerns the destruction of Nineveh and is found in Ze 2:14: "And herds shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the pelican and the porcupine shall lodge in the capitals thereof; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he hath laid bare the cedar-work."

Gene Stratton-Porter

Pelishtim

pel'-ish-tim, pe-lish'-tim (pelishtim (the Revised Version margin of Genesis 10:14)).

See PHILISTINES.

Pelonite

pel'-o-nit, pe'-lo-nit, pe-lo'-nit (peloni, a place-name): Two of David's heroes are thus described: (1) "Helez the Pelonite" (1 Chronicles 11:27) (see PALTITE); and (2) "Ahijah the Pelonite" (1 Chronicles 11:36).

Pen

(`et, cheret; kalamos): The first writing was done on clay, wax, lead or stone tablets by scratching into the material with some hard pointed instrument. For this purpose bodkins of bronze, iron, bone or ivory were used (Job 19:24; Isaiah 8:1; Jeremiah 17:1). In Jeremiah 17:1 a diamond is also mentioned as being used for the same purpose. In Jeremiah 36:1–32 Baruch, the son of Neriah, declares that he recorded the words of the prophet with ink in the book. In Jeremiah 36:23 it says that the king cut the roll with the penknife (literally, the scribe's knife). This whole scene can best be explained if we consider that Baruch and the king's scribes were in the habit of using reed pens. These pens are made from the hollow jointed stalks of a coarse grass growing in marshy places. The dried reed is cut diagonally with the penknife and the point thus formed is carefully shaved thin to make it flexible and the nib split as in the modern pen. The last operation is the clipping off of the very point so that it becomes a stub pen. The Arab scribe does this by resting the nib on his thumb nail while cutting, so that the cut will be clean and the pen will not scratch. The whole procedure requires considerable skill. The pupil in Hebrew or Arabic writing learns to make a pen as his first lesson. A scribe carries a sharp knife around with him for keeping his pen in good condition, hence, the name penknife. The word used in 3 John 1:13 is kalamos, "reed," indicating that the pen described above was used in John's time (compare qalam, the common Arabic name for pen).

See INK; INK-HORN; WRITING.

Figurative: "Written with a pen of iron," i.e. indelibly (Jeremiah 17:1). "My tongue is the pen of a ready writer" (Psalms 45:1; compare Jeremiah 36:18). As the trained writer records a speech, so the Psalmist's tongue impresses or engraves on his hearers' minds what he has conceived.

James A. Patch

Pence; Penny

pens.

See MONEY.

Pencil

pen'-sil (Isaiah 44:13, margin "red ochre," the King James Version "line").

See LINE; OCHRE, RED.

Pendant

pen'-dant (from French from Latin pendeo, "to hang"): Not in the King James Version. Twice in the Revised Version (British and American).

(1) netiphoth (the King James Version "collars"), ornaments of the Midianites captured by Gideon (Judges 8:26).

(2) netiphoth (the King James Version "chains"), an article of feminine apparel (Isaiah 3:19). The reference seems to be (Cheyne, "Isaiah" Polychrome Bible (HDB, III, 739)) to ear-drops, pearl or gold ornaments resembling a drop of Water, fastened, probably, to the lobe of the ear.

Peniel

pe-ni'-el, pen'-i-el, pe'-ni-el (peni'el, "face of God"; Eidos theou): This is the form of the name in Genesis 32:30. In the next verse and elsewhere it appears as "Penuel." The name is said to have been given to the place by Jacob after his night of wrestling by the Jabbok, because, as he said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." It was a height evidently close by the stream over which Jacob passed in the morning. Some have thought it might be a prominent cliff, the contour of which resembled a human face. Such a cliff on the seashore to the South of Tripoli was called theou prosopon, "face of God" (Strabo xvi.2,15 f). In later times a city with a strong tower stood upon it. This lay in the line of Gideon's pursuit of the Midianites. When he returned victorious, he beat down the place because of the churlishness of the inhabitants (Judges 8:8,Revelation 7:9,Revelation 7:17). It was one of the towns "built" or fortified by Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:25). Merrill would identify it with Telul edh-Dhahab, "hills of gold," two hills with ruins that betoken great antiquity, and that speak of great strength, on the South of the Jabbok, about 10 miles East of Jordan (for description see Merrill, East of the Jordan, 390 if). A difficulty that seems fatal to this identification is that here the banks of the Jabbok are so precipitous as to be impassable. Conder suggests Jebel 'Osha. The site was clearly not far from Succoth; but no certainty is yet possible.

W. Ewing

Peninnah

pe-nin'-a (peninnah, "coral," "pearl"): Second wife of Elkanah, father of Samuel (1 Samuel 1:2,1 Samuel 1:4).

Penknife

pen'-nif (Jeremiah 36:23).

See PEN.

Penny

pen'-i (denarion; Latin denarius (which see)): the American Standard Revised Version (Matthew 18:28; Matthew 20:2,Matthew 20:9,Matthew 20:10,Matthew 20:13, etc.) renders it by "shilling" except in Matthew 22:19; Mark 12:15 and Luke 20:24, where it retains the original term as it refers to a particular coin.

See DENARIUS; MONEY.

Pension

pen'-shun (1 Esdras 4:56, the King James Version "and he commanded to give to all that kept the city pensions and wages"; kleros, "allotted portion," usually (here certainly) of lands (the Revised Version (British and American) "lands")): Literally it means simply "payment," and the King James Version seems to have used the word in order to avoid any specialization of kleros. There is no reference to payment for past services.

See LOT.