Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PERIZZITES

(Heb. pĕrizzî)

A population group occupying Palestine from patriarchal times, encountered by the emerging nation of Israel. A plausible etymology links Perizzite to Heb. pĕrāzôn, “rural person.” In such case, the Perizzites would originally have been country folks as opposed to city dwellers (Judg. 1:4-5). The tremendous increase in the number of small villages in the Cisjordanian highlands by the Iron Age I period may relate to the existence of the Perizzites and their name. Apparently the term Perizzite eventually shifted from primarily designating a social category to more often indicating an ethnic group — specifically in the lists of pre-Israelite peoples (e.g., Neh. 9:8). Josh. 11:3 locates the Perizzites among the highlands of Canaan, while 17:15 places with greater precision this people’s central home in the forested hill country of Samaria, where Ephraim and Manasseh later settled.

Bibliography. E. C. Hostetter, Nations Mightier and More Numerous: The Biblical View of Palestine’s Pre-Israelite Peoples. BIBAL DS 3 (Fort Worth, 1995), 80-83.

Edwin C. Hostetter

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PERIZZITES

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)