What is…
Pekod

also known as: Peqod, Puqudu, Piqudu or Pukud

Hebrew: פְקוֹד —transliteration: Peqod

Introduction

This is a place and a people located in Babylonia (Jeremiah 50:21; Ezek. 23:23).

These people were a prominent Aramean tribe 1 inhabiting a region in southern or eastern Babylonia. They lived along the eastern edge of Elam, 2 and in the area near Uruk and the Tigris. Their tribal name is sometimes spelled with an accent mark as Puqūdu, and the members of the tribe are sometimes referred to as Puqūdian, Puqūdians, or Puqudaeans (e.g. in the Nimrud Letters). Some older publications use Pukud.

They may have been a loosely associated set of clans, forming alliances for war but not governed under their own permanent centralized government. They maintained some cities, but their way of life appears to have been mostly rural, with many caring for herds.

The Babylonian emperor Neriglissar (reigned 560-556 BC), was a member of the Puqudu tribe, and the son of the governor of the Puqudu district within the Babylonian Empire.3

Appearance in Scripture

The name appears twice in Scripture.

Go… against the inhabitants of Pekod. Waste and utterly destroy them,” says the Lord, “And do according to all that I have commanded you. —Jeremiah 50:21 NKJV excerpt

The Babylonians,
All the Chaldeans,
Pekod,
Shoa,
Koa,
All the Assyrians with them,
All of them desirable young men,
Governors and rulers,
Captains and men of renown,
All of them riding on horses. —Ezekiel 23:23 NKJV

Cities partial list

  1. H.W.F. Saggs, Babylonians (University of California Press: 2000), p. 133. ISBN 978-0-520-20222-1.
  2. Abraham Samuel Anspacher, Tiglath Pileser III (Columbia University Press: 1912), p. 66.
  3. Rainer Albertz, Israel in Exile: The History and Literature of the Sixth Century B.C.E. (Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), p. 62. ISBN 978-1-58983-055-4. Translator: David Green.

More information

Article Version: August 13, 2024