Hebrew word · H1047

בֵּית פְּעוֹר

beit

Beth-peor

Place name: "House of Peor," probably a town named after a shrine of the god worshipped on Mount Peor. Later allotted to Reuben (Josh 13:20). Its exact site is debated; candidates near Mount Nebo include Khirbet ʿAyun Musa and Khirbet esh-Sheikh Jayil.

Appears 8 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Beth-peor = "house of Peor"

a place east of the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, allotted to the tribe of Reuben

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Deuteronomy 3:29

Range of meaning

Place name: "House of Peor," probably a town named after a shrine of the god worshipped on Mount Peor. Later allotted to Reuben (Josh 13:20). Its exact site is debated; candidates near Mount Nebo include Khirbet ʿAyun Musa and Khirbet esh-Sheikh Jayil.

Against the English

English versions just transliterate the name, so the word "house/temple" disappears. Ancient translators kept it: the Vulgate renders it "the shrine of Phogor."

Used elsewhere in the period

Num 23:28 (Balak takes Balaam to "the top of Peor"); Num 25:1–9, 18 (Israel joins itself to Baal of Peor, and 24,000 die in the plague); Deut 4:3 ("Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor"); Hos 9:10; Ps 106:28. Eusebius' Onomasticon puts Beth-peor near Mount Phogor, about six Roman miles from Livias (Tell er-Rameh).

Where it appears

Deuteronomy · 6

  1. Deuteronomy 3:29 בֵּ֥ית פְּעֽוֹר׃ פ Beth, Peor

    So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

    Here: First half of the place name. Beit ("house of") in a place name often means a shrine or temple: "Beth-peor" is most naturally "House (temple) of Peor."

  2. Deuteronomy 4:46 בֵּ֣ית פְּע֔וֹר Beth, Peor

    while they were in the valley across the Jordan facing Beth-peor in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt.

  3. Deuteronomy 34:6 בֵּ֣ית פְּע֑וֹר Beth, Peor

    And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab facing Beth-peor, and no one to this day knows the location of his grave.

Joshua · 2

  1. Joshua 13:20 וּבֵ֥ית פְּע֛וֹר and Beth, Peor

    Beth-peor, the slopes of Pisgah, and Beth-jeshimoth—

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.