Hebrew word · H6397

פְּלוֹנִי

hapeloni

Pelonite

A label of origin, 'Pelonite', meaning a man from a place or clan Pelon. No such place is attested. The same letters also form the common word peloni, 'a certain one, so-and-so', as in peloni 'almoni (Ruth 4:1; 1 Sam 21:3).

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Someone descended from Pelon or Palet(?), first mentioned at 2Sa.23.26; also called Paltite at 2Sa.23.26;

Also named: pal.ti (פַּלְטִי "Paltite" H6407)

§ Pelonite = "a certain one"

the inhabitants of a presently unknown place

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 1 Chronicles 27:10

Range of meaning

A label of origin, 'Pelonite', meaning a man from a place or clan Pelon. No such place is attested. The same letters also form the common word peloni, 'a certain one, so-and-so', as in peloni 'almoni (Ruth 4:1; 1 Sam 21:3).

Against the English

English versions transliterate it as 'Pelonite'. That is honest, but it gives no hint that the name is a textual puzzle.

Used elsewhere in the period

In 1 Chr 11:27 Helez is 'the Pelonite', but in 2 Sam 23:26 he is 'the Paltite' (from Beth-pelet, a town in Judah's Negev, Josh 15:27). Another 'Pelonite', Ahijah (1 Chr 11:36), corresponds to a different name in 2 Sam 23:34. The Greek manuscripts spell these names in several different ways.

Where it appears

1 Chronicles · 3

  1. 1 Chronicles 11:27 הַפְּלוֹנִֽי׃ ס the Pelonite

    Shammoth the Harorite, Helez the Pelonite,

  2. 1 Chronicles 11:36 הַפְּלֹנִֽי׃ ס the Pelonite

    Hepher the Mecherathite, Ahijah the Pelonite,

  3. 1 Chronicles 27:10 הַפְּלוֹנִ֖י the Pelonite

    The seventh, for the seventh month, was Helez the Pelonite, an Ephraimite. There were 24,000 men in his division.

    Here: A label for where he came from or which clan he belonged to: 'the Pelonite'. No place called Pelon is known. The parallel in 2 Samuel reads 'the Paltite', meaning from Beth-pelet. The original form is debated (see debates).

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