Hebrew word · H6489

פְּקוֹד

pekod

Pekod

The Puqudu, an Aramean tribal group living along the lower Tigris in eastern Babylonia, near the border with Elam. In Hebrew it sounds like the verb pāqad, which ranges from "to attend to, visit, muster" to "to call to account, punish".

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Pekod = "visitation"

a people in the Babylonian army and a tribe in southeast Babylonia bordering Elam

Another name of ba.vel (בָּבֶ֫ל, בָּבֶל "Babylon" H0894)

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 Jeremiah 50:21

Range of meaning

The Puqudu, an Aramean tribal group living along the lower Tigris in eastern Babylonia, near the border with Elam. In Hebrew it sounds like the verb pāqad, which ranges from "to attend to, visit, muster" to "to call to account, punish".

Against the English

English versions give "Pekod", with no hint of the sound-play. The Vulgate's visita ("visit/punish") and the Septuagint's ekdikēson ("avenge!") both translate the pun instead of the name.

How it drifted

As with Merathaim, a transliterated name keeps the place and loses the meaning.

Used elsewhere in the period

Puqudu appear often in Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions, from Tiglath-pileser III to Sennacherib (8th–7th c. BC). Ezekiel 23:23 lists "Pekod, Shoa and Koa" alongside the Babylonians and Chaldeans. Jeremiah itself uses pāqad for God's punishment of Babylon: "I will punish (pāqad) the king of Babylon", 50:18; "the time of their punishment (pequddâ)", 50:27, 31.

Where it appears

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 50:21 פְּק֑וֹד Pekod

    Go up against the land of Merathaim, and against the residents of Pekod. Kill them and devote them to destruction. Do all that I have commanded you,” declares the LORD.

    Here: The Puqudu, an Aramean tribe of eastern Babylonia known from Assyrian records (compare Ezek 23:23). In Hebrew it echoes paqad, "to call to account, punish", so it can be heard as "Punishment".

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 23:23 פְּק֤וֹד Pekod

    the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them—all desirable young men, governors and commanders, officers and men of renown, mounted on horses.

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