Hebrew word · H6519

פְּרָזָה

haperazot

village

Open, unwalled country, or the farm settlements spread across it, as opposed to a fortified city ('ir) with its wall. The related words perazi (country dweller, people of unwalled towns) and perazon (rural population or village life) belong to the same group.

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

What it means

open region, hamlet, unwalled village, open country

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 Zechariah 2:4

Range of meaning

Open, unwalled country, or the farm settlements spread across it, as opposed to a fortified city ('ir) with its wall. The related words perazi (country dweller, people of unwalled towns) and perazon (rural population or village life) belong to the same group.

Against the English

KJV 'towns without walls', WEB 'villages without walls' and YLT 'unwalled villages' keep the plural picture. BSB and NIV 'a city without walls' make it smoother but lose the picture of open settlements spreading over the land. NASB keeps just 'without walls'.

How it drifted

'Village' in modern English mainly means small and rural. The Hebrew word is about having no walls, not about size. Here the point is an enormous city, so big it has spread out like open country.

Used elsewhere in the period

Esther 9:19 calls rural Jews 'the Jews of the perazot', meaning those living in unwalled towns, as opposed to Shushan the fortress city. Ezekiel 38:11 is the closest parallel. Gog says, 'I will go up against the land of perazot; I will come upon the quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls and having no bars or gates.' There, living unwalled is a sign of peace and safety, even though it tempts an invader. Deuteronomy 3:5 and 1 Samuel 6:18 set fortified cities against 'the perazi towns'.

Similar words

Where it appears

Esther · 1

  1. Esther 9:19 הַפְּרָזוֹת֒ the open regions

    This is why the rural Jews, who live in the villages, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting. It is a holiday for sending gifts to one another.

    Here: 'The open lands / unwalled places'. 'Towns of the open lands' means towns with no defensive wall, the opposite of a fortified capital.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 38:11 פְּרָז֔וֹת villages

    You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will come against a quiet people who dwell securely, all of them living without walls or bars or gates—

Zechariah · 1

  1. Zechariah 2:4 פְּרָזוֹת֙ open regions

    and said to him, “Run and tell that young man: ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the multitude of men and livestock within it.

    Here: Comes first in the message for emphasis. It means settlements with no walls, spread across open country. Jerusalem will live the way unwalled villages live: spread out, with no fortified edge.

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