to the W of Tell el-Maskhutah. This location is preferred on the basis of an inscription on a Latin milestone found referring to Ero (an apparent abbreviation of Heroonpolis, thought to be the Greek translation of Pr-Tm). It seems clear, however, that no positive conclusion can be reached on the basis of these conjectures. The archaeologists have apparently been influenced in their conclusions by the popular view that the Pharaoh of the Israelite oppression was Ramses II, a view that is not soundly founded.—See EXODUS; RAAMSES, RAMESES.

PITHON

(Piʹthon).

A descendant of Saul through Jonathan and Merib-baal (Mephibosheth).—1 Chron. 8:33-35; 9:39-41.

PLAGUE

The original-language words rendered “plague” or “scourge” often designate blows dealt by Jehovah God as a punishment for rebellious murmuring (Num. 16:41-50), refusal to comply with his will (Zech. 14:12, 15, 18), the profane use of something sacred (1 Sam. 5:1–6:4), touching his anointed ones (Gen. 12:17; Ps. 105:15) and unfaithfulness or violations of his law. (Lev. 26:21; Num. 14:36, 37; 31:16; Deut. 28:59-61; 1 Chron. 21:17, 22; 2 Chron. 21:12-15) Such blows might be administered by angelic or human means. (2 Sam. 24:17; Jer. 19:1-8; 25:8, 9; 49:17; 50:13, 14) Prayers of intercession by Jehovah’s servants or sincere prayers by repentant ones were required for the removal of plagues from God.—Gen. 20:17, 18; 1 Ki. 8:37, 38; 2 Chron. 6:28, 29.

A plague could also result from the natural outworking of a person’s sin. (Prov. 6:32, 33) It could be an affliction, such as the “plague of leprosy” (Lev. 13:2), or an adversity resulting from time and circumstance.—Ps. 38:11; 73:5, 14.

The plagues Jehovah visited upon Egypt in the time of Moses were manifestations of his great power and caused his name to be declared among the nations. (Ex. 9:14, 16) For generations afterward their effects were talked about by other peoples. (Josh. 9:9; 1 Sam. 6:6; compare 1 Samuel 4:17.) Also, these plagues proved that the gods of Egypt were powerless.—Ex. 12:12; Num. 33:4; see GODS AND GODDESSES, page 670.

The plagues mentioned in the book of Revelation evidently are expressions of God’s anger and symbolically point to the result or effect of his judicial decisions.—Rev. 9:18, 20; 11:6; 15:1, 6, 8; 16:9, 21; 18:4, 8; 21:9; 22:18.

PLAIN

Relatively level land, in contrast to hilly or mountainous country. The Hebrew Scriptures are quite explicit in their use of different words to identify or describe various types of land.

The Hebrew term ʽara·vahʹ is used both as a name for a specific area and a word descriptive of a certain type of land. (See ARABAH.) When used without the definite article, ʽara·vahʹ indicates a desert plain or steppe, such as those of Moab and Jericho. (Num. 22:1; 35:1; Josh. 5:10; 13:32; Jer. 52:8) Though there might be rivers to provide some water for the area, ʽara·vahʹ generally emphasizes that the plain is an arid one. Thus it would be quite a reversal for the fertile, watered plain of Sharon to become like the desert plain (Isa. 33:9), or for torrents of water to come to the desert plain.—Isa. 35:1, 6; 51:3.

The word biq·ʽahʹ indicated a wide plain bounded by mountains. It comes from a root meaning “to cleave, to rend, to divide,” and can be accurately rendered “valley plain.” Even today the broad valley plain between the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon mountains is known as el-Biqaʽ. (Josh. 11:17) Often in the Scriptures biq·ʽahʹ or “valley plain” is set in contrast to mountains or hills (Deut. 8:7; 11:11; Ps. 104:8; Isa. 41:18) or to rugged or rough ground. (Isa. 40:4) The related Aramaic word appearing at Daniel 3:1 is frequently translated just “plain,” referring to the place where Nebuchadnezzar erected the gold image.

A long low plain was designated in Hebrew ʽeʹmeq. The word signifies “a long broad sweep between parallel ranges of hills of less extent than the preceding term [biq·ʽahʹ], . . . [ʽeʹmeq] having the idea of lowness and breadth rather than precipitateness or confinement.” (M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopaedia, Vol. X, p. 703) The Hebrew word is applied to many different localities, such as “the low plain of Achor,” “the low plain of Aijalon” and “the low plain of Rephaim.”—Josh. 7:26; 10:12; 1 Chron. 11:15.

PLANE TREE

[Heb., ʽar·mohnʹ].

The name of this tree in Hebrew evidently comes from the root word ʽa·rahʹ, meaning “nakedness,” or the word ʽa·ramʹ, meaning “stripped.” At Genesis 30:37, 38 Jacob is described as placing staffs from this tree, along with those of other trees, before the flocks of Laban at Haran in Syria. The staffs were peeled, “laying bare” or revealing “white places.” The plane tree (Platanus orientalis) annually peels off its outer bark in strips or sections, exposing the smooth whitish inner bark beneath.

The plane tree is of stately appearance, growing to a height of seventy feet (21.3 meters) or more, with wide spreading branches and broad dark-green, vine-like leaves affording splendid shade. The girth of the trunk often reaches as much as forty feet (12.2 meters). It was, therefore, a tree worthy of comparison with, but not actually being a match for, the majestic cedar of Lebanon, which Ezekiel used as a figure of the king of Assyria in his message to Pharaoh. (Ezek. 31:8) In all respects, then, the plane tree satisfactorily fits the Biblical description, whereas the “chestnut tree” of the Authorized Version does not. The Vulgate and the Septuagint both give “plane” tree at Genesis 30:37, as do most modern translations.

Plane trees are found along the rivers and streams throughout Syria and in the region of ancient Assyria, as well as to a lesser degree in Palestine and Lebanon.

PLASTER

A coating for walls and partitions that was commonly made of clay mixed with straw. At times the mixture included lime, ashes, pulverized pottery fragments, or pounded shells or limestone.—Lev. 14:42; Ezek. 13:10-16; Dan. 5:5; see MORTAR, II.

PLATTER

See VESSELS.

PLEDGE

An object of personal property, such as a ring or garment, surrendered by a debtor to his creditor as a guarantee of the future repayment of a loan. The Mosaic law’s regulations concerning pledges protected the interests of impoverished and defenseless members of the nation. They showed that God appreciated the difficulties of the poor and widows.

If a poor man gave his outer garment as a pledge or security on a loan, the creditor was not to keep it overnight. (Ex. 22:26, 27; Deut. 24:12, 13) A poor person would likely use his outer garments for covering at night; if he were deprived of it, he might suffer from the cold. For a person to ignore this law would mark him as greedy and heartless. (Job 22:6; 24:9) Yet, during Israel’s apostasy, some persons not only seized garments from the poor as pledges but used them during their false religious feasts.—Amos 2:8.

Not returning “a pledged thing” was listed in Ezekiel 18:10-13 along with robbing and shedding blood as things combining to prove an unrepentant sinner as worthy of death. On the other hand, a wicked one who abandoned his sins by, among other things, returning “the very thing pledged” would “positively keep living.” (Ezek. 33:14-16) It was also forbidden to take a hand mill or its upper grindstone as a pledge, for bread was usually baked daily and to take the implements necessary for grinding the grain would mean seizing “a soul” or life.—Deut. 24:6.

Widows were especially protected, since they probably would often not have anyone to defend or assist them. The Law forbade seizing a widow’s garment as a pledge at all.—Deut. 24:17; compare Job 24:3.

Also, one could not enter a man’s house to take a pledged item from him. The debtor was to bring the pledge out to his creditor. (Deut. 24:10, 11) In this way the inviolability of the man’s home was upheld, and he could maintain self-respect, which would hardly be so if his creditor felt at liberty to enter the man’s home without invitation. Thus, in addition to compassion and generosity (Deut. 15:8), the laws about pledges encouraged respect for the person and rights of others.

ILLUSTRATIVE USE

Deuteronomy 15:6 gave as a sign of God’s blessing the fact that the Jews would have sufficient means to “lend on pledge to many nations.”

If one “despised the word,” failing to repay a loan, he would forfeit what he put up as a pledge; in like manner the one obliged to obey God’s commandment but not carrying out his obligation would experience loss.—Prov. 13:13.

The Hebrew Scriptures repeatedly advised against going surety for a stranger, thereby promising to pay that one’s debt if he failed to do so. (Prov. 11:15; 22:26, 27; see SURETY.) Thus, Proverbs 20:16 speaks of ‘taking the garment’ of the one going surety for a stranger. This is in direct contrast to the sympathetic consideration to be shown the poor man who is obliged to become debtor to another due to his own misfortune, as set forth in texts considered earlier in this article. The one going surety for a stranger is not simply unfortunate but guilty of stupid action; the proverb evidently says to ‘let him suffer the consequences.’ The latter part of the verse calls for ‘seizing a pledge’ in the “instance of a foreign woman.” The man entering into relationship with such a woman may become impoverished (compare Proverbs 5:3, 8-10) and so he may have to pledge his remaining possessions as security for his debts. The proverb apparently says that he merits no pity, inasmuch as he acted contrary to all sound advice in having dealings with the “foreign woman.”

PLOW

See FARMING IMPLEMENTS.

PLOWING

Conclusions as to the type of plow used by Hebrew farmers in Biblical times are dependent on ancient pictures of plows used in neighboring lands and on plows used in recent times by some Arab farmers. Some plows consisted of a simple pointed piece of wood, perhaps metal-tipped, attached to a beam and pulled by an animal or animals. Using such type, plowing likely only cut the surface of the soil without turning it over. Of course, lack of direct evidence precludes ruling out the possibility that more substantial plows, capable of making better furrows, were used in Israel.

With soil baked hard by the hot summer sun, the practice was to hold up plowing until the autumn or winter rains softened the soil. The soil was then plowed and the seed sown. Colder days or times of uncertain weather or threatening clouds would not deter a manly person from work in the plowing season, but a lazy farmer would seize upon such as excuse to avoid work. His neighbors would have no reason to sympathize with him when he had no harvest due to laziness at plowing time. (Prov. 20:4; Eccl. 11:4) Even in plowing time, though, Israelite farmers were to keep the sabbath.—Ex. 34:21.

A bull and an ass were not to be yoked to the same plow, doubtless because of the inequality of their strength and pace. (Deut. 22:10) Often a pair of cattle pulled the plow. (Luke 14:19; Job 1:14) A number of men, each with a pair or span of cattle, might work together, plowing parallel rows one behind the other. In Elisha’s case, as related at 1 Kings 19:19, he was the twelfth and last so he could stop without disrupting others following him. He left the field and used his wood plowing instruments as firewood in offering the bulls as a sacrifice. (1 Ki. 19:21) In The Land and the Book, page 144, W. M. Thomson reports that one man could easily sow the area plowed by a group of men.

ILLUSTRATIVE USE

The familiar work of plowing often appears in illustrations. When Philistines convinced Samson’s wife to obtain from him the answer to his riddle, Samson said they had ‘plowed with his young cow,’ that is, used for their service one who should have been serving him. (Judg. 14:15-18) A rocky crag is no place for plowing, and, as Amos shows, it was equally irrational for Israel’s leaders to corrupt justice and practice unrighteousness and yet expect to derive benefit from such course. (Amos 6:12, 13) Hosea 10:11 evidently uses plowing (a much harder work for a heifer than threshing) as representing laborious or slavish labor due to come on apostate Judah and Israel, likely imposed by foreign oppressors. What Judah and Israel needed, according to Jeremiah 4:3, 4 and Hosea 10:12, 13, was a change in their way of life, preparing, softening and cleansing their hearts (compare Luke 8:5-15) as by plowing and removing thorns, so that, rather than wasting their efforts and labor in wrong practices that bring only a bad harvest, they might instead reap divine blessings.

The description of the orderly, purposeful and judicious methods of the farmer in plowing, harrowing, sowing and threshing are used at Isaiah 28:23-29 to illustrate the ways of Jehovah, who is “wonderful in counsel, who has done greatly in effectual working.” Even as plowing and harrowing are limited, being merely preparatory to sowing, so, too, Jehovah does not forever discipline or punish his people, but disciplines primarily to soften them and make them amenable to receiving his counsel and guidance, which produce blessings. (Compare Hebrews 12:4-11.) Even as the hardness of the soil governs the extent or intensity of the plowing, so the type of grain determines the force and weight of the instruments used for threshing to eliminate the chaff, all of this illustrating God’s wisdom in cleansing his people and getting rid of that which is undesirable, varying his treatment according to existing needs and circumstances.—Compare Isaiah 21:10; 1:25.

A city “plowed up as a mere field” meant a city completely overturned and laid waste. (Jer. 26:18; Mic. 3:12) Israel’s speaking of those who had ‘plowed upon my very back, lengthening their furrows,’ evidently describes the nation’s sufferings under its many enemies who relentlessly and cruelly overran and mistreated them, as Israel made its back “just like the earth . . . for those crossing over.” (Ps. 129:1-3; Isa. 51:23; compare Psalm 66:12.) In the restoration prophecy at Amos 9:13-15, Jehovah’s blessing on his people is shown to make them like a fertile field producing so abundantly that the harvest is still going on when the time comes to plow for the next season.—Compare Leviticus 26:5.

Even as Jesus had said that his disciples should accept food, drink and lodging from those they served, since the “worker is worthy of his wages,” so the apostle Paul upheld the right of those laboring in Christian ministry to receive material support from others, just as the man who plows does so with the legitimate hope of being a partaker of the harvest to which his labor contributed. Yet Paul personally and willingly preferred not to avail himself of the right to refrain from secular work, so as to furnish “the good news without cost” to those to whom he ministered.—Luke 10:7; 1 Cor. 9:3-10, 15, 17, 18.

PLUMMET

A plumb line; a cord to the end of which a metal, stone or clay weight was fastened that kept the line straight and made it possible to build walls and other structures that were straight