Solomon (whose name means “peaceable”).—Matt. 12:42.

PEACE BETWEEN MAN AND THE ANIMAL CREATION

Jehovah God promised to the Israelites, if obedient: “I will put peace in the land, and you will indeed lie down, with no one making you tremble; and I will make the injurious wild beast cease out of the land.” (Lev. 26:6) This meant that the wild animals would stay within the confines of their habitat and not bring harm to the Israelites and their domestic animals. On the other hand, if the Israelites proved to be disobedient, Jehovah would allow their land to be invaded and devastated by foreign armies. As this would result in reducing the population, wild animals would multiply, penetrate formerly inhabited areas and do injury to the survivors and their domestic animals.—Compare Exodus 23:29; Leviticus 26:22; 2 Kings 17:5, 6, 24-26.

The peace promised to the Israelites in connection with the wild animals differed from that enjoyed by the first man and woman in the garden of Eden, for Adam and Eve enjoyed full dominion over the animal creation. (Gen. 1:28) By contrast, in prophecy, like dominion is only attributed to Christ Jesus. (Ps. 8:4-8; Heb. 2:5-9) Therefore, it is under the governmental administration of Jesus Christ, the “stump of Jesse” or God’s “servant David,” that peace will again prevail between men and the animals. (Isa. 11:1, 6-9; 65:25; Ezek. 34:23-25) These last cited texts basically have a figurative application, for it is obvious that the peace between animals, such as the wolf and the lamb, there described did not find literal fulfillment in ancient Israel. Persons of harmful, beastlike disposition were thus foretold to cease their vicious ways and live in peace with their more docile neighbors. However, the prophetic use of the animals figuratively to portray the peaceful conditions to prevail among God’s people implies that there will also be peace among literal animals under the rule of the “stump of Jesse,” Christ Jesus, even as there evidently was in Eden.

PEACOCK

[Heb., tuk·ki·yimʹ (plural)].

The term “peacock” properly applies to the brilliantly colored male of the peafowl. It is a large bird of the pheasant family, about the size of a turkey. The peacock is particularly noted for its magnificent train of iridescent green and gold feathers marked with large “eyespots” of blue. The train can be spread at will to form an impressive semicircular screen or fan touching the ground on either side. The peacock shakes the fanned train, producing a rustling sound and causing the feathers to shimmer with their iridescent hues. The neck and breast are also of a beautiful metallic greenish-blue color. Due to its majestic beauty the bird was greatly prized from ancient times.

In King Solomon’s time the triannual voyages of his fleet of ships of Tarshish brought cargoes of “gold and silver, ivory, and apes and peacocks.” (1 Ki. 10:22) While certain of Solomon’s ships made trips to Ophir (evidently in the Red Sea area; 1 Ki. 9:26-28), 2 Chronicles 9:21 mentions ships “going to Tarshish” (likely in Spain) in connection with the carrying of the above commodities, including peacocks. It is not certain, therefore, from what place or area the peacocks were imported. These beautiful birds are held to be native of SE Asia and are abundant in India and Ceylon. Some believe that the Hebrew name (tuk·ki·yimʹ) is to be connected with the Old Tamil name for the peacock, tokei. The peacocks obtained by Solomon’s fleet could have been obtained, of course, along their usual route at some trading center having contacts with India. Of interest, also, is the statement in The Animal Kingdom (1954; Frederick Drimmer, M.A., Editor, Vol. II, p. 988): “For centuries scientists assumed that there were no peacocks in Africa—their known dwelling places were the East Indies and southeastern Asia. The belief of the naturalists was shattered in 1936, when the Congo peacock was discovered in the Belgian Congo.”

The peacock apparently reached Greece at least by the fifth century B.C.E. and is said to have been bred on the island of Samos off the coast of Asia Minor. The Greek poet Aristophanes spoke of “Persian Peacocks” and some suggest that the bird reached Greece from India by way of Persia.

PEARL

A smooth, relatively hard, globular and generally white gem with a soft iridescent luster, which has from ancient times been used for adornment. (1 Tim. 2:9; Rev. 17:4; 18:11, 12, 15, 16; 21:2, 21) It is a hardened mass of calcium carbonate that forms inside oysters and certain other mollusks. When a foreign particle (such as a grain of sand or a small parasite) enters the area between the body and the shell of a mollusk, this stimulates the creature’s secretion of a calcareous substance called “nacre,” which hardens into a pearly layer around the irritating intruding material. Successive layers of this shell-like substance are built up around the foreign particle that serves as a nucleus. If the nucleus remains free from the shell due to the contractions of the mantle lining the shell, a beautiful pearl is formed in the course of several years.

Pearls of gem quality are taken from the sea pearl oyster, a native of most warm tropical waters, and notably of the vicinity of Bahrein Island (ancient Tylos) in the Persian Gulf, and of the Red Sea.

ILLUSTRATIVE USE

The Bible at times alludes to the preciousness of pearls in an illustrative way. With reference to the surpassing value of true wisdom, Job said: “A bagful of wisdom is worth more than one full of pearls.” (Job 28:18) In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ counseled: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, neither throw your pearls before swine, that they may never trample them under their feet and turn around and rip you open.” (Matt. 7:6) Evidently Jesus meant that, if a person shows that he is like a dog or a swine, with no appreciation for spiritual things, one should not further endeavor to share spiritual thoughts and teachings with him. Such corrupt persons would only trample upon valuable spiritual things and abuse or injure anyone endeavoring to share these with them. Jesus also illustrated the preciousness of the kingdom of the heavens by “one pearl” of such high value that a traveling merchant seeking fine pearls “promptly sold all the things he had and bought it.” (Matt. 13:45, 46) Thereby Jesus showed that an individual appreciating the true worth of gaining the kingdom of the heavens would be willing to part with anything in order to do so.—Compare Matthew 11:12; Luke 13:23-25; Philippians 3:8-11.

PEDAHEL

(Ped·ahʹel) [God has ransomed].

A chieftain of Naphtali appointed by Jehovah to help divide the Promised Land among the tribes; son of Ammihud.—Num. 34:16, 17, 28.

PEDAHZUR

(Pe·dahʹzur) [the Rock has ransomed].

A man in the tribe of Manasseh whose son Gamaliel was appointed chieftain of their tribe after the Exodus.—Num. 1:10, 16; 2:20; 7:54, 59; 10:23.

PEDAIAH

(Pe·daiʹah) [Jehovah has ransomed].

1. Father of Joel; during David’s reign he was prince of the half of the tribe of Manasseh dwelling W of the Jordan.—1 Chron. 27:20, 22.

2. Father of Jehoiakim’s mother Zebidah; Pedaiah lived in Rumah.—2 Ki. 23:36.

3. Third-named son of King Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) born during the Babylonian exile. Pedaiah became father to postexilic Governor Zerubbabel and was therefore a vital link in the line leading to Jesus. (1 Chron. 3:17-19) Because of some unrecorded circumstance, Zerubbabel is also called the “son” of Pedaiah’s brother Shealtiel. Shealtiel may have adopted Zerubbabel if Pedaiah died when the boy was young; or, if Shealtiel died before fathering a son, Pedaiah may have performed brother-in-law marriage, fathering Zerubbabel in the name of his brother Shealtiel.—Ezra 5:2; Matt. 1:12.

4. A Benjamite whose descendant lived in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.—Neh. 11:4, 7.

5. A descendant of Parosh who helped Nehemiah repair Jerusalem’s wall.—Neh. 3:25.

6. A postexilic Israelite, probably a priest, who stood at Ezra’s left during the reading of Jehovah’s law to the assembled people.—Neh. 8:1, 4.

7. A faithful Levite whom Nehemiah, on his second visit to Jerusalem, assigned with Shelemiah the priest and Zadok the copyist to take charge of the contributed tithe.—Neh. 13:6, 7, 12, 13.

PEKAH

(Peʹkah) [(God) has opened (the eyes), sees].

King of Israel for a twenty-year period (778-758 B.C.E.), contemporaneous with Judean Kings Azariah (Uzziah), Jotham and Ahaz. Earlier Pekah had served as adjutant to Israelite King Pekahiah. But in the fifty-second year of Uzziah’s reign, Pekah the son of Remaliah, with the cooperation of fifty men of Gilead, assassinated Pekahiah and seized the kingship over Israel in Samaria. (2 Ki. 15:25, 27) During Pekah’s reign idolatrous calf worship continued. (2 Ki. 15:28) This ruler also formed an alliance with Rezin the king of Syria. Toward the close of Judean King Jotham’s reign (which began in the second year of Pekah) both Pekah and Rezin caused trouble for Judah.—2 Ki. 15:32, 37, 38.

After Jotham’s son Ahaz began his reign in the seventeenth year of Pekah, Rezin and Pekah invaded Judah, intending to dethrone that monarch and install a certain son of Tabeel as king. They did not succeed in taking Jerusalem (2 Ki. 16:1, 5; Isa. 7:1-7), but Judah sustained heavy losses. In one day Pekah killed 120,000 valiant men of Judah. The Israelite army also took 200,000 Judeans captive. However, on the advice of the prophet Oded, supported by a number of leading men of Ephraim, these captives were returned to Judah.—2 Chron. 28:6, 8-15.

Though assured through the prophet Isaiah that the Syro-Israelite combine would fail in deposing him as king (Isa. 7:6, 7), faithless Ahaz bribed Assyrian King Tiglath-pileser (III) to come to his assistance. In response, the Assyrian monarch captured Damascus and put Rezin to death. (2 Ki. 16:7-9) Apparently also at this time Tiglath-pileser captured the regions of Gilead, Galilee and Naphtali and a number of cities in northern Israel. (2 Ki. 15:29) Thereafter Hoshea the son of Elah killed Pekah and became Israel’s next king.—2 Ki. 15:30.

A fragmentary historical text of Tiglath-pileser (III) reports about his campaign against Israel: “All its inhabitants (and) their possessions I led to Assyria. They overthrew their king Pekah (Pa-qa-ha) and I placed Hoshea (A-ú-si-’) as king over them.”—Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p. 284.

PEKAHIAH

(Pek·a·hiʹah) [Jehovah has opened the eyes].

King of Israel in Samaria, son and successor of Menahem. His brief reign of two years (c. 780-778 B.C.E.) was marked by the same idolatrous calf worship introduced by Jeroboam and permitted by Menahem. Pekahiah’s adjutant, Pekah, conspired against him, killed him and began to reign in his place.—2 Ki. 15:22-26.

PEKOD

(Peʹkod) [turn attention, bring punishment].

Apparently the name of an area in the vicinity of Babylon. Men of Pekod were to be included among the military forces to execute Jehovah’s judgment on unfaithful Jerusalem. (Ezek. 23:4, 22-26) Later, Pekod itself was to be devoted to destruction.—Jer. 50:21.

Pekod is usually identified with the Puqudu of Assyrian inscriptions. The “Nimrud Inscription” of Tiglath-pileser III indicates that Pekod was added to the Assyrian Empire and lay in the vicinity of Elam. Therefore, if correctly identified with Puqudu, Pekod would appear to have been located E of the Tigris and N of that river’s confluence with the Karkheh.

It has been suggested that at Jeremiah 50:21 the designation “Pekod” (like Merathaim) possibly is a poetic name for Babylon. In that case this text, by a play on words, would show that the inhabitants of one ‘bringing punishment,’ Babylon, would themselves be massacred. It is noteworthy that an inscription from the time of Nebuchadnezzar shows that Puqudu was under the control of Babylon. Therefore, when Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians, this must also have affected Pekod.

PELAIAH

(Pe·laʹiah) [Jehovah is wonderful].

1. A Levite who assisted Ezra in reading and explaining the Law to the Israelites assembled in Jerusalem’s public square. He is probably the same Levite (unless a representative of a family by that name is meant) who attested to the covenant of faithfulness put forward shortly thereafter.—Neh. 8:1, 5-8; 9:38; 10:1, 9, 10.

2. One of the last generation of David’s descendants mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures.—1 Chron. 3:1, 5, 10, 24.

PELALIAH

(Pel·a·liʹah) [Jehovah has judged].

A priest whose descendant Adaiah was among those serving at the sanctuary after the return from Babylonian exile.—Neh. 11:10, 12.

PELATIAH

(Pel·a·tiʹah) [Jehovah has provided escape].

1. One of four Simeonite chieftains who led 500 men against Mount Seir and struck down the remnant of the Amalekites, likely during Hezekiah’s reign.—1 Chron. 4:41-43.

2. Son of Benaiah; a prince of Israel whom Ezekiel saw in vision. Pelatiah, along with Jaazaniah, was “scheming hurtfulness and advising bad counsel” against Jerusalem. Ezekiel was inspired to utter a prophecy against the people of Israel, after which Pelatiah died.—Ezek. 11:1-13.

3. A distant descendant of David and grandson of Zerubbabel. (1 Chron. 3:19-21) Possibly the same as No. 4 below.

4. A family head represented in the signatures to the covenant promising not to take foreign wives.—Neh. 9:38; 10:1, 14, 22; see No. 3 above.

PELEG

(Peʹleg) [division; stream].

A son of Eber and father of Reu in the line from Shem to Abraham, and therefore an early ancestor of Jesus. Peleg lived 239 years (2269-2030 B.C.E.) and founded one of the seventy post-Flood families.—Gen. 11:16-19; 1 Chron. 1:24-27; Luke 3:35.

Peleg was so named, for “in his days the earth was divided.” (Gen. 10:25; 1 Chron. 1:19) The text of these passages does not say that this notable division came at Peleg’s birth a hundred years after the Deluge, but simply “in his days.” If the name was given him at birth, its bestowal was possibly prophetic of the scattering that stemmed from the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel.—Gen. 11:1-9; compare the name Noah (meaning “rest”) which also proved to be prophetic, Genesis 5:29.

PELET

(Peʹlet) [deliverance].

1. A son of Jahdai listed in the Calebite division of Judah’s genealogy.—1 Chron. 2:47.

2. One of the ambidextrous Benjamite mighty men who joined David at Ziklag; son of Azmaveth.—1 Chron. 12:1-3.

PELETH

(Peʹleth) [swiftness].

1. A Reubenite whose son On joined Dathan, Abiram and Korah in their rebellion.—Num. 16:1.