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Meaning, origin and etymology of the name Pethor


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Pethor Pethor

Pethor is known as the place where the prophet Balaam is from. Where Pethor is exactly is not known (BDB mentions an Assyrian city named Pitru on the west bank of the upper Euphrates). It's obviously in a place called Aram (Num 23:7, Deut 23:4). Num 23:7 gives us a direction: mountains in the east. The only geographical reference occurs in Deut 23:4, where it is said to be in Aram-naharayim (Aram of Two Rivers), which usually means Mesopotamia (1 Chr 19:6), although Aramean territory stretched south onto the northern border of Israel, for instance Aram-zobah (2 Sam 8:3) and Aram-maacah in the upper Jordan valley (1 Chr 19:6).

Because it seems a bit unlikely that the Moabite king Balak sent all the way to Assyria for a prophet, and that Balaam hence came all the way to Canaan on a donkey (although there was plenty traffic between these locations) scholars have been looking for ways to place him closer. In 1967 an extra-Biblical text was found in Deir Alla in the Jordan valley. It mentions the 'cursing prophet' Balaam son of Beor, which makes it likely that he lived there and not in Mesopotamia. In 1989 a tablet was found at the same location, which seemed to bear the name Pethor. Many conclude that the Two Rivers mentioned in Deut 23:4 may very well refer to the Jabbok and the Jordan.

In Josh 17:11 we find precedential evidence that the name Balaam was used in the Jordanic area. In the western territory of Manasseh - which stretched east of the Jordan, north of the Jabbok, and west of the Jordan into the central hills - is a town called Ibleam (Ibleam; Josh 17:11 and on) and Balaam in 1 Chr 6:70.
English Bibles transliterate this town as Bileam but in Hebrew this name is spelled and pronounced exactly like the name Balaam. (Dutch and German translations read Bileam for both town and prophet. Vulgate reads Bileam for the prophet and Balaam for the town.)

The name Pethor seems to stem from the root patar (patar 1860), interpret dreams. The derived noun pitron (pitron 1860a) means interpretation. This same root seems to be embedded in the name Pathros (a transliteration of an Egyptian term meaning South Land, i.e. Upper Egypt), perhaps purely by inconsequential coincidence or else clever manipulation. Both as verb and as noun this word occurs only in Gen 40 and 41, which play entirely in Pathros, where Joseph interprets the dreams of his fellow inmates and finally the Pharaoh.

BDB reports a basic meaning of dissolve, hence solve and interpret, based on similar words in cognate languages. In post-OT texts this word became commonly used to denote explanations of or commentaries on Scriptures. TWOTOT mentions speculations (made by an L. Yaure) that Pethor is not a location but rather a professional title. The word pethor looks exactly like the agent-noun of the verb patar and means interpreter.

The name/ title Pethor means Interpreter.



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