PERIZZITE OM; 4'epeTaloc,(1)eperdios; in Ezra 6 ; Pherezaus), the name of one of the abo riginal tribes of Palestine. They are first mentioned in Gen. xiii. 7, where the sacred historian relates the story of the separation of Abraham and Lot. The Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.' The separation took place at Bethel, and it may be inferred that the Perizzites were then settled in that mountain region. Afterwards they are grouped with the Hittites and Rephaim (xv. 20) ; and they are mentioned in connection with the slaughter of the Shechemites by Simeon and Levi (xxxiv. 30). They appear to have been at that early period the most important tribe in the country next to the Canaanites ; and the name is found in nearly all those lists in which the tribes of Canaan are enumerated (Exod. iii. 8, 17; xxiii. 23; xxxiv. 11 ; Dent. vii. I, etc.) Joshua locates them in the mountains with the Amorite, Hittite, and Jebusite (xi. 3). They were a warlike race like the Rephaim, and had their strongholds among the heights of Judah and Ephraim (xvii. 15). After the death of Joshua the tribes of Judah and Simeon joined in an expedition against the Canaanites and Perizzites, and slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men' (Judg. i. 4, seq.) The site of Bezek is not known ; but we may infer that it was within the allotted territory of Judah, and could not therefore be the same place where Saul numbered his troops before his attack on the Ammonites at Jabesh Gilead : that Bezek was only a short march from Jabesh (I Sam. xi. 8-11), and must therefore have been on the north-eastern border of Ephraim. The Perizzites were not exterminated. Not only were they suffered to live in Palestine, but they even in termarried with the Israelites (Judg. iii. 5, 6) ; and this violation of the divine command was one of the charges brought by Ezra against the people (ix. I). Solomon put them and other ancient
tribes to tribute (I Kings ix. 20).
Of the origin of the Perizzites nothing is known. They were not Canaanites, for they are not included among the Canaanitish tribes in Gen. x. An at tempt has been made by philologists to prove that they were not a distinct race, but only a class of the inhabitants to whom the name was given be cause of the peculiarity of their occupations. It is said that 'the etymology of the word Perizzite proves that they were the inhabitants of open towns and villages it is clearly explained by Ezekiel (xxxviii. I) to denote the population of places without walls, and bars, and gates ;' and it is, in the book of Esther (ix. 19), used for the unfenced cities, in contradistinction to the metropolis (ver. 18). The two names of the Canaanites and Perizzites, if so coupled, designate, therefore, both the inhabi tants of the walled towns and of the open country' (Kalisch on Gen. xiii. ; see also Gesenius, Thes. p. Hengstenberg, Beitrage zur Einleitung, p. 186; Keil on 7oshua iii. to). This view, though supported by so many able scholars, appears to be plainly opposed to the Biblical narrative. The Perizzites are there spoken of in the very same terms in which the other tribes are spoken of. Their habits are nowhere specified ; and the word Perizzite is manifestly as much a proper name as Hittite, Canaanite, or Hivite ; and we have reason to believe that from whatsoever quarter they came they were among the very earliest inhabitants of Palestine (Reland, Pal. 139 ; Redslob, Alt-Test. Namen der Bevolker. p. 103 ; Kurtz in Rudel bach's Zeitschr. 1845).—J. L. I'.