PEKOD

PEKOD (Heb. פְּקוֹד), aramean tribe that once inhabited the eastern bank of the Lower Tigris, and is identified with the Puqudu mentioned in Assyrian texts beginning with the time of Tiglath-Pileser III. The Pekod tribe was organized and put under the jurisdiction of the governor of Arrapha. However, the tribe participated in many revolts and was subsequently deported. Many individuals of this tribe are known from the sources. In the Bible, Pekod is mentioned in Jeremiah's prophecy against Babylon (Jer. 50:21) in a wordplay: pqd, "to punish." The Babylonian king is called to go up against well-known enemies (see chaldea ), such as the tribe of Pekod, which was practically unconquerable, and thus exhaust himself and bring upon himself punishment and doom. Ezekiel 23:23 mentions Pekod as a typical representative of the Babylonian "mobile" administration. The verse speaks of peoples sent to conquered territories to fill various posts or as settler-deportees. Pekod (like similar tribes) could act as a police force or fill other posts. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Forrer, Die Provinzeinteilung des assyrischen Reiches (1920), 96, 98ff.; Luckenbill, Records, index; J. Bright, Jeremiah (1965), 359; J.A. Brinkman, A Political History of Post-Kassite Babylonia (1968), index. For further bibl. see aram , Arameans. (Pinhas Artzi)