PEKOD

(Peʹkod).

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. (Eze 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. (Records of the Past: Ancient Monuments of Egypt and Western Asia, edited by A. Sayce, London, 1891, Vol. V, pp. 120, 121) 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. 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.