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.