PERIZZITES

(Perʹiz·zites) [dwellers in the open country, dwellers in unwalled villages].

One of the tribes that inhabited the land of Canaan before the Israelites occupied it. (Gen. 13:3-7; 34:30; Ex. 3:8, 17) They are not mentioned in the list of seventy families after the Flood, which names “the families of the Canaanite.” (Gen. 10:15-18) Their ancestry is unknown.

The Perizzites were one of the tribes whose land God promised to Abraham’s seed. (Gen. 15:18-21; Neh. 9:7, 8) At the time of the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land, Perizzites lived in the mountainous region of Canaan. (Josh. 11:3) When the tribe of Judah moved into its assigned territory it defeated the Perizzites and Canaanites at Bezek, which appears to have been W of Jerusalem. (Judg. 1:4, 5; Josh. 24:11) After the land of Canaan was divided by the Israelites, some Perizzites remained in the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh.—Josh. 17:15-18.

The Perizzites were one of the seven populous and mighty nations that Jehovah repeatedly commanded Israel to exterminate upon entering the Promised Land. No covenant or marriage alliance was to be made with them, nor favor granted them. (Ex. 23:23, 24; 33:2; 34:11-13; Deut. 7:1-3; Josh. 3:10) However, the Israelites failed to exterminate them, and, as foretold, the Perizzites became a snare to Israel.—Deut. 7:4; 20:17, 18; Judg. 3:5, 6.

In Solomon’s time some remaining Perizzites were conscripted for forced labor. (1 Ki. 9:20, 21; 2 Chron. 8:7, 8) Ezra found that the Jews who had returned from Babylonian exile had entered into marriage alliances with them. However, on his counsel they put away such foreign wives. (Ezra 9:1, 2; 10:11, 12, 44) The Perizzites are not mentioned in later Bible history.