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.

PERSECUTION

This English word is drawn from the Latin persequi, “to pursue,” equivalent to the Hebrew (ra·dhaphʹ) and Greek (di·oʹko) verbs meaning “to pursue, chase, persecute.” More particularly, persecution may be defined as harassment or injury that is deliberately inflicted on persons because of social status, racial origin or religious faith and beliefs, the purpose in the latter instance being to stamp out such beliefs and prevent their spread among new converts.

Persecution takes various forms. It may be limited to verbal abuse, ridicule and insults (2 Chron. 36:16; Acts 19:9), or it may include economic pressures (Rev. 13:16, 17), bodily injury (Matt. 27:29, 30; Acts 5:40), imprisonment (Luke 21:12; Acts 16:22-24), hatred and even death. (Matt. 24:9; Acts 12:2) It may be promoted by religious authorities (Mark 3:6; Acts 24:1, 27), or carried out by uninformed persons (Gen. 21:8, 9; Gal. 4:29) and ignorant ones (1 Tim. 1:13), or by unreasoning, fanatical mobs. (Luke 4:28, 29; Acts 14:19; 17:5) But often these parties are only the agents of more powerful and sinister instigators—unseen wicked spirit forces.—Eph. 6:11, 12.

In the original prophecy, Jehovah God foretold enmity between the “serpent” and the “woman” and between their respective ‘seeds.’ (Gen. 3:15) The Bible as a whole bears witness to the fulfillment of this prophecy. Jesus clearly identified the serpent as Satan the Devil and at the same time told those persecuting him that they were ‘from their father the Devil,’ hence of his “seed.” (John 8:37-59) The book of Revelation shows that such persecution continues down to the time of Christ’s taking power to reign and even thereafter for a period, for when Satan and his angels are cast down to the earth, the dragon ‘persecutes the woman, waging war with the remaining ones of her seed who obey God and bear witness to Jesus.’ (Rev. 12:7-17) A prominent agent used throughout history by Satan is the “wild beast,” a symbolic figure explained in the article BEASTS, SYMBOLIC (Rev. 13:1, 7), and also “Babylon the Great,” discussed under the article bearing that heading. (Rev. 17:5, 6) The Satanic enmity toward those seeking to do God’s will in righteousness and his use of the above-mentioned agencies can be traced throughout all Biblical periods, as the following history shows.

HISTORY

Religious persecution has a history, according to Jesus, running all the way back to Adam’s son Cain. (Gen. 4:3-8; Matt. 23:34, 35) Cain killed his brother Abel because he was motivated by “the wicked one,” Satan the Devil. (1 John 3:12) The issue involved in Abel’s death centered around faithful worship of Jehovah. (Heb. 11:4) Job, a man of God whose name means “object of hostility,” in time became a target of wicked persecution instigated by Satan. Job’s wife and three friends were only tools used wittingly or unwittingly by this archenemy of God and man.—Job 1:8–2:9; 19:22, 28.

From time to time rulers of Judah and Israel inflicted much suffering on God’s special representatives. King Saul, for example, made David (‘the man agreeable to God’s heart’ [Acts 13:22]) the principal target of his hatred. (1 Sam. 20:31-33; 23:15, 26; Ps. 142:6) During the rule of Ahab and Jezebel many prophets of Jehovah were forced into hiding as fugitives or were killed. (1 Ki. 18:13, 14; 19:10) King Manasseh shed innocent blood “in very great quantity.” (2 Ki. 21:16) King Jehoiakim put Urijah to death, “a man prophesying in the name of Jehovah.” (Jer. 26:20-23) Jeremiah suffered much persecution at the hands of government officials. (Jer. 15:15; 17:18; 20:11; 37:15, 16; 38:4-6) Due to the unfaithfulness of his people Israel, Jehovah allowed other nations to persecute them at times, even to the point of taking them into captivity.—Deut. 30:7; Lam. 1:3.

There are other instances where violent persecution, legalized by government decree, was turned loose on those maintaining integrity to Jehovah, as when the three Hebrews were thrown into the fiery furnace, and when Daniel was cast to the lions. (Dan. 3:13-20; 6:4-17) During the reign of Persian King Ahasuerus, assault and persecution flared up against the Jews in general, and against Mordecai in particular, at the instance of wicked Haman the Agagite.—Esther 3:1-12; 5:14.

Other sources of persecution may be former associates (1 Pet. 4:4) or friends and neighbors of one’s hometown. (Jer. 1:1; 11:21) Jesus said that close blood relatives, members of one’s own household, would sometimes become rabid persecutors of those believing in him.—Matt. 10:21, 35, 36.

The principal human instigators of religious persecution, however, have been the promoters of false religion. This was true in Jeremiah’s case. (Jer. 26:11) It was also the experience of the apostle Paul. (Acts 13:6-8; 19:23-29) In the case of Jesus we read that “the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Sanhedrin together and . . . Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them: ‘. . . you do not reason out that it is to your benefit for one man to die in behalf of the people and not for the whole nation to be destroyed.’ . . . Therefore from that day on they took counsel to kill him [Jesus].” (John 11:47-53) Before Jesus finally died on the torture stake, he suffered severe persecution in other ways at the hands of ungodly men—supporters of the religious leaders bent on doing away with Christ.—Matt. 26:67; 27:1, 2, 26-31, 38-44.

PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS

With the death of Jesus, persecution of faithful servants of Jehovah would not end. This great Prophet had foretold this when, three days before his impalement, he declared to unfaithful Jerusalem: “I am sending forth to you prophets and wise men and public instructors. Some of them you will kill and impale, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city; that there may come upon you all the righteous blood spilled on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom