Peleg

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

 

pē´leg (פּלג, pelegh, “watercourse,” “division”): A son of Eber, and brother of Joktan. The derivation of the name is given: “for in his days was the earth divided” (niphleghāh) (Gen 10:25; compare Luk 3:35, the King James Version “Phalec”). This probably refers to the scattering of the world's population and the confounding of its language recorded in Gen 11:1-9. In Aramaic pelagh and Arabic phalaj mean “division”; in Hebrew pelegh means “watercourse.” The name may really be due to the occupation by this people of some well-watered (furrowed), district (e.g. in Babylonia), for these patronymics represent races, and the derivation in Gen 10:25 is a later editor's remark.

 

Taken from: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia by James Orr, M.A., D.D., General Editor