Pitru was an ancient town off the
Sajur
Sajur (; ) is a Druze citizens of Israel, Druze town (local council (Israel), local council) in the Galilee region of northern Israel, with an area of 3,000 dunams (3 km²). It achieved recognition as an independent local council in 1992. In ...
({{aka ''Sagura'' and ''Sagurru'') (+36° 39' 16.62", +38° 4' 7.96"), a western tributary of the
Euphrates
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...
, approximately 12.5 miles south of ancient
Carchemish
Carchemish ( Turkish: ''Karkamış''; or ), also spelled Karkemish ( hit, ; Hieroglyphic Luwian: , /; Akkadian: ; Egyptian: ; Hebrew: ) was an important ancient capital in the northern part of the region of Syria. At times during it ...
. It is thought to be the
Pethor Pethor or Petor is identified in the Hebrew Bible as the home of the prophet (or diviner) Balaam, near to the Euphrates River (literally, the River).
According to the Book of Numbers, Balak, the king of Moab, sent messengers to Pethor to meet with ...
mentioned in
Numbers
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
22 as the home of
Balaam
Balaam (; , Standard ''Bīlʿam'' Tiberian ''Bīlʿām'') is a diviner in the Torah ( Pentateuch) whose story begins in Chapter 22 of the Book of Numbers (). Ancient references to Balaam consider him a non-Israelite, a prophet, and the son o ...
, the non-
Israelite
The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...
prophet called upon by
Balak to curse the Israelites of the
Exodus (circa 1406 BCE, perhaps).
Pitru was established by
Assyria
Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
n ruler
Tiglath-Pileser I
Tiglath-Pileser I (; from the Hebraic form of akk, , Tukultī-apil-Ešarra, "my trust is in the son of Ešarra") was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian period (1114–1076 BC). According to Georges Roux, Tiglath-Pileser was "one of ...
in c. 1100 BCE, but it was later seized by the
Arameans. It is later mentioned as one of the
Hatti cities or villages conquered by either
Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 883 – 859 BCE) or his son
Shalmaneser III
Shalmaneser III (''Šulmānu-ašarēdu'', "the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent") was king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Ashurnasirpal II in 859 BC to his own death in 824 BC.
His long reign was a constant series of campai ...
, Assyrian rulers. It was later given an Assyrian name in Shalmaneser's sixth year, becoming a base of operations for further military campaigns.
Sources
* Bryce, Trevor., ''The Routledge Handbook of The People and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persians Empire''
* Hogarth, D. G. (David George), 1862-1927, ''The Ancient East''
* Luckenbill, Daniel D., ''Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, Vol. 1: Historical Records of Assyria, from the earliest times to Sargon'', (Chicago: University of Chicago Press) 1926.
Ancient Near East
11th-century BC establishments