Beor ( , "a burning") is a name which appears in relation to a king ("Bela son of Beor") and a diviner ("Balaam son of Beor"). Because the two names vary only by a single letter (, ''-m'', often added to the ends of names), scholars have hypothesized that the two refer to the same person.

In the Bible

In a list of kings of Edom, Genesis records that a "Bela () son of Beor" was one of the kings of Edom who reigned "before there reigned any king over the children of Israel." Bela son of Beor is listed as the first of eight kings. The same information in Genesis is repeated in Chronicles. "Balaam () son of Beor" appears in a well-known story in Numbers, where he is asked to curse the Israelites but repeatedly blesses them instead. Later, he is killed for tempting the Israelites into sin. He is mentioned in passing in Deuteronomy, in a passage which repeats a synopsis of earlier biblical stories.Deuteronomy 23:4-5 Beor may be the Ba'al of Mount Peor in the

Heresy of Peor Numbers 31 is the 31st chapter of the Book of Numbers, the fourth book of the Pentateuch (Torah), the central part of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), a sacred text in Judaism and Christianity. Scholars such as Israel Knohl and Dennis T. Olson ...

, and may have influenced the demon

Belphegor In Christian demonology, Belphegor (or Beelphegor, he, בַּעַל-פְּעוֹר ''Báʿal-pəʿór'' - Lord of the Gap) is a demon. In later Kabbalah Belphegor is a demon who helps people make discoveries. He seduces people by suggesting to ...

(Ba'al Peor).

Jewish tradition

Beor the father 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 ...

is considered a prophet by

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

. The Talmud says in Baba Bathra 15b, "Seven prophets prophesied to the heathen, namely, Balaam and his father,

Job Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contr ...

Eliphaz Eliphaz ( "My Elohim is gold", Standard Hebrew Elifaz, Tiberian Hebrew ʾĔlîp̄az / ʾĔlîp̄āz) was the first-born son of Esau and his wife Adah. He had six sons, of whom Omar was the firstborn, and the others were Teman, Zepho, Gatam, ...

the Temanite,

Bildad Bildad ( ''Bildaḏ''; ''Baldád''), the Shuhite, was one of Job's three friends who visited the patriarch in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Job. He was a descendant of Shuah, son of Abraham and Keturah (), whose family lived in the deserts of ...

the Shuhite,

Zophar In the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament '' Book of Job'' (c. 6th century BCE?), Zophar ( he, ''Ṣōp̄ar'', "chirping; rising early"; also ''Tzofar'') the Naamathite is one of the three friends of Job who visit to comfort him during his illness. ...

the Naamathite, and Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite." In the King James translation of 2 Peter 2:15, Beor is called Bosor (from the Greek Βεὼρ).

Islamic tradition

The Baghdadi historian

Al-Masudi Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus ...

said in his book Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems that Balaam ben Beor was in a village in the lands of Shem (Canaan), and he is the son of Baura (Beor) ben Sanur ben Waseem ben Moab ben Lot ben Haran (PUT), and his prays were answered, so his folks asked him to pray against Joshua ben Nun but he could not do it, so he advised some of the kings of the giants to show the pretty women and release them toward the camp of Joshua ben Nun, and so they did, and they (the Israelites) hurried up to the women and the plague spread among them and seventy thousand of them were dead.

References

Book of Genesis people Prophets in Judaism Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown {{Tanakh-stub