The Perizzites () are a group of people mentioned many times in the Hebrew Bible as having lived in the land of Canaan before the arrival of the Israelites. The name may be related to a Hebrew term meaning "rural person".
Biblical references to the Perizzites extend from the time of Abraham (Genesis 13:7) to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezra 9:1âÂÂ2). The time during which Perizzites were most in conflict with the Israelites seems to have been during the time of Joshua and the early period of the Judges. According to the Book of Joshua, the Perizzites were in the hill country of Judah and Ephraim. According to 1 Kings 9:20-21, they were servants of Solomon.
According to Michael LeFebvre, Ezra's reference to the Perizzites does not imply that a group still known as Perizzites existed in the land in Ezra's time. It is instead to be understood as a literary reference by Ezra to passages such as Exodus 33:2, Exodus 34:11âÂÂ16, and Deuteronomy 7:1âÂÂ5, which prohibited intermarriage with a variety of non-Israelite peoples, including Perizzites.
According to Hittitologist Trevor R. Bryce, "The Perizzites cannot be linked to any peoples or lands known from extra-biblical sources", but there are speculative links to the Hivites and the Jebusites, who may have originated from a region called Que in Assyrian sources or Kue/Quoah in biblical sources.
The Jewish Encyclopedia's entry on the Perizzites reads