Baal-Perazim

Baal-perazim is the place-name David gives to a battle-site after his first defeat of the Philistines following his anointing over all Israel. The name is a memorial of the manner of the victory — Yahweh "breaking out" against the enemy "like the breach of waters." The same scene is reported twice, in Samuel and in Chronicles, and the prophet Isaiah later draws on the place by the shorter form "mount Perazim" as a paradigm for Yahweh's coming action.

David Names the Site of the Breakthrough

In Samuel's account, David engages the Philistines in the valley of Rephaim, defeats them, and names the site for what Yahweh did there: "And David came to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there; and he said, Yahweh has broken my enemies before me, like the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim" (2Sa 5:20). The naming-clause attaches the place to the breaking-image — Yahweh as a force that bursts a barrier the way a flood breaks through a dam.

The Chronicler's parallel preserves the same scene with light variation in the speech: "So they came up to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there; and David said, God has broken my enemies by my hand, like the breach of waters. Therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim" (1Ch 14:11). The breaking-image and the place-name match across both accounts.

Mount Perazim in Isaiah

Isaiah later uses the shorter form "Perazim" as a reference-point for what Yahweh is about to do, pairing it with another David-era scene: "For Yahweh will rise up as in mount Perazim, he will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act" (Isa 28:21). The Perazim event becomes a touchstone — the prophet treats the place as already known to his audience, and uses it as a comparative for a coming "strange work" of Yahweh.