Beor

Beor is the patronymic of two distinct figures in UPDV. The Edomite Beor is the father of Bela, the first king listed for Edom (Gen 36:32; 1Chr 1:43). The Mesopotamian Beor is the father of Balaam the prophet, named across the Balaam cycle and recalled in later law, narrative, prophecy, and the New Testament (Num 22:5; Num 24:3; Num 24:15; Num 31:8; Deut 23:4; Josh 13:22; Josh 24:9; Mic 6:5; 2Pet 2:15). The two men are not joined in any common genealogy in UPDV; they share only a name.

Father of Bela the Edomite King

In the king-list of Edom, "Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom; and the name of his city was Dinhabah" (Gen 36:32). The Chronicler's parallel preserves the same line, opening the catalogue of "the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the sons of Israel: Bela the son of Beor; and the name of his city was Dinhabah" (1Chr 1:43). Beor here is named only as Bela's father; nothing further about him is said in either passage.

Father of Balaam the Prophet

The Balaam narrative introduces Beor as the prophet's father in the Moabite summons: Balak "sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the sons of Amav" (Num 22:5). Within the oracles themselves, the patronymic returns as a fixed self-identifying formula. Both major oracles open with "Balaam the son of Beor says, And the [special] man whose eye was closed says" (Num 24:3; Num 24:15).

The patronymic continues to mark Balaam in the narrative of his death. In the campaign against Midian, "they slew the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword" (Num 31:8). Joshua's allotment narrative recalls the same event: "Balaam also the son of Beor, the fortune-teller, the sons of Israel slew with the sword among the rest of their slain" (Josh 13:22).

Memory in Law, Covenant Speech, and Prophecy

Later texts return to "Balaam the son of Beor" as a settled formula for recalling the Moabite episode. The Mosaic legislation barring Ammonite and Moabite from the assembly grounds the prohibition partly in Balak's hire of "Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you" (Deut 23:4). Joshua's covenant-renewal speech rehearses the same memory, telling Israel that Balak "sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you⁺" (Josh 24:9). Micah's prophetic appeal does the same: "remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him; [remember] from Shittim to Gilgal, that you⁺ may know the righteous acts of Yahweh" (Mic 6:5). Across these passages the patronymic functions almost as a tag: the Beor named is consistently the father of the Mesopotamian seer, and the events recalled run from the Moabite hire through Balaam's slaying in Midian.

The Form "Bosor" in 2 Peter

In the New Testament citation, UPDV preserves a different form of the patronymic. Peter's warning against false teachers describes them as "having forsaken the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the [son] of Bosor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing" (2Pet 2:15). The figure is the same Balaam of the Numbers cycle — identified by his "way" and by the love of wrongful wages — but UPDV here gives the father's name as Bosor rather than Beor, as the text presents.