The name of a mountain peak, mentioned in
Numbers23:28, to which
Balak, king of
Moab led
Balaam in his fourth and final attempt to induce Balaam to pronounce a curse upon the
Israelites as they were passing through Balak's Land to the Promised Land. The
tribes of Israel were described as being visible from the peak, but Balaam refused to curse them, and continued to offer blessings (
Numbers 24:1–9).
A reference to a deity who was worshipped at that mountain peak (
Belphegor) and, biblically, was the subject of the
heresy of Peor. The deity, worshipped by the
Moabites, is biblically referred to as Baal-peor (Num. 25:3,5, 18) and as the "house of peor" (בית פעור) (
Deuteronomy 3:29), generally meaning the
Baal of Peor.
An alternative translation of
Phagor, a city of Judah mentioned in the Greek (Septuagint) version of the Book of Joshua (Joshua 15:59).
In
John Milton's "
Paradise Lost", Peor is said to be the other name of the fallen angel Chemos, who "entic'd/Israel in Sittim on thir march from Nile/To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe" (Paradise Lost, I.412-14). His deeds are described in the first book of the epic, as Milton describes
Satan's followers who were banished from Heaven, and have pledged themselves as followers of the underworld.