Perez-uzzah
Pe'rez-Uz'zah (Heb. Pe'rets UzzoAh'. פֶּרֶוֹ עֻזָּה, breach of Uzzah, 2Sa 6:8; Sept. Διασκοπὴ Ο᾿ζ), the name which David conferred on the threshing- floor of Nachon, or Chidon, in commemoration of the sudden death of Uzzah: "And David was wroth because Jehovah had broken this breach on Uzzah, and he called the place 'Uzzah's breaking' unto this day." The word perez was a favorite with David on such occasions. He employed it to commemorate his having "broken up" the Philistine force in the valley of Rephaim (2Sa 5:20). SEE BAALPERA-ZIM. He also used it in a subsequent reference to Uzzah's destruction in 1Ch 15:13. It is remarkable that the statement of the continued existence of the name should be found not only in Samuel and Chronicles, but also in Josephus, who says (Ant. 7:4, 2), as if from his own observation, "the place where he died is even now (ἔτι νῦν) called 'the cleaving of Oza."' About a mile and a half or two miles from the site of Kirjath-jearim, on the hill immediately above Chesla, the ancient Chesalon, on the road thence towards Jerusalem, is a small village still called Khirbet el- Uz, or "the ruins of Uzzah." It is given by Prof. Robinson among the names of places west of Jerusalem as Khirbet el-Lauz, or, as it should be written, Khirbet el-Auz. This seems to be Perez-Uzzah. The position, on the road to Jerusalem, near the site of Obed-edom's house, and not far from the site of Kirjath-jearim, all correspond. David, Ibeing afraid, it is said, to proceed with the ark towards Jerusalem, "carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite." It seems therefore that the house of Obed-edom must have been near or in the immediate neighborhood of Perez-Uzzah. SEE OBEDEDOM.
