Perath (Wadi Qelt)
פְּרָת · “Parat” on the map
Where is Perath? Nahal Prat / Wadi Qelt, from Ein Prat to Jericho. I mark it debated. The case for the main rival site is below.
G-d told Jeremiah to bury his linen loincloth in a cleft of the rock at Perath. When he came back and dug it up, it was ruined.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Nahal Prat / Wadi Qelt, from Ein Prat to Jericho
- How sure
- Debated Two or more serious candidates.
- Other names
- Wadi Qelt, Nahal Prat, Parah, Ein Prat, Wadi Fara, Pharan
- Location
- 31.8356° N, 35.3860° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
Perat usually means the Euphrates. But Jeremiah makes the trip twice, once to hide the cloth and again "after many days" to dig it up. The Euphrates is hundreds of miles from Jerusalem. The spring of Ein Prat is about three miles from his home town of Anatot.
The name runs in a chain here, from Parah, a town of Benjamin near the spring, to the Byzantine monastery of Pharan, to Arabic Ein Fara. And the gorge is full of clefts in the rock.
The message still works, since the Euphrates was the road to Babylon and exile.
Traditional commentators, Rashi among them, and most translations read it as the real Euphrates, as two real trips or as a vision. Jeremiah later uses the same bare word for the Euphrates at Babylon.
Visiting today
Ein Prat Nature Reserve has springs, pools and the Pharan monastery. Lower down, the Wadi Qelt trail passes St. George's Monastery.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Parat on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Beth Hoglah 1 km
- Gilgal 2 km
- Jericho 2 km
- Anathoth 4 km
- Michmash 4 km
- Ramah (Ramathaim Zophim) 6 km