Pethor

Pethor was the home of the diviner Balaam son of Beor, whom Balak king of Moab hired to curse Israel (Numbers 22:5, Deuteronomy 23:4). The text locates it "by the river" (the Euphrates) "in the land of the sons of his people" — most likely the same Pitru known from the annals of Shalmaneser III of Assyria. Balaam was a famously respected pagan diviner; Balak sent messengers with his fee on the long journey across the desert from Moab to fetch him. The precise geographical anchor — Pethor on the Euphrates — gives the Balaam narrative unusually specific historicity. Most scholars place Pethor at modern Tell Ahmar (ancient Til-Barsip) just south of Carchemish.