Parah

Parah appears once in Scripture in Joshua's catalog of the twelve cities of Benjamin's eastern district: "Avim, and Parah, and Ophrah, And Chephar-haammonai, and Ophni, and Gaba; twelve cities with their villages" (Joshua 18:23-28). The town is identified with Khirbet el-Farah on the Wadi Far'a about five miles northeast of Jerusalem, perched above one of the strategic eastern routes descending from the Benjaminite highlands toward the Jordan Valley. The same wadi system later became the site of Jeremiah's "buried linen belt" prophecy (Jeremiah 13:4-7) where "Perath" is generally read as Parah rather than the distant Euphrates.