a side, edge, or corner: the outer face or boundary of something, whether a direction, a margin, or a far extremity
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled
The word names the peripheral boundary or directional face of something. In architectural contexts it identifies the cardinal sides of a structure (the south side of the tabernacle courtyard, the west side of the sanctuary building). In land-survey and geographic contexts it marks the side or quarter of a territory, pointing in a compass direction (the north side of a tribal allotment, the four sides of a city block). The same word covers the margin of a field left unharvested for the poor, the corners of the beard or hairline, and the far extremities of a region in poetry.
The two senses share an underlying spatial idea: a place at the outer limit of something, either as a face pointing outward or as an edge where the thing ends. The gleaning-law sense and the architectural-direction sense look different in English ("corner" versus "side"), but both are the word doing its single job of marking the outer boundary. A reader who knows the word from the gleaning law will recognize it in the tabernacle blueprints and in Ezekiel's land vision.
Nuances
1aside or quarter: a face of a structure or a compass direction of a territory
the Hebrew word covers directional sides of large things (the south side of the tabernacle courtyard, the north side of a tribal region) where English "corner" sounds too small or too angularExo 27:9
in the gleaning law the word names the edge or margin of a field left standing, not the geometric corner of a squareLev 19:9
Both
both name an outer boundary position: the place where something is at its edgeLev 19:9Exo 25:26
Only corner
English "corner" implies a sharp right angle or a small tucked-away space; the Hebrew word carries no such geometric restriction and applies to broad compass directions
“side”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“border”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How pe'ah differs from similar Hebrew words
קָצֶהan end or extremity reached by moving to the outer limit of something, often the far end of a line or distance; where פֵּאָה marks a face or margin as a spatial orientation, קָצֶה emphasizes the terminal point reached
גְּבוּלa fixed boundary or border that defines and separates one territory from another, carrying a legal and territorial weight; פֵּאָה names the side or direction of a territory, while גְּבוּל names the line that marks its limit
Names the side or edge of a built structure, such as one wall of the tabernacle courtyard.Exo 27:9Exo 26:18
Marks the side or border of a territory in mapping out land boundaries.Jos 15:5Ezk 47:15Ezk 48:1
Is the edge of a harvest field, the strip left unreaped for the poor.Lev 19:9Lev 23:22
Both
Both meet at the hair beside the face: the law forbids destroying the edge of the beard, where this word names the beard and that word names its edge or corner.Lev 19:27Lev 21:5
Names the side of the human body, as in lying down on one's side.Ezk 4:4Ezk 4:6
Used figuratively for hostile neighbors left in the land, painful as thorns in one's sides.Num 33:55Jos 23:13Jdg 2:3
Means beside, marking a position right next to a person or place.Rut 2:141Sa 20:25Psa 91:7
pe'ah in the other biblical languages
γωνίαGreek“corner”the Greek word for a corner or angle, used in the New Testament for the cornerstone and for the four corners of the earth; it covers the architectural and geographic corner senses that overlap with פֵּאָה, though it lacks the Levitical field-edge and hair-corner applications
What scholars say about pe'ah
The lexica agree on a single root covering both the directional-side and the edge/corner senses. HALOT gives the primary meaning as "side, direction" with the four compass sides of a structure or territory as the dominant use, and notes the gleaning-law "corner of the field" and the "corners of the beard" as extensions of the same spatial idea. BDB organizes the field similarly, listing "side" (of the tabernacle, of land) and "corner" (of field, of head) without positing a separate root. DCH follows this consensus. The gleaning law (Leviticus 19:9; 23:22) was extensively discussed in rabbinic literature, which developed detailed rules about what constitutes the required "corner" (tractate Peah); this later legal elaboration should not be read back into the biblical text as a fixed quantity. The dual form in Numbers 24:17 ("corners of Moab") is discussed as a poetic use for the temples of the skull or the far extremities of the land.