pered

The lexica (HALOT, BDB, DCH) are unanimous that peret denotes the mule, the sterile hybrid of a male donkey and a mare (or the reverse). In the biblical period the mule functions as a high-value riding animal, especially for royalty and nobility: David's sons ride mules (2 Samuel 13:29; 18:9), and by the united-monarchy narratives the royal mule has become a symbol of dynastic legitimacy (cf. the feminine pirdah, H6506, of Solomon's mount in 1 Kings 1). Because the crossing of two kinds sat uneasily with Leviticus 19:19, mules are generally presented as imported: they arrive as annual tribute to Solomon (1 Kings 10:25 // 2 Chronicles 9:24) and as commodities in the Tyrian trade network from Beth-togarmah (Ezekiel 27:14). The animal also appears in inventories of wealth and of the returning community (Ezra 2:66 // Nehemiah 7:68) and in oracular lists of animals struck by plague (Zechariah 14:15). Psalm 32:9 pairs the mule with the horse as the type of a senseless animal needing bridle and bit.