Piynon (Punon)

פינן


Genesis 36:41 describes him as a chieftain of the Edomites.

The spelling is probably an error for Punon (פונן), which appears in Numbers 33:42 as a town in Edom, between 
Petra and Tso'ar, famous for its mines. Numbers 26:23 also mentions the Puni (פוני) as a people, presumably the inhabitants of Punon. But like Penu-El/Peni-El this may be a linguistic variation, whether of dialect of change of language over time.

The root is Pun (פון), which means "darkness" or "obscurity", and is used for the sunset; though the connection with the mines suggest a darker and deeper connection.

2 Chronicles 25:23 refers to Sha'ar ha-Poneh (שער הפנה) as one of the gates of Yeru-Shala'im. Rendered as Sha'ar ha-Pinah (שער הפנה) = "the gate of the corner" in 2 Kings 14:13, because it was at one of the angles of the city walls, it may be better translated, as per the Chronicles version, as "the sunset gate" since it was in fact one of the western walls (not the Western Wall, which was a part of the Temple barbican, and not an actual wall of the Temple itself), though it is usually the case that Chronicles contains errors upon Kings, rather than the other way around.




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