108 Christopher M. Mays a woman’s name is not an unprecedented error20. Indeed, even the church father Julianus recognized the relationship between the matronymic Βοσόρρα and the ancient city Βοσόρ: “His father was Zareth…and his mother was Bosorra (Βοσόρρα)…Zareth is a city of Idumea and Bosor (Βοσόρ) is a city of Arabia, now called Bostra (Βοστρα)”21. In light of the tendency of ancient writers to interchange Βοσόρ and Βοσόρρα and the common misconception that they were personal names, the author of 2 Peter may have similarly erred. Investigation into the three Edomite king lists reveals that there was good reason for him to replace Balaam’s patronymic with the ancient city name Βοσόρ. The name of Jobab’s predecessor illuminates the ancient fusion of the Edomite king lists with the Balaam narrative. While the MT of Gen 36:32 and 1 Chr 1:43 call the king  (Bela’), the LXX of these passages and Job 42:17d rename him Βαλακ (Balak). Balak (Heb: ) of course, was the Moabite king who hired Balaam to curse the Israelites (Num 22). Even Julianus mistook the Edomite Balak for the Moabite king who commissioned Balaam22. Some Targumic Edomite king lists made an even more revealing error. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Gen 36:32 and Tg. 1 Chr 1:43 changed Bela () from the MT to Balaam (), directly juxtaposing the title “Balaam of Beor” with the city Bozrah (). The repeated confusion of the names Balaam, Balak, and Bela helps account for the merging of the Edomite king list with the Balaam narrative23. Most significantly, Balak’s own patronymic paved the way for conflat- ing these three Edomite king lists with the Balaam narrative. The MT and LXX of Gen 36:32, 1 Chr 1:43, and Job 42:17d (LXX only) identify Jobab’s predecessor by the patronymic Beor (; Βεώρ). These three passages are the only other occurrences of the name Beor outside of the Balaam narratives. It seems no small coincidence that in each of these instances Βεώρ is juxtaposed with Βοσόρρα, especially since some Tar- gumic Edomite king lists mistook Bela for Balaam (Tg. Ps.-J. Gen 36:32; Tg. 1 Chr. 1:43). The repeated conjunction between Balaam’s own patro- See TJob 25:1, in which Job’s wife is named Sitis, probably appropriated from the 20 name of his hometown Ausitis (Job 1:1; 42:17b, e); cf. R.P. Spittler, Testament of Job: A New Translation and Introduction; J.H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1 (New York 1983) 850. ftnt. b. Commentarius in Job 312.9-10, author’s translation. 21 Comm. Job 313.4 22 Moreover, a number of scholars have contended that the correspondence between  23 and  belies a common origin; see B.A. Levine, Numbers 21-36, 2 (New York 2000) 147; Gray, Numbers, 324; A.H. Sayce, ‘Recent Biblical and Oriental Archaeology’, ExpTim 15 (1903/4) 405-6.