🔼The name Kish: Summary
- Meaning
- Snaring
- Etymology
- From the verb קוש (qosh), to lay bait or a snare.
🔼The name Kish in the Bible
There are five men named Kish in the Bible:
- The most famous Kish is the Benjaminite father of Saul, the first king of Israel (1 Samuel 9:1). The apostle Paul mentions this Kish (spelled Κις, Kis) in his First Sabbath sermon at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:21)
- A great-uncle of Saul is also named Kish (1 Chronicles 8:30) and so is:
- The great-grandfather of Mordecai, the cousin and caretaker of Esther (Esther 2:5).
- In the Merari branch of the Levites are also two men named Kish, one in David's time (1 Chronicles 23:21) and one in Hezekiah's time (2 Chronicles 29:12).
🔼Etymology of the name Kish
The name Kish comes from the verb קוש (qosh) meaning lay bait, or lure. This verb occurs only once in the Bible (Isaiah 29:21), but according to BDB Theological Dictionary, it's the root of the common verb יקש (yaqosh), meaning to set a snare or lay a trap:
יקש
The verb יקש (yaqosh) means to lay bait or a snare to catch animals, and over time came to include the figurative "snaring" a person with alluring enticements. Nouns יקוש (yaqosh) and יקוש (yaqush) describe a snarer or fowler. Noun מוקש (moqesh) means either bait or snare. Verb קוש (qush) also means to snare and is probably a by-form of the previous.
🔼Kish meaning
The name Kish may mean Snaring, Bird Catcher, says Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names. NOBSE Study Bible Name List appears to go with the most original meaning of the root and reads Bow, although the bow had its own word and archery not commonly associated with snare laying.