🔼The name Zeresh: Summary
- Meaning
- Unclear but possibly Golden
- Etymology
- From the Persian adjective zaris, golden.
🔼The name Zeresh in the Bible
The one and only Zeresh of the Bible is the wife of Haman and one of the architects of the plan to have Mordecai (queen Esther's cousin) hanged from a twenty-five meter high gallows (Esther 5:14). But Mordecai ends up the hero and Haman ends up hanging from the gallows. What became of Zeresh is not known but Mordecai receives Haman's house and the Jews kill Haman's ten sons.
🔼Etymology of the name Zeresh
The name Zeresh means nothing in Hebrew. It's possibly a transliteration of a Persian name, having to do with the word zaris, meaning golden. Or, as some scholars propose, it comes from the name Kirisha, which is the name of "a local goddess of Liyan (S.E. Iran)," according to Gwendolyn Leick (A dictionary of ancient Near Eastern mythology). Leick also submits that the name Kirisha means Great Goddess.
🔼Zeresh meaning
Alfred Jones (Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names) quotes Simonis and reads Star Of Adoration, but also refers to Gesenius who derives it from the Persian word for gold. NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Golden.