🔼The name Kishon: Summary
- Meaning
- Snarer, Place Of The Snaring
- Etymology
- From the verb קוש (qosh), to lay bait or a snare.
🔼The name Kishon in the Bible
The Kishon is a river that meets the Mediterranean Sea on the north side of mount Carmel, which is present day Haifa. The Kishon is where the army of Israel, led by Deborah and Barak, engaged the army of Jabin the Second of Canaan captained by Sisera (Judges 4:7, Psalm 83:9).
In her famous Song, Deborah spoke of "The torrent of Kishon swept them away, The ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon," and uses a word doesn't occur elsewhere in Scriptures: קדומים (qadumim), which is related to a word meaning eastern or ancient (Judges 5:21).
The Kishon is also the scene where, much later, Elijah the Tishbite massacred 450 Baal priests (1 Kings 18:40).
🔼Etymology of the name Kishon
The name Kishon comes from the verb קוש (qosh) meaning to lay bait, or lure:
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.
The waw-nun extension of our name personifies or localizes the verb.
🔼Kishon meaning
The name Kishon may mean Catcher, Place Of Catch (or rather Place Of Ensnarement). For the meaning of the name Kishon, NOBSE Study Bible Name List appears to try to marry the word for snare with the essence of a river and reads a rather stretched Bending. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names also follows the same path and reads Tortuous, Winding About.