🔼The name Ziha: Summary
- Meaning
- Drought
- Etymology
- From the verb צחה (saha), to be parched.
🔼The name Ziha in the Bible
There is probably only one man named Ziha mentioned in the Bible, namely one of the Nethinim who came back from the Babylonian exile, together with an untold number of sons (Ezra 2:43, Nehemiah 7:46).
Because both Ezra and Nehemiah list about four dozen patriarchal Nethinim and Solomonic servants, while putting the total number of their "sons" to 392, the chances are excellent that these people were living family heads, and not distant patriarchs.
That means that Ziha the returnee might very well be the same as the Ziha who was in charge of the Nethinim living in Ophel (Nehemiah 11:21). Evidence to the opposite, however, comes from the observation that Ziha's fellow-manager Gishpa is not mentioned in the returnees list.
Note that this name is spelled צחא in Nehemiah 7:46, and ציחא in Ezra 2:43 and Nehemiah 11:21.
🔼Etymology of the name Ziha
It's not clear where the name Ziha comes from, but perhaps from the verb צחה (saha), which probably meant to be parched or thirsty:
צחח
The verb צחח (shh) means to be dazzling or sizzling. Adjective צח (sah) means dazzling, glowing or clear. Noun צחיח (sahiah) probably denotes a shining, gleaming or scorching surface. Likewise, nouns צחיחה (sehiha) and צחצחה (sahsaha) denote a scorched land or region.
Adjective צחה (siheh) means parched and derives probably from an unused verb צחה (saha), which is probably a by-form of the previous and means the same.
Note that in Biblical symbolic jargon, water and rain represent the availability of revelations and insights, whereas drought represents the opposite.
🔼Ziha meaning
For a meaning of the name Ziha, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads Drought. Neither NOBSE Study Bible Name List nor BDB Theological Dictionary offers an interpretation of this name.