Kish (
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: קיש ''Qīš'') was the father of the first king of the
Israelites
The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...
,
Saul
Saul (; he, , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered tri ...
. ()
Life
Kish was a
Benjamite of the family of the
Matrites (; ; ; ), and there is some question over whether he was the brother or son of
Ner ( and ; ). The question may be resolved by reading both Ner and Kish as sons of
Abiel. According to the narrative of the appointment of Saul as king in 1 Samuel 9, Kish was the son of
Abiel, son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah and he kept donkeys. It was the loss of these donkeys which led Saul and a servant to journey in search of them and so to meet
Samuel
Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bib ...
, Saul's
anointer. "The possession of a drove of asses, and several servants, indicates that Kish was a man of some substance". The narrative later confirms that Kish was more concerned about the apparent
disappearance of his son than about his loss of possessions.
Residence
It appears that Kish resided at
Gibeah
Gibeah (; he, גִּבְעָה ''Gīḇəʿā''; he, גִּבְעַת, link=no ''Gīḇəʿaṯ'') is the name of three places mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, in the tribes of Benjamin, Judah, and Ephraim respectively.
Gibeah of Benjamin is th ...
. His
tomb
A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...
is said to be in
Zela, in the region of
Benjamin
Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thi ...
in modern-day
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. ()
Other biblical figures named Kish
"Kish" is also the name of one of
Mordecai's ancestors. Many equate him with the above, but some, including
Ibn Ezra, argue that this is a different Kish.
There is also another Kish named in .
See also
*
Kish (Sumer)
Kish ( Sumerian: Kiš; transliteration: Kiš ki; cuneiform: ; Akkadian: kiššatu, near modern Tell al-Uhaymir) is an important archaeological site in Babil Governorate (Iraq), located 80 kilometers south of Baghdad and 12 kilometers east of th ...
*
Qays
Qays ʿAylān ( ar, قيس عيلان), often referred to simply as Qays (''Kais'' or ''Ḳays'') were an Arab tribal confederation that branched from the Mudar group. The tribe does not appear to have functioned as a unit in the pre-Islamic e ...
References
{{Authority control
11th-century BCE Hebrew people
House of Saul
Books of Chronicles people
People in Acts of the Apostles