According to the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude ...

, Chemish () was a

Nephite According to the Book of Mormon, the Nephites () are one of four groups (along with the Lamanites, Jaredites, and Mulekites) to have settled in the ancient Americas. The term is used throughout the Book of Mormon to describe the religious, ...

record keeper. He received the Book of Mormon record from his brother Amaron, and penned a single verse in the

Book of Omni The Book of Omni () is one of the books that make up the Book of Mormon. The book contains only one chapter although it covers more than two centuries of Nephite history (from ''ca'' 323 BC to 130 BC, according to footnotes). Stewardship of the ...

(Omni 1:9) before passing the record to his son Abinadom:

9 Now I, Chemish, write what few things I write, in the same book with my brother; for behold, I saw the last which he wrote, that he wrote it with his own hand; and he wrote it in the day that he delivered them unto me. And after this manner we keep the records, for it is according to the commandments of our fathers. And I make an end.

Possible origin of the name

Hugh Nibley relates the name to his position within the family or the succession, as the fifth in line (Hebrew חמש means "five") Nibley, Hugh & Hummel, Sharman Bookwalter (ed.) ''Nibley's Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1'' (2013), ASIN: B00GFY0GUO and states: :"Now that's an obvious word. 'Chemish' is the same as the Latin 'Quintus'. It means the 'fifth', either the fifth son, or the fifth in the line of succession. Is he fifth? He looks more like sixth. If you have

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam ...

, Enos, Jarom, Omni and Amaron, that would make him the sixth. Unless it is after Jacob; who knows? Anyway it is a perfectly good Semitic name which means 'the fifth'. It's a common proper name too. There's the town of Chemish..."

References

Book of Mormon people {{LDS-stub