🔼The name Kushaiah: Summary
- Meaning
- Snaring Of Yah
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb קוש (qosh), to lay bait or a snare, and (2) יהו (yahu), the shortened name of the Lord.
🔼The name Kushaiah in the Bible
The name Kushaiah occurs only once in the Bible. He is the father of Ethan, whom the Levites selected from among the descendants of Merari to join a chorus of loud music makers that would liven up king David's bringing to Jerusalem of the Ark of the Covenant (1 Chronicles 15:17). This Kushaiah is likely the same as the Kishi mentioned in 1 Chronicles 6:44, who also descended from Merari and who also had a son named Ethan. The name Kishi is the truncated form of Kushaiah.
Note also that our name is actually spelled Kushaiahu, with a final waw. Many names that end with יה also exist with the ending יהו, and traditionally translators have chosen to transliterate all these names with no u-sound at the end of it. Even though of the name Kushaiah(u) only the longer version remains, its transliteration follows the preferred shorter form.
🔼Etymology of the name Kushaiah
The name Kushaiah consists of two elements, the final one of these is יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, YHWH, or Yahweh.
The first part of our name comes from the verb קוש (qush), meaning to lay bait or lure (or to snare):
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.
🔼Kushaiah meaning
For a meaning of the name Kushaiah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads a rather fantastic Bow Of Yahweh and adds "that is rainbow". Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Snaring Of The Lord. BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't interpret or translate our name.