קִינָה
Kinah, a place in Palestine
Definition
Kinah is a proper noun referring to a specific location in ancient Palestine. It is listed as one of the cities in the Negev, the southern region of the territory allotted to the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:22). The name appears only in this single biblical context, and its precise geographical location remains uncertain to modern archaeology. As a place name, it carries no other major senses or meanings beyond its identification as a settlement within Judah's tribal inheritance.
Biblical Usage
The word קִינָה (Qîynâh) is used exactly once in the Old Testament, in Joshua 15:22. It functions solely as a proper noun within a list of cities assigned to the tribe of Judah in the Negev district. There are no patterns of usage across different books or literary contexts, as it is a single-occurrence geographical name.
Etymology
The name Kinah is derived from the same Hebrew root as H7015 (קִינָה, qînâh), which means 'lamentation,' 'dirge,' or 'elegy.' This suggests the place may have been named for an event of mourning or tragedy, a common practice for naming locations in the ancient Near East. It is linguistically identical to the common noun but used here as a proper name for a town.
Semantic Range
In the cultural context of ancient Israel, place names often held descriptive or historical significance. A town named 'Kinah' (Lamentation) might commemorate a local tragedy, a battle loss, or a period of mourning experienced by its founders or inhabitants. This practice embedded community memory into the geography. For a modern reader, understanding that a place name can be a 'word picture' adds a layer of historical texture, though the specific event behind this name is lost to history.
None applicable for a unique proper noun.
Word Details
How this works
Hebrew definitions are from Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906) and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (1890), both public domain. BDB was groundbreaking for its era but reflects 19th-century assumptions about Semitic etymology. Modern scholarship (HALOT, DCH) has revised many entries. Use these definitions as a starting point for exploration, not as the final word on a term's meaning in context.
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