Kithlish
Kith'lish (Heb. Kithlish', כַּתלישׁ, prob. for אַישׁ כּתִל, a man's wall; Sept. Χαθαλείς v. r. Καθλώς ant Μααχώς,Vulg. Cethlis), a town in the valley or plain (Shephelah) of Judah, mentioned between Lahmam and Gederoth (Jos 15:40); evidently situated in the south-western group, possibly at the "mound and some foundations called Jelamneh" (Robinson, Researches, ii, 386), on wady el-Heroy, between Gaza and Lachish (Van de Velde, Map). A writer in Fairbairn's Dictionary, s.v., proposes the ruined site el-Jilas given by Smith (in Robinson's Res. 3, Appendix, p. 119) in this vicinity; but this is not laid down on any map, if, indeed, it be not the same place as the above. The derivation proposed by the same writer for the name Kithlish, from כָּתִת, to crush, and לִיַשׁ, a lion, as if it were the haunt of that animal, is fanciful, and unwarranted by any allusion of the kind in the text; the form, moreover, would then have been כּתּלַישׁ.
