KISHON (ji? ὅπ; B ὁ χειμάῤῥους Κεισών, other forms Κισών, Kiodv).—This is the ancient name of the stream which drains almost the whole of the great plain of Esdraelon and the surrounding uplands. All the waters from Tabor and the
azareth hills, which reach the plain eastward of a line drawn from J/ksd/ to Nain, together with those from the N. slopes of Little Hermon, are carried into Wady esh-Sherrdr, and thence to the Jordan. The district between Little Hermon and Gilboa, reaching as far west as el-Fuleh, also inclines eastward, the waters flowing down Nahr Jalid past Beisdn into the Ghér. The torrents from Little Hermon between Shunem and Nain, and all from the Galilean hills west of //sdl, make their way through the soft soil of the plain, to join the deep hidden flow of Kishon. The main supplies, however, come from the southern side. The longest branches of the river stretch up the lofty steeps of Gilboa away to the east of Jenin. They are dry torrent-beds, save only in the rainy season, when they carry down foaming floods to swell the central stream. ‘The most distant peren- nial source is ‘Ain Jenin, which rises in the glen behind the town. It is carried by a conduit to a well-built fountain in the centre of the place, and thence is distributed for irrigation among the gardens and orchards. By these much of the water is absorbed; and in summer the bed of the rivera mile away is as dry as the surrounding plain. Copious springs in the neighbourhood of Τα απ and Khdn Lejjiin, and many smaller sources along the southern border of the plain, send contribu- tions to the volume of Kishon. About 3 miles east of Haifa it is joined by the streams from the great fountains of Sa’adiyeh, which rise under the northern base of Mount Carmel, on the edge of the plain of Acre.
The Kishon (‘crooked or tortuous’ [?]) pursues a tortuous course, in a north-westerly direction, keeping well into the centre of the plain. It sweeps round by Yell el-Kassis, breaks through a narrow pass on the north of Carmel into the plain of Acre, and enters the sea a little to the north of Haifa. El-Mukattad, ‘the watercourse,’ is the Arab name for this stream. The old name Kishon seems to have quite disappeared; but of its identity there is no reasonable doubt. If the ‘waters of Megiddo’ (Jg 5”), by which clearly the Kishon and its branches in the neighbourhood of that city is meant, became a popular name, the Arabs may have exchanged Megiddo, which was meaningless to them, for Mukatta’, so_ closely resembling it in sound, the meaning of which they knew (G. A. Smith, HGHL' 387), and which, besides, was every way appropriate; for ed- Mukatta’ is par excellence ‘the watercourse’ of the district.* In the yielding soil of the plain it has hollowed out a great trench, often not less than 15 or 20 feet in depth, along the bottom of which the waters may creep almost unseen to the sea.
In the higher reaches the waters swiftly dis- appear with the advancing summer. The surface ot the plain grows hard in the heat, and cracks in all directions, save only in the vicinity of springs,
* Moore (Judges, 158 n.) rejects decidedly the attempt to find the name Megii in Mukatta'.
KISHON
where, owing to the depth of adhesive mud, travel- ling is always dangerous. After entering the plain of Acre it is seldom dry, and from the fountains of Saadiyeh it flows in a constant sluggish stream, between deep banks, surrounded by thick jungle and marsh-land. This part has been reputed a haunt of crocodiles. In recent years Macgregor stands alone in claiming to have seen one of these reptiles while descending to the shore in his canoe (liob Roy on the Jordan, pp. 398-404). A short distance from the sea the river is spanned by a wooden bridge; but save in times of flood it is easily forded along the sandbank thrown up by the waves at its mouth. From the bank south- ward, fringing the coast, stands a grove of beautiful date palms. Northward are great tracts of barren sandhills. The main ford is where the road crosses from Haifa to Nazareth. Here a succession of bridges has been built, whose workmanship guaran- teed their epeedy demolition by winter spates. The means of crossing now are not different from what they were in the days of Sisera. The fords higher up are mostly safe in summer for those who know the locality of springs. In winter they are often quite impassable ; to attempt them at that season without a qualified guide is to court disaster. The conditions change with great rapidity, inten- sifying the treacherous character of the river. A few hours of such rain as at times falls on the encircling mountains are sufficient to change the dry bed into the channel of a rushing stream, and the baked earth along the banks into a quagmire. If G. A. Smith’s translation (HGHL! 395) of Jg 541,* ‘torrent of spates,’ be correct, it is entirely appropriate,
The tides of conflict often rolled along the banks of the Kishon in this great battlefield of the ancient worid, but its name is seldom mentioned in history. The first probable reference to it is in Jos 19% ‘the brook that is before Jokneam’ (RV); Jokneam of Carmel being identified with 7ed/ Keimin, the allusion seems clear (but see Dillm. ad loc.). Wishon next appears in the account of Israel’s victory over Sisera and his hosts (Jg 4’, ef. Ps 839), and is enshrined in the song celebrating that glorious event, as an ally of the triumphant army (Jg 51), where a most realistic picture is given of the enemy’s rout. The storm beat hard in the faces of the foe; the moistened soil, firm enough for the passage of footmen, yielded to the tread of cavalry ; the terrified plunging of the horses as they sank in the deep mire threw their ranks into contusion, leaving them exposed to the onrush of the eager and agile highlandmen. ‘The pitiless rain sent down swift cataracts from the hills, and soon Kishon in dark and sullen flood rolled onward to the sea. Any ford would then be difficult. The foreign horsemen knew none of them, and in vain efforts to escape they simply plunged into the river to die. he ground in the neighbourhood of Megiddo, where this battle appears to have been fought, is extremely treacherous, as the present writer had occasion to prove, even as late as the month of May (1892).