Bible word study

Tarshiysh (Strong’s H8659): Meaning in the Bible

Tarshiysh (תַּרְשִׁישׁ) is the Hebrew (proper name) word numbered H8659 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as Tarshish, a place on the Mediterranean, hence, the ephithet of a merchant vessel (as if for or from that port); also the name of a Persian and of an Israelite. In the King James Bible it is translated Tarshish, Tharshish..

• Original wordתַּרְשִׁישׁ
• TransliterationTarshîysh
• Pronunciationtar-sheesh'
• Part of speechproper noun (masculine) (n-pr-m n-pr-loc)
• Strong’s numberH8659
• LanguageHebrew (proper name)

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. probably the same as H8658 (as the region of the stone, or the reverse);

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Tarshiysh appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Tarshiysh (H8659) stands behind 28 English renderings in 24 verses across 10 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Isaiah (7), 2 Chronicles (4), Jonah (4).

How the King James Bible renders Tarshiysh, by count

• tarshish24 of 28 (86 percent)
• tharshish4 of 28 (14 percent)

Three places to read Tarshiysh

• Genesis 10:4 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
• Esther 1:14 And the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king’s face, and which sat the first in the kingdom;)
• Isaiah 60:9 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Tarshiysh in the original Hebrew (proper name) lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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