The Kishon River

נַחַל קִישׁוֹן

Where is the Kishon River? Jezreel Valley to Haifa Bay, along the foot of Carmel. I mark it certain.

Barak routed Sisera's chariots when this stream flooded. Centuries later Elijah brought the prophets of Baal down here to die.

By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker

Site today
Jezreel Valley to Haifa Bay, along the foot of Carmel
How sure
Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
Other names
Brook Kishon, Wadi Kishon, Nahal Kishon, Nahr el-Muqatta, Kishon continued
Location
32.6928° N, 35.1052° E (Google Maps)
The Kishon River on the hand-drawn Map of Biblical Israel
Kishon on our hand-drawn Map of Biblical Israel. Get the full map as a print →

How we know where it was

The name never left Jewish use, and only one stream drains the Jezreel Valley. That valley was the one plain where chariots could fight, and Sisera brought nine hundred of them. After a winter storm the Kishon becomes a muddy torrent and the plain turns to bog. Deborah sang that "the torrent Kishon swept them away." The text isn't being poetic. It's being literal.

I filmed here after rain for the Walking Tanach episode Prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel, with the stream swollen. I had always seen it as a trickle.

Elijah's story uses the same water, an hour's hike down from the summit of Carmel. The commentaries say the storm that followed flooded the stream and washed the bodies out to sea. So the prophets of Baal got no grave in the Land.

Watch: Prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel

Walking Tanach, Episode 2. Filmed at the stream bed, swollen after rain.

Visiting today

Trails follow the stream near Kiryat Tivon and in Haifa's Kishon park. I filmed at the stream bed for the Walking Tanach episode Prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel.

Read it in the Bible

Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.

See Kishon on the interactive map →

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Nearby places

Sources and further reading