Ishuai is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Ishuai was a descendant of Asher, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, and he is named in the tribal genealogies recorded in 1 Chronicles. The Chronicler, writing after the Babylonian exile, gathered the family records of Israel’s tribes to show that the people of God had not been lost or forgotten, and that the ancestral lines remained intact. In this setting Ishuai appears as a member of Asher’s household, numbered among the sons of the tribe whose inheritance lay in the northern part of Canaan.
Scripture gives us only one verse concerning him: 1 Chronicles 7:30, which reads, “The sons of Asher; Imnah, and Isuah, and Ishuai, and Beriah, and Serah their sister.” Beyond this single mention, the Bible says nothing else about Ishuai—no deed, no journey, no word of his own is recorded. He is known simply as one of the sons of Asher, listed alongside his brothers and his sister Serah.
What Scripture says of him, then, is chiefly this: he belonged. He was part of a tribe, a family, and a people whom God had chosen and preserved. His name was written into the record of Israel, and through that record he is remembered among those who bore the heritage of Jacob. His life is not marked by any achievement the text preserves, but by his place in the line of Asher and among the children of Israel.
The Name
The Hebrew name behind “Ishuai” is not clearly defined, and its precise meaning is not well established. Some have suggested possible connections to words for “equal” or “level,” and others have proposed a relationship to names in Asher’s line, but no meaning is firmly recoverable from the text or from the standard Hebrew lexicons. It is closely similar to the name “Isuah,” another of Asher’s sons listed in the same verse, and the two may reflect variant forms of related names. Because the meaning cannot be stated with confidence, it is best to say plainly that the significance of the name Ishuai is uncertain rather than to assign it a meaning the evidence does not support.
A Closing Thought
Most of us will never be remembered by a monument or a memorable deed. Ishuai’s entire legacy in Scripture is a single line in a family record. Yet that line mattered: it testified that he was counted among God’s people, part of a story far larger than himself. There is quiet comfort in this. Faithfulness is not measured by how much of our lives is recorded, but by the fact that we belong to the Lord and to His people. Like Ishuai, we may be unknown to history, yet fully known to God.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- 1 Chronicles 7:30 — The sons of Asher; Imnah, and Isuah, and Ishuai, and Beriah, and Serah their sister.