Mahalath. (stringed instrument).
1. The daughter of Ishmael, and one of the wives of Esau. Genesis 28:9.
2. One of the eighteen wives of King Rehoboam, apparently his first. 2 Chronicles 11:18 only. She was her husband's cousin, being the daughter of King David's son, Jerimoth.
3. The title of Psalms 53, and Mahalath-leannoth, the title of Psalms 88. The meaning of these words is uncertain. The conjecture is that mahalath is a guitar, and that leannoth has reference to the character of the psalm, and might be rendered "to humble or afflict", in which sense the root occurs in Psalms 88:7.