Kenites

How Nave’s arranged it

• 1. A Canaanite tribe whose country was given to AbrahamGenesis 15:19Numbers 24:21–23
• 2. The descendants of Jethro, a Midianite, the father-in-law of Moses
• Join the Israelites and live at JerichoJudges 1:16Judges 4:111 Chronicles 2:55
• Later in the wilderness of JudahJudges 1:16Judges 1:17
• Jael, one of the, betrays and kills SiseraJudges 4:17–21

The passages, in Bible order (7)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 7 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Genesis 15:19

   the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,

   ›Commentary on Genesis 15:191 voice

   “The Kenites, etc. - Here are ten nations mentioned, though afterwards reckoned but seven; see Deu 7:1; Act 13:19. Probably some of them which existed in Abram’s time had been blended with others before the time of Moses, so that seven only out of the ten then remained; see part of these noticed Genesis 10. In this chapter there are three subjects which must be particularly interesting to the pious reader.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 15:19→

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2. Numbers 24:21–23

   Next he saw the Kenites and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Your dwelling place is secure, and your nest is set in a cliff.

   ›Commentary on Numbers 24:21–232 voices

   “The Kenites - First mentioned Gen 15:19 as one of the tribes whose territory was promised to Abraham. In Jdg 1:16, where we read of them as moving with the children of Judah, to establish themselves in the pastures south of Arad, Moses’ father-in-law is spoken of as a Kenite (compare Jdg 4:11). It appears therefore, since Moses’ father-in-law was a prince or priest of Midian (Exo 2:15 ff), that the Kenites must have been of Midianite extraction, and so descended from Abraham through Keturah Gen 25:

   “Thy nest - Thy dwelling-place, so called, either because it was in an high place, as nests commonly are: or in allusion to their name, for ken in Hebrew signifies a nest.

   Everything gathered on Numbers 24:21–23→

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3. Judges 1:16

   Now the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenite, went up with the men of Judah from the City of Palms to the Wilderness of Judah in the Negev near Arad. They went to live among the people.

   ›Commentary on Judges 1:162 voices

   “If he might not himself, his posterity did accept the invitation of Moses (Nu 10:32) to accompany the Israelites to Canaan. Their first encampment was in the "city of palm trees"--not Jericho, of course, which was utterly destroyed, but the surrounding district, perhaps En-gedi, in early times called Hazezon-tamar (Ge 14:7), from the palm-grove which sheltered it.

   “The children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law - For an account of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, see Exodus 18:1-27 (note); Num 10:29 (note), etc. The city of palm trees - This seems to have been some place near Jericho, which city is expressly called the city of palm trees, Deu 34:3; and though destroyed by Joshua, it might have some suburbs remaining where these harmless people had taken up their residence.

   Everything gathered on Judges 1:16→

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4. Judges 1:17

   Then the men of Judah went with their brothers the Simeonites, attacked the Canaanites living in Zephath, and devoted the city to destruction. So it was called Hormah.

   ›Commentary on Judges 1:171 voice

   “Hormah - See Num 21:1 note. The destruction then vowed was now accomplished. This is another decisive indication that the events here related belong to Joshua’s lifetime. This would be about six years after the vow.

   Everything gathered on Judges 1:17→

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5. Judges 4:11

   Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent by the great tree of Zaanannim, which was near Kedesh.

   ›Commentary on Judges 4:112 voices

   “Now Heber the Kenite,.... A descendant of Kain, a principal man among the Midianites; the Targum calls him the Salmaean: which was of the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses; who came along with the children of Israel through the wilderness into the land of Canaan, and first settled about Jericho, and then removed into the wilderness of Judah, Jdg 1:16, had severed himself from the Kenites; which dwelt in the said wilderness; to whom he belonged when this separation was made, and on what account is not certain.

   “Read, “Heber the Kenitc had severed himself from the Kenites which were of the children of Hobab,” etc., “unto the oak (or terebinth tree) in Zaanaim” (or Bitzaanaim, which Conder identifies with Bessum, twelve miles southeast of Tabor, and near Kedesh on the Sea of Galilee). This migration of Heber the Kenite, with a portion of his tribe, from the south of Judah to the north of Naphtali, perhaps caused by Philistine oppression, had clearly taken place recently.

   Everything gathered on Judges 4:11→

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6. Judges 4:17–21

   Meanwhile, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

   ›Commentary on Judges 4:17–211 voice

   “Sisera fled . . . to the tent of Jael--According to the usages of nomadic people, the duty of receiving the stranger in the sheik's absence devolves on his wife, and the moment the stranger is admitted into his tent, his claim to be defended or concealed from his pursuers is established.

   Everything gathered on Judges 4:17–21→

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7. 1 Chronicles 2:55

   Bethlehem, the Netophathites, Atroth-beth-joab, half the Manahathites, the Zorites, and the clans of the scribes who lived at Jabez—the Tirathites, Shimeathites, and Sucathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.

   ›Commentary on 1 Chronicles 2:552 voices

   “Scribes - Either civil, who were public notaries, that wrote and signed legal instruments: or ecclesiastical. And these were either Levites, or Simeonites, or rather Kenites, and are here mentioned not as if they were of the tribe of Judah, but because they dwelt among them, and probably were allied to them by marriages, and so in a manner incorporated with them.

   “Kenites - It is remarkable that Kenites - people of a race quite distinct from the Israelites Gen 15:19 - should be attached to, and, as it were, included in the descendants of Judah. It seems, however, that the friendly feeling between the two tribes - based on the conduct of the Kenites at the time of the Exodus Exo 18:10-19; Num 10:29-32; 1Sa 15:6 - led to their intermixture and almost amalgamation with the Israelites, Kenite families not only dwelling among them but being actually regarded as of one blood with them.

   Everything gathered on 1 Chronicles 2:55→

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