Kenites
The Kenites were a nomadic clan of the ancient Levant, some of whom became affiliated with the Israelites. The Kenites are described as camping near the Israelites and settling among them in the tribal areas of Judah and Naphtali after the Exodus. They intermarried with the Israelites and are depicted in the biblical narratives as supporting Israel in its fight against the Canaanites and Amalekites.
Among the well-known Kenites were Jethro, the "priest of Midian," and his daughter Zipporah, who became the wife of Moses and the mother of his two sons. The biblical heroine Jael, who slew the Canaanite general Sisera after the battle of Mount Tabor, was the wife of Heber the Kenite.
Modern scholars believe the Kenites were shepherds and metalworkers, who may have shared some of their vital technological knowledge with the Israelites. The Kenites, for the most part, seem to have assimilated into the Israelite population, although the Kenites descended from Rechab maintained a distinct, nomadic lifestyle for some time.
According to one theory, the Hebrew God Yahweh was originally the tribal god of the Kenites and was later identified by the Israelites with the God of Abraham, whom he knew as "El Shaddai."
Name
The Kenites first appear in the Bible in the time of Abraham as occupying part of the land of Canaan (Genesis 15:19). The name "Kenite" or "Kainite" derives from the Hebrew Qayin, which is identical with the name "Cain," and may be thus derived from that name, or vice versa. However, the tribe's actual origins are obscure. Its name may be also be derived from the name of Kenan, the son of Enos (and thus the grandson of Seth and great-grandson of Adam). Another possibility as that the Kenites may be related to the "Kennizites" or to Kenaz the brother of Caleb, since Caleb is described in the Book of Chronicles as being an ancestor of certain Kenite clans (see below).
In the Bible
At the time of the Exodus, at least some of the Kenites inhabited the vicinity of Mount Sinai. Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was a Kenite (Book of Judges|Judges]] 1:16), and Moses is described as living with his clan for 40 years. Elsewhere, Jethro is said to have been the "priest of Midian" (Exodus 3:1) and himself a Midianite (Numbers 10:29). This has led some scholars to believe that the terms "Kenite" and "Midianite" are intended to be used interchangeably. Others hold that the Kenites were a one nomadic tribe that originally lived in Canaan, some of whom moved to the land of Midian, along with other groups such as the Amalekites.
The Kenites apparently traveled with the Israelites back toward Canaan. Their encampment, however, was separate from the main body of the Israelites, and was noticed as such by the prophet Balaam as the Israelites approached the land of Canaan and camped along the Jordan River across from Jericho (Numbers 24:21-22). Baalam prophesied that "you Kenites will be destroyed when Asshur takes you captive," possibly referring to their shared fate with the northern kingdom of Israel, which was defeated by Assyria in 722 B.C.E. and many of its citizen taken into captivity.
At the beginning of the period of the judges, some of the Kenites traveled from Jericho (the City of Palms) and went with the tribe of Judah to live in the Judean desert near Arad (Judges 1:16), southwest of the Dead Sea. Another clan later separated from this group and settled near Kadesh in the land of Naphtali, near the border of modern Lebanon. There, the Canaanite general Sisera fled to the tent of Heber the Kenite after being routed at the battle of Mount Tabor, where he was famously slain by Heber's wife Jael. She is memorialized as one of Israel's greatest heroines in the Song of Deborah:
- Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite,
- most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
- He (Sisera) asked for water, and she gave him milk;
- in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.
- Her hand reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workman's hammer.
- She struck Sisera, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple. (Judges 5:24-26)
By the time of Saul, some the Kenites are described as having settled in towns of Judah. However, some of them also lived in tents among the Amalekites, and Edomite clan that, like the Kenites, had camped near the Israelites near by Jordan but had incurred their implacable enmity for attacking them during the Exodus. Before destroying the Amalekites at God's command, Saul warned the Kenites of his plans, giving them the opportunity to separate themselves from the Amalekites before the attack began. "You showed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt," said Saul to them (1 Samuel 15:6). Later, after David had defeated a group of Amalekites and gained much booty in the process, he included leaders of the Kenite towns among "the elders of Judah, who were his friends," with whom he shared the loot (1 Samuel 30:28-29).
The Book of Chronicles indicates a connection between the Kenites and Caleb, through his wife Ephrath, their son Hur, and their grandson Salma, stating: "The descendants of Salma: Bethlehem, the Netophathites, Atroth Beth Joab, half the Manahathites, the Zorites, and the clans of 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." If "Kenites" refers to the entire group above, then they became a significant subgroup within the the Tribe of Judah.
The Rechabites, also identified as derived from the Kenites (1 Chronicles 2:54-55), remained a nomadic group ascetically devoted to the desert traditions of their ancestors. They finally came to lived Jerusalem as a result of the invasion of Nebuchadnzezzar II in the early sixth century CE and were given shelter by the prophet Jeremiah. When they prophet offered them hospitality in the Temple of Jerusalem he learned of their tradition reporting it as follows:
"We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab gave us this command: 'Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine. Also you must never build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are nomads.' ...We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jonadab commanded us." (Jer. 35:6-10)
Critical view
Jethro, priest of Midian, and father-in-law of Moses, is said (Judges 1:16) to have been a Kenite, making Moses' wife Zipporah likewise a Kenite. This indicates that the Kenites originally formed part of the Midianite tribes. Jethro is depicted as already a priest of Yahweh at around time when the Bible says the Hebrew God first made himself known by that name to Moses.
Praise be to the Lord, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly." Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law in the presence of God. Exodus 18:10-12
Some suggest that this describes an initiation of Aaron by Jethro into the worship of Yahweh, and that Moses, too, had been introduce to this deity by Jethro during Moses' stay with Jethro's family near Mount Sinai: "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty,but by my name the Lord [b] I did not make myself known to them." (Ex. 6:3) In this view, Yahweh was originally a Kenite deity, and that from the Kenites through the agency of Moses his worship passed to the Israelites.[1]
The Bible also describes Jethro assisting Moses in the organization of a court system, suggesting that some aspects of ancient Israelite jurisprudence may have derived from Kenite sources. Other scholars have speculated that the genealogy of Cain in the Book of Genesis may contain oral Kenite traditions.
Many modern scholars tend to see the Kenites as a clan who settled on the southern border of Judah. By the time of David the Kenites became fully incorporated into the tribe of Judah. Their eponymous ancestor may have been Cain (Kain), to whose descendants the Yahwist writer in Genesis 4 attributes the invention of the art of working bronze and iron. If so, then the Kenites may have shared these valuable skills with the Israelites, who still did not possess the art of blacksmithing in the time of King Saul (1 Samuel 13:19). Some therefore hold that the Kenites were a tribe of smiths.
The Kenites also serve as a primary example of the thesis that the "Israelites" did not constitute a group of lineal descendants of Jacob, but a federation of tribes which later came to adopt a common origin myth, similar to Americans adopting the story of the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock was their common spiritual ancestors. According to this thesis, some of the "Israelites" never made the exodus from Egypt, but joined with the Israelite federation along with the Kenites from the time of the judges through the time of David and Solomon and beyond.
Notes
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
- Hirsch, Emil G., Bernhard Pick and George A. Barton. "Kenites." Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901-1906; which cites to the following bibliography:
- Stade, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, i. 126 et seq., Berlin, 1889;
- Moore, "Judges," in International Critical Commentary, pp. 51-55, New York, 1895;
- Budde, Religion of Israel to the Exile, pp. 17-38, New York;
- Barton, Semitic Origins, pp. 271-278, ib. 1902.
External links
- Kenites on jewishencyclopedia.com
- http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=152&letter=R&search=Kenites Rechabites on jewishencyclopedia.com]
- Kenites on Columbia Encyclopedia
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