Tel Arad fortress above the town of Arad, the central hub of the Negev of the Kenites.

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Kenites/Qenites (/ˈkiːnaɪt/ or /ˈkɛnaɪt/; Hebrew: קֵינִי‎ Qēinī) were a tribe in the ancient Levant.[1] They settled in the towns and cities in the northeastern Negev in an area known as the "Negev of the Kenites" near Arad, and played an important role in the history of ancient Israel. One of the most recognized Kenites is Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, who was a shepherd and a priest in the land of Midian Judges 1:16[2] Certain groups of Kenites settled among the Israelite population, including the descendants of Moses's brother-in-law,[1] although the Kenites descended from Rechab maintained a distinct, nomadic lifestyle for some time.

Other well-known Kenites were: Heber, husband of Jael, the Biblical heroine who killed General Sisera; and Rechab, the ancestor of the Rechabites.[1]

Etymology

The word קֵינִי (qênî / Kay-nee)[3] was a patronymic derived from the word קַיִן (qayin).[4] There are several competing interpretations of the meaning of the etymology.

Early modern critical biblical scholars supposed that the name was a rendition of Hebrew קֵינִי Qeyniy. According to the German orientalist Wilhelm Gesenius, the name is derived from the name Cain (קַיִן Qayin).,[5] the same name as Cain the son of Adam and Eve. However this may simply be the ancient Hebrew transliteration or phonetization of the Kenites' name in their own language.

The word spelled קַיִן (qayin / Kah-yin).[4] could also mean a spear or lance קַיִן (qayin / Kah-yin).[6] derived from the word קוֹנֵן (qônēn / Koon)[7] which meant to "strike" (The word would also be used to mean striking a note on a musical instrument, by the later books of the Bible this word became the noun for a type of lament, dirge, or sad chant. Later becoming a verb for chanting or wailing at a funeral)[7]

Other scholars have linked the name to the term 'smith'. According to Archibald Henry Sayce, the name ‘Kenite’ or Qéní, is identical to an Aramaic word meaning a smith, which in its turn is a cognate of Hebrew Qayin, meaning ‘a lance’.[8] However, by the end of his life, Sayce was considered an amateur rather than a specialist and was criticized for his lack of intellectual penetration and outdated opposition to the work of continental orientalists.[9]

Historical Identity

Map of Arabia based on Jacopo d'Angelo's translation of Ptolemy (1478). The tribe listed as "Cinaedocolpitae" (the Kinaidokolpitai) located in the northwest of the map.

The Kenites are a clan mentioned in the bible and referred to as having settled on the southern border of Judah. According to the bible, in the time of David, the Kenites then settled among the tribe of Judah.[10]

In Jeremiah 35:7-8 the Rechabites are described as tent-dwellers with an absolute prohibition against practicing agriculture; however, other Kenites are described elsewhere as city-dwellers (1 Samuel 30:29, 1 Chronicles 2:55).

Hippolytus of Rome in his Chronicon (AD 234) appears to identify the Kinaidokolpitai of central Arabia with the biblical Kenites.[11]

In modern sources the Kenites are often depicted as technologically advanced nomadic blacksmiths who spread their culture and religion to Canaan. The suggestion that the Kenites were wandering smiths was first made by B. D. Stade in Beiträge zur Pentateuchkritik: dasKainszeichen in 1894 and has since become widespread.[12] This view of the Kenites originating in Germany the mid-1800s is not reflected in any ancient Hebrew, Greek, Latin, or Arabic sources. The Kenites seem to have had no particular dislike of cities, settling in cities and villages from a very early date.

In the Bible

Zoar on the Madaba map
Zipporah and her sister, from a painting by Sandro Botticelli

Age of the Patriarchs

The Bible mentions the Kenites as living in or around Canaan as early as the time of Abraham. (Genesis 15:18–21)

During the Exodus

Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, was a Kenite (Judges 1:16) and a resident in the land of Midian. At the Exodus, Jethro and his clan inhabited the vicinity of Mount Sinai and Horeb. (Exodus 3:1)

The Daughters of Jethro, Théophile Hamel, c. 1850

In Exodus 3:1 Jethro is said to have been a "priest in the land of Midian" and a resident of Midian (Numbers 10:29). This has led many scholars to believe that the terms "Kenite" and "Midianite" are intended (at least in parts of the Bible) to be used interchangeably, or that the Kenites formed a part of the Midianite tribal grouping.

The Kenites journeyed with the Israelites to Canaan (Judges 1:16); and their encampment, apart from the latter's, was noticed by Balaam.[13]

The Kenites were closely allied with Moses, and are not mentioned to have participated in the first invasion of Canaan (Numbers 14:39–45, Deuteronomy 1:41–46) that was conducted against Moses's orders.

During the second invasion of Canaan (Numbers 21:1–4), the Kenites would have seen the area around the town of Arad, the region of Canaan that the next generation of Kenites would later choose as their place to settle after the conquest.

When the Israelites and Kenites were camped at the foot of Mount Peor, King Balak of Moab allied himself with the five Kings of Midian, but seeing that they did not have the strength to defeat the Israelites, the leaders of Moab and Midian gathered together and paid a large fee to Balaam to put a curse on the Israelite camp from the high place (a type of religious shrine) on Mount Peor ((Numbers 22:1–21). Balaam was unable to curse Israel, but prophesied about the Kenites, saying that they would endure, but foretold that someday they would be led away captive as slaves to Assur, ((Numbers 24:21–22), with the question of how long their future slavery would last being unanswered.

War between Israel and Midian

While the camp was still encamped on the west side of Mount Peor, the local Moabites attempted to include the Israelites in their worship of their god Baal of Peor. During the commotion and bloodshed, Moses's grandnephew Phinehas killed a Midianite princess, Cozbi, the daughter of King Zur, one of the five Kings of Midian (Numbers 25:14–18). Following this, Moses sent a strikeforce of 12,000 men (1000 from each Israelite tribe, the Kenites were not included) that succeed in killing the five kings Evi (אֱוִי),[14] Rekem (רֶקֶם),[15] Hur (חוּר),[16] Reba (רֶבַע),[17] and Zur (צַוָּר)[18] the father of Cozbi, (Numbers 31:8, Joshua 13:21) and burned each of the Midianite cities and all of their encampments, taking their livestock (Numbers 31:1–12). The Kenites were not included in the invasion of Midian, it is unclear how the Kenites reacted to the fall of the Midianite kings that they had formerly been subject to.

During the Conquest of Canaan

Tel Arad

After the death of Moses, Joshua led the Israelite invasion of Canaan; conquering a large portion of central Canaan. Upon Joshua's death, the Israelite tribes of Judah and Simeon took action to conquer southern Canaan, defeating the Canaanites and the Perizzites at the Battle of Bezek (now Ibziq) in Judges 1:5. After Judah's sieges of Jerusalem and Debir, Judges 1:16 says that Jethro's Kenite descendants "went up from the City of Palms, (which appears to be Zoar or Tamar in the upper Arabah[19]), with the men of Judah to live among the people of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad."[19]

After settling in Canaan

Following the conquest, the Israelites began to assimilate into the larger Canaanite culture and started converting to the Canaanite religion (Judges 2:11–13, Judges 3:1–7), only returning to their national religion when confronted by an 8-year invasion and occupation by the North Mesopotamians (from Aram-Naharaim) under King Cushan-Rishathaim. The Israelites rose up under the leadership of Othniel the son of Kenaz, (thus the nephew of Caleb, Judah's previous war-leader) who was a neighbor of the Kenites and lived in the same area (Judges 3:9–11). Although the text is brief, it is likely Othniel had reliable political support at-the-ready from his relatives the Calebites and Kenizzites, and probably from his Kenite neighbors as well, this likely gave him a large support base for the tribe of Judah to unite around.

Proposed location of Zoara, As-Safi

Later, King Eglon of Moab allied with the Kingdom of Ammon and nation of Amalek, in order to invade the territory of Israel. (Judges 3:12–15) After defeating the Israelites, Moab and Amalek took the City of Palms (believed to be the later city of Zoar or Tamar[19]), from the Kenites.

During the rise and fall of Hazor

Amarna letter. A letter from Abdi-Tirshi (King of Hazor) to the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III or his son Akhenaten. Between c. 1360–1332 BC.[20] The Amarna letters are unusual in Egyptological research, because they are written not in the language of ancient Egypt, but in cuneiform, the writing system of ancient Mesopotamia.[21]

At this point, around 180 or 190 years after Joshua's invasion, the Canaanites in northern Canaan under King Jabin ruling from Hazor re-asserted their dominance over Canaan (Judges 4:1–3). The Israelite leader Shamgar appears to have been battling with the Philistines in south Canaan at the time, and was either caught off-guard, or unable to prevent the rising Canaanite military, economic, and political power. (Non-biblical sources depict the King of Hazor affirming loyalty to the Egyptian pharaoh, and joining the cities of Qatna and Mari to create a trade route that linked Egypt to Ekallatum[22])

During this period, Heber the Kenite and his wife Jael separated from their Kenite brethren in the south, and went to live in northern Canaan (Judges 4:11).

After two decades of North Canaanite dominance in the region, the prophetess Deborah, who was now leading Israel, commissioned Barak the son of Abinoam as her commander to lead the Israelites against the Canaanites. (Judges 4:4–10) King Jabin's general Sisera learned that Barak was massing troops on Mount Tabor, situated between Sisera's base at Harosheth Haggoyim (believed to now be Ahwat) and the Canaanite capital at Hazor, and set out northward to meet him with 900 chariots. The weather became unfavorable to Sisera's army, the sky became clouded (Judges 5:4–5), and the river that his chariots needed to cross was flooded. While Sisera attempted to ford his chariots through the torrential Kishon River at a river crossing close to the then-Canaanite city of Taanach (Now known as Ti'inik) near Megiddo (Judges 5:19–21), Barak's 10,000 men went down southwestward from Mount Tabor (Judges 4:14) to give battle on the plain and rivers. Sisera left his chariot behind and escaped the battle on foot, while Barak pursued the chariots that were fleeing back to the Canaanite base at Harosheth Haggoyim (Judges 4:15–16)

By Jan de Bray, 1659

As Sisera fled on foot near Kedesh-Naphtali, he was passing by the tent of Heber the Kenite, and Jael offered to shelter him. Accepting her offer, he asked her to stand in the doorway of the tent, and to deny his presence to anyone who was chasing him. However, once he was asleep, Jael hammered a tent peg into Sisera's head, and he died. (Judges 4:17–22, Judges 5:24–30)

From that point onwards, Israel grew stronger and continued to press Hazor harder, until King Jabin's defeat. (Judges 4:23–24)

In the early Israelite Monarchy

Jael shows Sisera lying dead to Barak, James Tissot, 1896–1902

In the time of King Saul there were Kenites living in Amalek territory. When King Saul of Israel went to war against Amalek, the kindness which the Kenites had shown to Israel in the wilderness was gratefully remembered. "Ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt," said Saul to them (1 Samuel 15:6); and so not only were they spared by King Saul, but later in the war David also sent a share of the spoil that he took from the Amalekites to the civic elders of the cities of the Kenites.[13] (1 Samuel 30:26–31)

While the Kenite territory in the Negev had earlier been seen as a separate territory from the parts of the Negev held by Judah and the Simeonites, as the Israelites grew in power, the Negev would be mentioned in the later histories as single region, and an integral part of the Kingdom of Judah.

In the northern Negev, the city of Arad served as a key administrative and military stronghold for the Kingdom of Judah. It protected the route from the Judaean Mountains to the Arabah and on to Moab and Edom. It underwent numerous renovations and extensions.[23]

Archeology

Holy of holies of a temple at Arad, with two incense pillars and two stele, one dedicated to Yahweh, and one most likely to Asherah

The Kenites have been proposed as a reason for the appearance of Midianite pottery imported into the Negev of the Kenites during the 1200s and 1100s BC.[24] Petrographic studies carried out on some of the Timna wares led to the conclusion that they originated in the Hejaz, most probably in the site of Qurayya in Saudi Arabia.[25]

J. Gunneweg analyzed pottery samples with the help of The Hebrew University and the University of Bonn in 1991. The Midianite pottery found in the Negev was linked to a kiln discovered at Qurayya, Saudi Arabia, through Neutron Activation Analysis.[24]

The upper and lower areas of Tel Arad were excavated during 18 seasons by Ruth Amiran and Yohanan Aharoni between 1962 and 1984.[26][27] An additional 8 seasons were done on the Iron Age water system.[28]

Critical Scholarship

Kenite Hypothesis

According to the Kenite hypothesis proposed by the German writer Friedrich Wilhelm Ghillany, Yahweh was historically a Midian deity, and the association of Moses's father-in-law with Midian reflects the historical adoption of the Midianite cult by the Hebrews.[29][30][31] Moses apparently identified Jethro's concept of a god, Yahweh, with the Israelites' god El Shaddai.[29] The Kenite hypothesis supposes that the Hebrews adopted the cult of Yahweh from the Midianites via the Kenites. This view, first proposed by Friedrich Wilhelm Ghillany in 1862, afterward independently by the Dutch scholar of religion Cornelis Tiele in 1872 (Although his views on Buddhism, a current-day religion, have been discredited[32][33]), and more fully by the German critical scholar Bernhard Stade, has been more completely worked out by the German theologian Karl Budde;[34] it is accepted by the German Semitic scholar Hermann Guthe, Gerrit Wildeboer, H. P. Smith, and George Aaron Barton.[35] Another theory is that a confederation of regional tribes were connected to monotheistic ritual at Sinai.[36]

Some biblical scholars postulated that the Kenites were descendants of the mythical Cain.[29] The German orientalist Wilhelm Gesenius asserted that the name is kabbalistically (mystically) derived from the name Cain (קַיִן Qayin).[5]

The German orientalist Walter Beltz alternatively proposed that the story of Cain and Abel was not originally about the murder of a brother, but a myth about the murder of a god's child. In his reading of Genesis 4:1, Eve conceived Cain by Adam, and her second son Abel by another man, this being Yahweh.[37] Eve is thus compared to the Sacred Queen of antiquity, the Mother goddess. Consequently, Yahweh pays heed to Abel's offerings, but not to Cain's. After Cain kills Abel, Yahweh condemns Cain, the murderer of his son, to the cruelest punishment imaginable among humans: banishment.

Beltz believed this to be the foundational myth of the Kenites, a clan settled on the southern border of Judah that eventually resettled among the tribes of Judah. It seemed clear to him that the purpose of this myth was to explain the difference between the nomadic and sedentary populations of Judah, with those living from their livestock (pastoralists, not raising crops) under the special protection of Yahweh.[38]

Kenites as metalworkers

According to the critical interpretation of the Biblical data, the Kenites were a clan settled on the southern border of Judah, originally more advanced in arts than the Hebrews and from whom the latter learned much.[13]

Archibald Sayce has implied that the Kenites were a tribe of smiths.[8] However, by the end of his life, Sayce was considered an amateur rather than a specialist and was criticized for his lack of intellectual penetration and outdated opposition to the work of continental orientalists.[9]

Based on the biblical references, proposed etymological linkage of the name 'Kenite' to blacksmithing and other evidence, various scholars have sought to associate the Kenites with coppersmithery and metalwork.[39][40][41]

See also

  • The Kinaidokolpitai, identified as being the Kenites in the 100s and 200s AD.
  • The Midianites, Possible super-group to the Kenites
  • The Kenizzites, An ally of the Kenites in southern Canaan.
  • The Calebites, a clan with mixed Judah and Kenizzite heritage, on friendly terms with the Kenites.
  • The Ghassanids, the tribe to the south of the Kenites and the later Kinaidokolpitaites.
  • Judah, a large Israelite tribe allied with the Kenites in southern Canaan, later the Kingdom of Judah.
  • The Simeonites, an Israelite tribe allied with Judah, the Kenites lived in tents to their south and to their east.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Butin, Romain. "Cinites." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 27 December 2018Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. ↑ Nissim Amzallag,A Metallurgical Perspective on the Birth of Ancient Israel, Entangled Religions 12.2 (2021)
  3. ↑ Strong's Concordance #7017
  4. 1 2 Strong's Concordance #7014 Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine
  5. 1 2 Strong's Concordance #7014 Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine #7017
  6. ↑ Strong's Concordance #7013
  7. 1 2 Strong's Concordance #6969
  8. 1 2 in Sayce, A. H. (1899). "Kenites". In James Hastings (ed.). A Dictionary of the Bible. Vol. II. p. 834.
  9. 1 2 Gunn, Battiscombe (2004). "Sayce, Archibald Henry (1845–1933)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35965.
  10. ↑ I Samuel 30:29; comp. ib. 27:10.
  11. ↑ H. Cuvigny and C. J. Robin, "Des Kinaidokolpites dans un ostracon grec du désert oriental (Égypte)", Topoi. Orient-Occident 6–2 (1996): 697–720, at 706–707.
  12. ↑ Kalimi, Isaac. "Three Assumptions About the Kenites" , vol. 100, no. 3, 1988, pp. 386-393. https://doi.org/10.1515/zatw.1988.100.3.386, bottom of page 1.
  13. 1 2 3 "KENITES - JewishEncyclopedia.com". www.jewishencyclopedia.com.
  14. ↑ "Blue Letter Bible - H189 'ĕvî - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon". /www.blueletterbible.org.
  15. ↑ "Blue Letter Bible - H7552 reqem - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon". /www.blueletterbible.org.
  16. ↑ "Blue Letter Bible - H2354 ḥûr - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon". /www.blueletterbible.org.
  17. ↑ "Blue Letter Bible - H7254 reḇaʿ - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon". /www.blueletterbible.org.
  18. ↑ "Blue Letter Bible - H6698 ṣaûār - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon". /www.blueletterbible.org.
  19. 1 2 3 Yohanan Aharoni Kenite. In Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd Edition. Editor, S.D. Sperling. Gale Group, 2008
  20. ↑ Moran, p.xxxiv
  21. ↑ Shlomo Izre'el. "The Amarna Tablets". Tel Aviv University. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  22. ↑ Horowitz, Wayne, and Nathan Wasserman. “An Old Babylonian Letter from Hazor with Mention of Mari and Ekallātum.” Israel Exploration Journal, vol. 50, no. 3/4, 2000, pp. 169–74
  23. ↑ Rocca, Samuel (2010). The fortifications of ancient Israel and Judah, 1200-586 BC. Adam Hook. Oxford: Osprey. pp. 29–40. ISBN 978-1-84603-508-1. OCLC 368020822.
  24. 1 2 bible.ca - Midianite Pottery https://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-midianite-pottery.htm
  25. ↑ B. Rothenberg & J. Glass, 'The Midianite Pottery', in J.F.A. Sawyer & D.J.A. Clines (eds.) Midian, Moab and Edom: The History and Archaeology of Late Bronze and Iron Age Jordan and North-West Arabia, JSOT Supl. 24, Sheffield: JSOT Press., 1983, 65-124; P.J. Parr, 'Pottery of the Late Second Millennium B.C. from North West Arabia and its Historical Implications', in D.T. Potts (ed.) Araby the Blest. Studies in Arabian Archaeology, The Carsten Niebhur Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies Pub. 7, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1988, 73-89; ibid. 'Qurayya', in Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 5, 1992, 594-596; J.M. Tebes, 'Pottery Makers and Premodern Exchange in the Fringes of Egypt: An Approximation to the Distribution of Iron Age Midianite Pottery', Buried History 43 (2007), 11-26.
  26. ↑ Yohanan Aharoni and Ruth Amiran, "Excavations at Tel Arad: Preliminary Report on the First Season, 1962", Israel Exploration Journal, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 131-147, 1964
  27. ↑ Aharoni, Y. "Excavations at Tel Arad: Preliminary Report on the Second Season, 1963." Israel Exploration Journal, vol. 17, no. 4, 1967, pp. 233–49
  28. ↑ Talis, Svetlana. "Tel 'Arad: Final Report." Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel, vol. 127, 2015
  29. 1 2 3 Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.
  30. ↑ "Some scholars, on the strength of Ex., xviii, go even so far as to assert that it was from Jethro that the Israelites received a great portion of their monotheistic theology." Catholic Encyclopedia
  31. ↑ Joseph Blenkinsopp, The Midianite-Kenite Hypothesis Revisited and the Origins of Judah, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 33(2) 131-153 (2008). doi:10.1177/0309089208099253
  32. ↑ Blackburn, Anne M.; Samuels, Jeffrey (2003). "II. Denial of God in Buddhism and the Reasons Behind It". Approaching the Dhamma: Buddhist Texts and Practices in South and Southeast Asia. Pariyatti. pp. 128–146. ISBN 978-1-928706-19-9.
  33. ↑ Richard Hayes (1988). "Principled Atheism in the Buddhist Scholastic Tradition". Journal of Indian Philosophy. 16 (1): 1–8.
  34. ↑ Joseph Blenkinsopp, op. cit., pp. 132-133.
  35. ↑ George Aaron Barton (1859–1942), US Bible scholar and professor of Semitic languages. online Archived 2012-04-26 at the Wayback Machine
  36. ↑ Mondriaan, Marlene Elizabeth . "The rise of Yahwism : role of marginalised groups". Diss. University of Pretoria. 2010. p. 413. Retrieved 24 June 2016. WorldCat website
  37. ↑ Beltz 1990, p. 65.
  38. ↑ Beltz, Walter (1990). Gott und die Götter biblische Mythologie (in German). Berlin. ISBN 978-3-351-00976-2. OCLC 75166232.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  39. ↑ "YHWH: The Original Arabic Meaning of the Name - TheTorah.com". www.thetorah.com.
  40. ↑ YHWH: Origin of a desert God, Robert Miller II
  41. ↑ "Metallurgy, the Forgotten Dimension of Ancient Yahwism | Bible Interp".

Further reading

  • 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.
  • "Kenite". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009.
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