The Dispossessed People:
The Kenites were descendents of Kain/Cain. They inhabited the desert from southern Canaan to the mountains of Sinai. The name means "smiths". The Kenites are thought to be the same as (or related to) the Midianites since Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, was called both a Kenite (Jg 1:16) and a Midianite (Nm 10:29). The Kenites were shown favor by Israel because of the kindness they extended to the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt. In David's time the Kenites lived among the tribe of Judah.
18 In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
19 the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
21 He looked at the Kenite, and took up his parable, and said,
“Your dwelling place is strong.
Your nest is set in the rock.
The children of the Kenite, Moses’ brother-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people.
11 Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, even from the children of Hobab the brother-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far as the oak in Zaanannim, which is by Kedesh.
17 However Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.
“Jael shall be blessed above women,
the wife of Heber the Kenite;
blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
Achish said, “Against whom have you made a raid today?” David said, “Against the South of Judah, against the South of the Jerahmeelites, and against the South of the Kenites.”
and to those who were in Racal, and to those who were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to those who were in the cities of the Kenites,
The families of scribes who lived at Jabez: the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, the Sucathites. These are the Kenites who came of Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.
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