The Kenites at Jabez

1 Chronicles 2:55

Like an intriguing mystery rife with consequence, uncertainty, and cryptic leads, the elusive backstory of the scribal community at Jabez begins with a single biblical reference in 1 Chronicles 2:55: “The families also of the scribes that lived at Jabez: the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Sucathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hammath, father of the house of Rechab.” With no other references to the town of Jabez in the entire Bible, this obscure verse might seem to be a hopeless dead end for tracking down the origins of Jabez and the Kenites who lived there. But when all the threads of information are carefully teased from this verse, they unravel a fascinating story of a location that became home to a people eventually commended by none other than the prophet Jeremiah as an example for God’s people to follow regarding faithfulness to God’s laws (Jeremiah 35).

The town of Jabez was likely founded by or renamed after the now-famous biblical character of the same name, who was a descendant of Judah and a distant relative of Judah’s great-grandson Hur (1 Chronicles 2:18-55; 4:1-10). Hur and his descendants appear to have founded or renamed a number of towns in Israel, as shown on the first map. Given that Judah and his brothers went down to Egypt with their families for four hundred years (Genesis 46-47; Exodus 12:40; Galatians 3:17), it is not clear exactly when these men, including Jabez, founded or renamed these towns. Most of these towns are mentioned in the book of Joshua in connection with the allotments of the tribes (Joshua 15:20-63), suggesting that they, along with Jabez, are at least as old as the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites around 1406 B.C.

The writer of 1 Chronicles 2:55 also mentions “the Kenites who came from Hammath.” The Kenites were not ethnic Israelites but instead were the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, and they accompanied the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land, eventually settling in the general area of Arad near the southwestern shore of the Dead Sea (Exodus 4:18; Judges 1:16). Some scholars have proposed that the Kenites were a clan of nomadic blacksmiths, based on linguistic studies of the term Kenite, but others have disagreed, since this role is never clearly associated with the Kenites in any ancient sources. Around 1215 B.C.–shortly before the Israelite judge Deborah called upon Barak to defend Israel against Jabin of Canaan and his commander Sisera, and nearly 200 years after the Kenites settled near Arad–a Kenite named Heber and his wife Jael moved away from the Kenites of Arad to the Oak of Zaanannim (literally, Elon-bezaanannim) near Kedesh-naphtali, Barak’s hometown. King Jabin of Canaan and Heber formed a treaty, so when Jabin’s commander Sisera was fleeing on foot from the battle with the Israelites, Sisera sought refuge in the tent of Heber and Jael, but Jael showed loyalty to Israel by killing Sisera in his sleep (Judges 4; also see “Deborah and Barak Defeat Sisera” map). It is possible that “the Kenites who came from Hammath” along the Sea of Galilee were descendants of Heber and Jael.

The next part of 1 Chronicles 2:55 reads that Hammath was the “father of the house of Rechab,” and though it might be tempting for readers today to gloss over this seemingly meaningless reference, the original readers of 1 & 2 Chronicles would have immediately recognized who the Rechabites were and understood why it was significant that they were associated with Hammath and, indirectly, with Jabez. Centuries earlier, around 841 B.C., the newly anointed King Jehu of Israel was on his way to destroy the family of King Ahab and the worshipers of Baal when he came across a Kenite named Jehonadab son of Rechab, and he invited him to join him. After arriving in Samaria, Jehu invited all worshipers and priests of Baal throughout Israel to offer a sacrifice at the temple of Baal. Once everyone was assembled, Jehu and Jehonadab ordered their men to put everyone in the temple to the sword (2 Kings 9-10; also see “Jehu Executes Judgment” map). Jehonadab later instructed his descendants, the Rechabites, to live in tents (a trait likely already characteristic of many Kenites–see Judges 5:24), build no houses, plant no vineyards or fields, and drink no wine. For centuries the Rechabites faithfully carried out Jehonadab’s instructions, and it seems that during this time many Kenites from Hammath, who were probably also Rechabites, relocated to the scribal community of Jabez. It seems likely, then, that many of them became scribes and perhaps gave up their characteristically nomadic lifestyle.

As mentioned earlier, the man Jabez was a relative of Hur, so it is likely that his town was located within the general region occupied by Hur’s descendants. Likewise, since Jabez was a scribal community, it makes sense that this town would have been located near Jerusalem and the Temple. First Chronicles 2:55 also mentions the clans of “the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Sucathites.” About eight miles south of Jerusalem there are ruins whose names may identify them as the locations of Jabez (Khirbat Abu Sebai`a) and the Shimeathite clan (Khirbat ash Sham`a).

By the time of Jeremiah, however, the political climate of Judah had changed significantly, and threats from the Babylonians and the Arameans led many Rechabites to relocate to the safety of Jerusalem and its walls (Jeremiah 35). This is also when the prophet Jeremiah tested whether the Rechabites would continue to obey the instructions of their ancestor Jehonadab, and he found them to be faithful. Jeremiah then commended the Rechabites as an example for Israel to follow regarding faithfulness to the instructions God had given them, and he prophesied that the Rechabites would never lack a descendant to stand before the Lord.

What became of Jabez and the Kenites after this is unclear. The only other mention made of them in Scripture besides 1 Chronicles 2:55 is found in Nehemiah 3:14, where it notes that a Rechabite named Malchijah was ruler of the district of Beth-hakkerem, and he headed up the efforts of those who repaired Jerusalem’s Dung Gate in 445 B.C. after Judeans returned from exile. Given that many Rechabites had moved to Jerusalem during Jeremiah’s time and that 1 Chronicles 2:55 is written in the past tense, it seems likely that Jabez was no longer home to Kenites after the exile. And since Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by the Babylonians, perhaps Jabez’s role as a scribal community had come to an end as well.

Author’s Note: This article and the accompanying maps grew out of research on the genealogies of the tribe of Judah, Jabez, the Kenites, and the Rechabites provided by Nancy Dawson (independent scholar and author of the book, All the Genealogies of the Bible, Zondervan Academic, 2023) and location identifications provided by Chris McKinney (Director of Research at Gesher Media, [email protected]) for Jabez, Salma, and the Shimeathites. I am grateful for their willingness to share their work.