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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

KENITES

One of 10 tribes living in Canaan during Abraham’s time (Gn 15:19). The Kenites, however, are not included in the parallel statement from Moses’ day (Ex 3:17). The apparent reason for this is a more favorable relationship with Israel by that time. That Israel continued to accord special treatment to the Kenites is clear from 1 Samuel 15:6. When Saul mobilized his army against the Amalekites, he gave a warning before the attack. This kindness seems to reflect the aid given by Hobab, son of Reuel, who was their guide in the wilderness (Nm 10:29-31).

By the time of Barak the judge and Deborah the prophetess, there was a branch of the Kenites in Galilee. Judges 4:11 says, “Now Heber the Kenite, a descendant of Moses’ brother-in-law Hobab, had moved away from the other members of his tribe and pitched his tent by the Oak of Zaanannim, near Kedesh” (NLT). This Kedesh was in Galilee and was not the Kadesh-barnea of the Sinai wilderness.

Since the name Kenite is closely related to the word for (copper) smith in both Arabic and Aramaic, it may be that this tribe was something of a trade guild of wandering smiths who offered their skills where needed. Nomadic tribes of metalworkers were known to have moved about in the ancient Near East from the early second millennium BC. Such artisans are found among the party of Asiatics pictured on the Beni-Hasan tomb in Egypt, dating from the 19th century BC. In modern times at least one Arab tribe of gypsylike traveling smiths or tinkers has followed the trade routes in search of employment.

In light of the biblical information about the Kenites, the major question is the influence this seemingly ubiquitous tribe had on the life and culture of the Hebrews. The least likely suggestion is that Moses was dependent on his Kenite/Midianite father-in-law, Jethro, for making the bronze serpent (Nm 21:4-9). However, it is likely that the Kenites, if indeed expert in metallurgy, may have taught this technology to God’s covenant people to help them achieve settled nationhood. More serious is the suggestion that Jethro (also called Reuel), “priest of Midian,” was the source of Moses’ theology—the monotheistic religion of Jehovah (or Yahweh). This suggestion can be countered from two angles—one biblical and the other historical.

The biblical reference specifically stating that Jehovah was the personal God known to godly men from the earliest generations is Genesis 4:26: “And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enosh. Then began men to call upon the name of Jehovah” (asv). Equally significant is the fact that Moses’ mother (or ancestress, as some would conclude) bore the name Jochebed, “Jehovah is glory.” Obviously, then, Moses did not first hear of Jehovah from his father-in-law during his exile in the wilderness of Midian. The historical evidence indicates that no cultic sites (worship centers) other than the mobile tabernacle were located in Sinai or anywhere south of Beersheba. It was south of that city that the God who earlier revealed himself to the patriarchs at various localities in the north announced to Moses that he was none other than the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob (Ex 3:6). The Israelites never returned to Sinai for worship, even though God had first revealed himself to them there.

Jethro clearly learned of Jehovah through Moses, not vice versa. Those Kenites who became part of the family of God’s people did so by adoption, by introduction through Israel’s witness into the covenant relationship with the God of Jacob.

Interestingly, 1 Chronicles 2:55 includes the Kenite Hammath, father of the Recabites, within the genealogy of Judah’s tribe, into which they had been assimilated. David also links the Kenites with other inhabitants of southern Judah (1 Sm 27:10). Jeremiah 35 states that the Recabites preserved the simple nomadic life of their ancestors down to the time of the Babylonian captivity. This, too, conforms to what is known about the nature of the Kenites.