KEDEMOTH (Mtrp).— A place apparently on the upper course of the Amon, assigned to Reuben, Jos 13", and a Levitical city, 21" (=1 Ch 6" [Heb. •"]). The ' wilderness of ^kedemoth * is men- tioned in Dt 2-' as the point from which messengers were sent by Moses to Sihon. The exact site is unknown, although it has been su^rrested that it may be the ruin Umm er-Ra^d^, N.E. of Dibon (DhibAn).
LiTERATimK. — Triatram, Land q^ 3/ oa6, 140 ff.; Baedeker-Socin, Pal.i 193; Dillm. on Nu 21'S; Driver on Dt 22"'; Buhl, OAP 208- C. R. CONDER.
KEDESH (piB).— 1. A city in the south of Judah (Jos 15=^) whose .site is uncertain. It is to be dis- tinguished from Kadesh-barnea (see Dillm. ad Inc.). 2. A city in Issachar, I Ch 6" [Heb."], where, however, Kedesh is not improbably a textual error for Kishion (wliich see) of the parallel passage Jos 21'». 3. See Kedesh-naphtali.
KEDESH-NAPHTALI CVnrj efi;? Jg 4«, also called 'Kedesh in Galilee,' Jos 21», 1 Ch6'^ called .simply • Kedesh' in Jos 12=» 19" 20', Jg i"- '«• ", 2 K 15-*, 1 Mac ll"-™).— A city of refuge (Jos 20'), and likewise a Levitical city (Jos 21^'^). In early times it was fortified like a number of other cities in that region (Jos 19"). Its full history would reveal, (1) a sacred city of the earliest inhabitants, (2) a stronghold of unusual importance, conquered by the Hebrews, conquered in tiirn by the I'luenicians, and a centre of great political iniluence down to the time when Titus encamped with his army before its walls. l'"rom its importance in many way.s, and the wonderful fertility of the region, it could never have sunk into a condition of poverty or insignili- cance.
It is noted in biblical history as the residence of Barak, and here the warriors of Zebulun and Naplitnli were as.sembled by Deborah and Barak before the battle with Sisera, and it was near the city that Sisera met his death ( Jg 4'- '° ; cf. Moore, ad lor.). During one of the many invasions of W. Asia by the Assyr. armies K., with many neighliouring cities, was captured by Tiglath- pileser (2 K lo^l. This was in the reign of Pekah, king of Israel, li.C. 734. In MaccaUean times, c. B.C. 150, it wius here that Jonathan routed Denu>tri\is, king of Syria, with his army (1 Mac !!'»-''; Jos. Ant. Xlll. v. 6). At the be- ginning of our era it belonged to Tyre, ami was hostile to the Galiltt'ans (Jos. Wars, II. xviii. 1 ; IV. ii. 3).
Strong foundations and walls still surviving at the modern villaj;e called fCeilcs, lying to the north- west of the Lake of Hflleli, indicate the char- acter of the ancient city, and among the remains •everal of the finest sarcophagi of thi; wunlry VOL. 11. — ?;
have been recovered, one of which is double, i.e made to contain two bodies under one lid, tho stone pillows in each loculus being at alternate enils. K. W!us situated on a small plain surrounded by gentle forest-covered hills from which there was a wiile outlook, and for picturesqnenes*. and beauty it liaU few equals among the citiei of Upprr Galilee.
LiTH!»TnaE.— Ou«rin. GatiUt, li 3480.; Boedekt-r-Socin, Pal' iMj Seetien, Jieiten, ii. 127; Robinson. B It. "» ii. 439; Men 11, Eait of Jordan, 121, SOfl; von de Velde, Xarral. ii. 4171.; Buhl, aAP2^t.; SWP voL L »h. iii. ; Moore, Jwlgu, 117
Selah Merrill. KEHELATHAH (ici-np, Ma/ctWdS, Luc. SIa«Xiia, Ceeldt/ui, Nu SS^-"- '"). — One of the twelve stations in the journeyings of the children of I.srael which are mentioned only in Nu 33. It follows Ila^eroth. Nothing is known ."iboat its position. The word ia from the same Hebrew root (''ip) as Makhelutk in v.'" [note that in the LXX the two words are very similar], and means ' assembly or congre- gation." A. T. Chapman.
KEILAH (r^Yv;)) the Garmito (1 Ch 4"). — See following art. and Genealooy.
KEILAH (1^17?, KteiXi, in Josephos KfXXa, the inhabitants being KiXXai-o/ or KiXXiTai). — This city is interesting principally for its connexion with the history of David. Shortly after he began to gather men around him he defeated the I'hili- stiues, who had been raidin<' Keilah, and robbing the threshing-floors. In Keilah he remained for a while. Thither came to him Abiathar, the repre- sentative of the priestly house of Ithamar, bring- ing the ephod, after Saul had slain the [jriests at Nob. Bj' consulting the ephod, David knew that Saul would come down to capture him, and that the men of Keilah, notwithstanding the service he had done them, would hand him over to Saul, and he therefore left the town (1 S 23'"). Apart from this incident, the OT mentions the nauie of Keilah in three other pas.sages. It is in one of the groups of cities assigned to Judah in the Shephelah (Jos 15-"). The two halves of the ' district of Keilah ' were represented in Nehemiah's wall-building work (Neh 3"- "). And in a genealogical fragment (1 Ch 4"), in connexion with certain other names that connect themselves with the geoijraphy, mention is made of 'the father of Keilau the Garmite' among the kindred of Caleb the son of Jeph- unneh.
In the time of David, Keilah was an important
Elace, a city of gates and bars (1 S 23'). Nenemiah ints at its importance in his time, by speaking of it as a douule district. And it was a very important place many centuries earlier, when Ebedtob and Su-yardata of the Tel el-Amama tablets wrote of it (under the name Killn) to the Kgy ptian king along with Gedor.Gath, and Rabbah (I'SuA, June 1SS8, Bab. Tab. from Tel el-Amarna, iii.), and again along with Gezer, Gath, Rabbah, an<l Jeru.saiem {Mittheilungen aus der Oriental- isclun Sammlungen, part iii. Nos. 100, 106).