Josephus gives the name Keveriotc (.Uif. v, 5,4); but in his notice of Saul's expedition (vi, 7, 3) he has TO TMV "SliKijUTthv tbvoc — the form in which he else- where gives that of the Shechcmites. In the Targums, instead of Kenites Ave find Shulmai (■^X'cbu,"), and the Talmudists generally represent them as an Arabian tribe (Lightfoot, Opera, ii, 420; \lfi\a.nA, Pahpst. p. 140). The same name is introduced in the Samarit.Yers.be- fore "the Kcnite" in Gen. xv, 19 only. Procopius de- scribes the Kenites as holding the country about Petra and ("ades (Kadesh), and bordering on the Amalekites (ad Gen. xv ; see Keland, p. 81). The name has long since disappeared, but probably the old Kenites are rep- resented l)y some of the nomad tribes that still pasture their flocks on the southern frontier of Palestine. The name of Jia-Kain (al)breviatcd from Bene el-K(iin) is mentioned In' Ewald (OV-.s-r/u'r/^/f, i, 337, note) as borne in comparatively modern days l)y one of the tribes of .the •desert : but little or no inference can be drawn from such similarity in names.
The most remarkable development of this people, ex-
emplifying most completely their characteristics — their Bedouin hatred of the restraints of civilization, their fierce determination, their attachment to Israel, together with a peculiar semi-monastic austerity not observable in their earher proceedings — is to be found in the sect of the Kechabite.s, instituted by Itechab, or Jonadab his son, who come prominently forward on more than one occasion in the later history. See IJeciiabite. The founder of this sub-family apjiears to have been a cer- tain Hammath (Auth.Yers. '■Hemath"),and a singular testimony is furnished to the connection which existed between this tribe of Midianitish -wanderers and the na- tion of Israel, by the fact that their name and descent are actually included in the genealogies of the great house of Jiulah (1 Chron. ii, 55). It appears that, what- ever was the general condition of the 3Iidianites, the tribe of the Kenites possessed a knowledge of the true God in the time of Jethro [see Hoisab] ; and that those families which settled in I'alestine did not afterwards lose that knowledge, but increased it, is clear from the passages which have been cited. — Kitto ; Smith. See Hengstenberg, Bileam, p. 192 sq. ; Schwarz, Pulestiiie, p. 218; Ewald, Gesch. der V. Israel, i, 337; ii, 31; Hitter, Erdkunde, xv, 135-138 ; also the monographs of A. Mur- ray, Comrn. de Kinms (Hamb. 1718) ; A. (i. Kerzig, BibL- hist. A hhundl. v. d. Kenitern (Chemnitz, 1798). See Mid-
lAXITE.
Ken'izzite (Heb. "^'Sp, Kenizzi', patronymic from KiiN.iz), the appellation of two races or families.
1. (Sept. Kfj'f^nToijYulg. Cenezai, Auth.Yers. " Ke- nizzites.") Dr. Wells suggests thatrthey were the de- scendants of Kenaz {Geocjr. i, 1G9). ]Mr. Forster adopts this view {Georjraphy of A ruhia, ii, 43), but it is clearly at variance with the scope of the IMosaic narrative. The words of the covenant made with Abraham were : '■ Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kenites, and the Ktrdzzites,^'' etc., plainh' impl\ing that these tribes then occupied the land, whereas Kenaz, the grand- son of Esau, was not born for a century and a half after the Kenizzites were thus noticed. Forster's idea that the promise to Abraham was proleptical cannot be en- tertained. Nothing further is known of their origin, which was probably kindred with that of the other tribes enumerated in the same connection. As the name sig- nifies hunter, it maj' possibly be a general designation of some nomade tribe. The sacred writer gives no infor- mation as to Avhat part of the country the}- inhabited, but, as they are not mentioned among the tribes of Ca- naan who were actually dispossessed by the Israelites (Exod. iii, 8 ; Josh, iii, 10 ; Judg. iii, 5), we may infer that the Kenizzites dwelt beyond the borders of those tribes. The whole country from Egypt to the Eui)hra- tes was promised to Abraham (Gen. xv, 18) ; the coun- try divided by lot among the twelve tribes extended only from Dan to Bocrsheba, and consequently by far the larger portion of the ''land of promise" did not then become " the land of possession," and, indeed, never was occupied by the Israehtes, though the conquests of Da- vid probably extended over it. Bochart supposes that the Kenizzites had become extinct between the times of Abraham and Joshua. It is more probable that they inhabited some part of the Arabian desert on the con- fines of Syria to which the expeditions of Joshua did not reach (see Bochart, Opera, i, 307). This is the view of the Talmudists, as may be .seen in the quotation from their writings given by Lightfoot {Opera, ii, 429). — Kitto.
2. (Sept. KiPfZatoQ, but ^taKtyiopifffifvoc in Numb.; Yulg. Cenezmis, Auth. Yers. " Kenezite.") An epithet applied to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh (Numb, xxxii, 12; Jo.sh. xiv. C, 14); probably designating his twofold relationship withKEXAz, 2 (see further in Eitter's Krd- hinde, XV, 138). " Ewald maintains that Caleb really be- longed to the tribe of the Kenizzites, and was an adopt- ed Israelite {Isr, Gesch. i, 298). Prof. Stanley {Lectures
KENNADAY
41
KENNEDY
on Jewish Church, i, 2G0) holds the same view, and re- gards Caleb as of Idumaian origin, and descended from Kenaz, Esau's grandson. But a careful study of sacred history proves that the Edomites and Israelites had many names in common ; and the patronymic Kenizzite is derived from an ancestor called Kenaz, whose name is mentioned in Judg. i, 13, and who was perhaps Caleb's grandfather" (Kitto). See Caleb.