Kenites

2 definitions found

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Kenites
     smiths, the name of a tribe inhabiting the desert lying between
     southern Palestine and the mountains of Sinai. Jethro was of
     this tribe (Judg. 1:16). He is called a "Midianite" (Num.
     10:29), and hence it is concluded that the Midianites and the
     Kenites were the same tribe. They were wandering smiths, "the


     gipsies and travelling tinkers of the old Oriental world. They
     formed an important guild in an age when the art of metallurgy
     was confined to a few" (Sayce's Races, etc.). They showed
     kindness to Israel in their journey through the wilderness. They
     accompanied them in their march as far as Jericho (Judg. 1:16),
     and then returned to their old haunts among the Amalekites, in
     the desert to the south of Judah. They sustained afterwards
     friendly relations with the Israelites when settled in Canaan
     (Judg. 4:11, 17-21; 1 Sam. 27:10; 30:29). The Rechabites
     belonged to this tribe (1 Chr. 2:55) and in the days of Jeremiah
     (35:7-10) are referred to as following their nomad habits. Saul
     bade them depart from the Amalekites (1 Sam. 15:6) when, in
     obedience to the divine commission, he was about to "smite
     Amalek." And his reason is, "for ye showed kindness to all the
     children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt." Thus "God is
     not unrighteous to forget the kindnesses shown to his people;
     but they shall be remembered another day, at the farthest in the
     great day, and recompensed in the resurrection of the just" (M.
     Henry's Commentary). They are mentioned for the last time in
     Scripture in 1 Sam. 27:10; comp. 30:20.
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Kenites, possession; purchase; lamentation