Hebrew word · H7017

קֵינִי

keini

Kenite

A gentilic, meaning a name for a people: 'Kenite'. It probably derives from Qayin (Cain) as a group ancestor (Num 24:22 calls the people 'Kain'). In Aramaic and Arabic the related root means 'smith, metalworker', which leads many to think the Kenites were itinerant metalworkers.

Appears 12 times in 10 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Ancestors of Heber (H2268H) or Hobab (H2246), first mentioned at Gen.15.19

Also named: qa.yin (קַ֫יִן "Kenite" H7014)

§ Kenite = "smiths"

the tribe from which the father-in-law of Moses was a member and which lived in the area between southern Palestine and the mountains of Sinai

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 1 Chronicles 2:55

Range of meaning

A gentilic, meaning a name for a people: 'Kenite'. It probably derives from Qayin (Cain) as a group ancestor (Num 24:22 calls the people 'Kain'). In Aramaic and Arabic the related root means 'smith, metalworker', which leads many to think the Kenites were itinerant metalworkers.

Against the English

All English versions transliterate it as 'Kenites', which is fine. What English readers miss is who the Kenites were.

Used elsewhere in the period

Kenites appear in Gen 15:19 among the peoples of Canaan. Moses' father-in-law is 'the Kenite' (Judg 1:16; 4:11). Kenites settled with Judah in the Negev of Arad (Judg 1:16). Jael is the wife of Heber the Kenite (Judg 4–5). Saul spares the Kenites for their kindness to Israel (1 Sam 15:6). David sends spoil to 'the cities of the Kenites' (1 Sam 30:29).

From the study of Judges 1:16

Range of meaning

Gentilic, meaning a word for membership in a people: "Kenite", one of the people of Qayin. The Kenites appear as a non-Israelite clan of the southern steppe (Genesis 15:19; Numbers 24:21–22; 1 Samuel 15:6; 27:10; 30:29). Some branches lived further north (Heber the Kenite, Judges 4:11, 17). In 1 Chronicles 2:55 the Rechabites are traced to Kenite stock. The name Qayin is related to words for "smith" in Aramaic and Arabic, so many scholars think the Kenites were, at least in origin, travelling metalworkers.

Against the English

English "the Kenite" reads like a fixed tribal label. The Hebrew here is oddly bare ("sons of Qeni" with no article), which is why some translations and scholars supply a personal name.

Used elsewhere in the period

The clan name Qayin is used for the Kenites in Numbers 24:22 and Judges 4:11. A link with metalworking is suggested by the copper-mining zone of the Arabah, the area of Midianite and Kenite movement, and by the smith Tubal-cain in Cain's line (Genesis 4:22). That link is a scholarly inference, not something stated in the text. The "Kenite (or Midianite) hypothesis" holds that Israel's worship of YHWH had roots among Moses' in-laws (compare Exodus 18). It remains debated.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 15:19 הַקֵּינִי֙ the Kenite[s]

    the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 24:21 הַקֵּינִ֔י the Kenite[s]

    Next he saw the Kenites and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Your dwelling place is secure, and your nest is set in a cliff.

Judges · 5

  1. Judges 1:16 קֵינִי֩ [the] Kenite

    Now the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenite, went up with the men of Judah from the City of Palms to the Wilderness of Judah in the Negev near Arad. They went to live among the people.

    Here: A clan name, "Kenite", tied to the name Qayin (Cain). It is unusual without the article ("the"), which is one reason many scholars think a personal name (Hobab?) has fallen out just before it.

  2. Judges 4:11 הַקֵּינִי֙ the Kenite

    Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent by the great tree of Zaanannim, which was near Kedesh.

  3. Judges 4:17 הַקֵּינִ֑י הַקֵּינִֽי׃ the Kenite

    Meanwhile, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

  4. Judges 5:24 הַקֵּינִ֑י the Kenite

    Most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women.

1 Samuel · 4

  1. 1 Samuel 15:6 הַקֵּינִ֡י קֵינִ֖י the Kenite[s], [the] Kenite[s]

    And he warned the Kenites, “Since you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt, go on and get away from the Amalekites. Otherwise I will sweep you away with them.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.

  2. 1 Samuel 27:10 הַקֵּינִֽי׃ the Kenite[s]

    who would ask him, “What have you raided today?” And David would reply, “The Negev of Judah,” or “The Negev of Jerahmeel,” or “The Negev of the Kenites.”

  3. 1 Samuel 30:29 הַקֵּינִֽי׃ the Kenite[s]

    to those in Racal and in the cities of the Jerahmeelites and Kenites;

1 Chronicles · 1

  1. 1 Chronicles 2:55 הַקִּינִ֣ים the Kenites

    and the clans of the scribes who lived at Jabez—the Tirathites, Shimeathites, and Sucathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.

    Here: The Kenites were a non-Israelite people connected with Moses' father-in-law who lived among Judah in the southern desert, the Negev. Naming the scribal clans as Kenites shows that outsiders had been absorbed into Judah.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.