Numbers 24:22

22 Nevertheless, [the] Kenite will be burned; how long will Asshur keep you captive?"

Numbers 24:22 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 24:22

Nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted
Though they were so strongly fortified, and closely immured and surrounded with rocks and mountains, yet they should gradually waste away, as they were but few in Saul's time, ( 1 Samuel 15:6 )

until Ashur shall carry thee away captive;
Tiglathpileser, king of Assyria, when he carried captive the people of Syria, took these with them, ( 2 Kings 16:9 ) , though Jarchi thinks they were carried captives with the ten tribes, that is, by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria; and the Targum of Jonathan, by Sennacherib, king of Assyria; and others think by Nebuchadnezzar, who was sometimes reckoned a king of Assyria; taking them to be the same with the Amalekites, who were carried captives and returned with the two tribes.

Numbers 24:22 In-Context

20 And he looked [at] Amalek, {uttered} his oracle, and said, "Amalek [is] first of [the] nations, but his future [will be] forever ruin."

21 And he looked [at] the Kenites, {uttered} his oracle, and said, "Steady [is] your dwelling place; in the rock is your nest.

22 Nevertheless, [the] Kenite will be burned; how long will Asshur keep you captive?"

23 Again he {uttered} his oracle and said, "Woe, who will live when God establishes this?

24 The ships [will come] from the hand of the Kittim, and they will afflict Asshur and will afflict Eber; also he [will be] forever ruin."

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew "take"