And Saul said unto the Kenites
Who were of the posterity of Jethro the father-in-law of Moses,
or related to him; why Josephus
go, depart,
get ye down from among the Amalekites;
for though some of these people came with Israel into the land of
Canaan, and were first at Jericho, and then came into the
wilderness of Judah, ( Judges 1:16 ) and were
in other tribes also; yet as they removed from place to place,
and from country to country, for the convenience of their flocks
and herds, they dwelling in tents, might come into the country of
Amalek and pitch there, and as they chose to dwell in rocks, and
the caverns of them, to be near their flocks and herds in the
valleys, they are called upon to get down from thence, see (
Numbers
24:21 )
lest I
destroy you with them;
they dwelling among the Amalekites, might perish with them; and
especially as the Amalekites, upon their being routed, would
naturally flee to the rocks, hills, and mountains, where these
people had their tents, they would be in the greater danger of
being destroyed with them, unless they removed:
for ye
showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came
up
out of Egypt;
as Jethro, by the advice he gave to Moses to appoint proper
officers in Israel, and Hobab, by being eyes to the people, in
conducting them through the wilderness, and accompanying them to
the land of Canaan:
so the
Kenites departed from among the Amalekites;
took the advice of Saul, and removed and pitched their tents,
elsewhere.
F24 Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 7.) sect.
3.