The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the
Kadmonites.
] In this and the following verses ten nations are reckoned as
occupying the land of Canaan at this time, whereas only seven are
mentioned in the times of Moses and Joshua; and these three are
not among them, and seem before those times to have been extinct,
or were mixed with the other nations, and were no more distinct
ones; though Aben Ezra thinks these people had two names, and
Jarchi interprets them of the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites,
who shall be the inheritance of the children of Israel in future
times, according to ( Isaiah 11:14
) ; and so the Jerusalem Talmud F20, from whence he seems to
have taken it; and some are of opinion that the Midianites are
meant by the Kenites, since Jethro, Moses's father in law, who
was of Midian, is called the Kenite, as was also Heber, who was
of the same race, ( Judges 1:16 ) (
4:11 ) ; there
were Kenites near to the Amalekites in the times of Balaam, and
who dwelt among them in the times of Saul, ( Numbers
24:20 Numbers
24:21 ) ( 1 Samuel
15:6 ) ; as there were also some of this name that descended
from the father of the house of Rechab, or the Rechabites, who
were associates and proselytes to the people of Israel, (
1
Chronicles 2:55 ) ; the Kenizzites are supposed by some to be
the descendants of Kenaz, a grandson of Esau, ( Genesis
36:11 ) ; but then they must be so called here by
anticipation, since Kenaz was not now born, and rather then would
have had the name of Kenazites; besides, none of the land of the
children of Esau, at least of those that dwelt about Mount Seir,
was to be given to the children of Israel, ( Deuteronomy
1:5 ) ; could indeed the Edomites or Idumeans be intended, it
might be thought this had its accomplishment in the times of
David, and more especially when the Idumeans became Jews,
embraced their religion, and were one people with them, in the
times of Hyrcanus F21: the Kadmonites, or the Orientals,
were, as Bochart F23 very probably thinks, the Hivites,
who inhabited the eastern part of the land of Canaan about Mount
Hermon, and from thence might have their name, as they are in the
Jerusalem Targum called the children of the east; and hence came
the names of Cadmus and Hermione his wife, who were Hivites, and
the fable of their being turned into serpents, which the word
Hivites signifies.