And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father in
law
The posterity of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses; for though
Jethro returned to his own country, after he had paid a visit to
Moses in the wilderness, yet Hobab his son, at the persuasion of
Moses, travelled with him and Israel through the wilderness, and
went with them into Canaan, at least some of his descendants, and
settled there, some in one part of the land, and some in another,
of whom we read in several places of Scripture; they continued to
the days of Jeremiah, and then went by the name of Rechabites, so
called from Rechab, a descendant of Jethro: these
went up out of the city of palm trees;
from the city of Jericho, as the Targum, so called from the great
number of palm trees which grew near it, see ( Deuteronomy
34:3 ) . This is to be understood not of the city itself,
that was utterly destroyed by Joshua, and the rebuilding of it
was forbidden under a curse, but the country adjacent, the valley
in which it stood, which was set with palm trees; here was a
grove of palm trees F13, and the garden of balsam, which
grew nowhere else, as Strabo F14 says; and who also observes,
that here was a royal palace in his time; this belonged to Herod
king of Judea in the times of Augustus Caesar, to whose palm tree
groves there Horace F15 refers. Here the Kenites first
settled when they came first over Jordan with Joshua, being a
most pleasant and delightful place, and suitable to such persons
who dwelt in tents, as they did, and answered to the promise of
Moses to Hobab, ( Numbers
10:29 ) ; and here it seems they had remained to this time:
and now they left it, and came
with the children of Judah into the wilderness of
Judah;
which was also a convenient place for the habitation of such
persons, who loved a solitary life. Perhaps the Canaanites about
Jericho might be troublesome to them, and therefore chose to stay
no longer, there; or, having a peculiar affection for the tribe
of Judah, they chose to be within their lot; and the rather, as
they were a warlike and valiant tribe, they might expect the
greater safety and protection among them:
which [lieth], in the south of Arad;
that is, which wilderness of Judah lay there, of which name there
was a country or city, see ( Numbers 21:1
) ( Joshua
12:14 ) ; and here some of them dwelt to the times of Saul,
the Amalekites then having got possession of the southern parts,
which they infested and were troublesome to, see ( 1 Samuel
15:6 ) ( 30:1 ) ;
and they went and dwelt among the people;
of the tribe of Judah, near some of the cities which were in the
wilderness; of which see ( Joshua 15:63
) .