Numbers 24:22

22 But you Kenites will be burned up; Assyria will 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 Then Balaam saw Amalek and gave this message: "Amalek was the most important nation, but Amalek will be destroyed at last."

21 Then Balaam saw the Kenites and gave this message: "Your home is safe, like a nest on a cliff.

22 But you Kenites will be burned up; Assyria will keep you captive."

23 Then Balaam gave this message: "No one can live when God does this.

24 Ships will sail from the shores of Cyprus and defeat Assyria and Eber, but they will also be destroyed."