Numbers 24:22

22 But the Kenites will be destroyed when Assyria takes 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 looked over toward the people of Amalek and delivered this message: “Amalek was the greatest of nations, but its destiny is destruction!”

21 Then he looked over toward the Kenites and delivered this message: “Your home is secure; your nest is set in the rocks.

22 But the Kenites will be destroyed when Assyria takes you captive.”

23 Balaam concluded his messages by saying: “Alas, who can survive unless God has willed it?

24 Ships will come from the coasts of Cyprus ; they will oppress Assyria and afflict Eber, but they, too, will be utterly destroyed.”

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew Asshur; also in 24:24 .