Genesis 15:19, Numbers 24:22 and Judges 4:11 name the Kenites as the tribe of Kayin (Cain).
Bil'am's (Baalam's) list of Yisra-El's enemies in Numbers 24:17-22 gives the Kenites alongside Mo-Av, Edom, Se'ir and Amalek; which is perfectly logical. Se'ir was the original name for the land of Edom, and the city of Se'ir remained its capital. All the red-haired and dispossessed elder sons of the Yisra-Eli patriarchs (Kayin, Yishma-El, Esav) are identified with Edom (which means "red"), and the Amalekites, besides inhabiting the same region, are identified in Genesis 36:12 as a grandson of Esav who "is Edom". Balaam (properly Bilam in the Yehudit) set the Kenites "in mountain strongholds", which refers back to the aboriginal Chorites (Se'ir was said to have been a Chorite in Genesis 36:20) who inhabited the mountainous east of the Dead Sea.
Another group inhabited Sinai and were ruled by Chovav (חובב), Mosheh's father-in-law (Judges 4:11; 1 Samuel 15:5). Later descendants of Chamat (חמת) left Arad (ארד) and became Beney Rechav (Judges 1:16, 1 Chronicles 2:55).
However, all of these appear to belong to the land of Kena'an and are listed as Kenites only by error. The confusion arises because the two sound the same but are written differently; however, it is not impossible that the error is in the writing, and that the original Beney Kena'an (Canaanites) were Kenites, which would put quite another slant altogether on the dispossession of the elder sons - it is well worth investigating.
Other Kenites settled in Galilee. Their chief was Chever (חבר), whose wife Ya-El (יעל) killed Sis-Ra (סיסרא); Chever made an alliance with Yavin (יבין מלך-חצור) king of Chatsor (Judges 4:17), an enemy of Yisra-El. The Kenites of Arad joined with Amalek against Sha'ul (1 Samuel 15:6). Under David they had cities in the Negev (1 Samuel 27:10 and 30:29) called Kinah (קינה) and Kayin (קין), and amongst the various names for the Negev at that time is found Negev Ha Kenim (נגב הקינים). This gives the Kenites a three-fold identity, as city-builders as well as nomads and as enemies/murderers, all of which is reflected in the story of Kayin's killing of Havel in Genesis 4, and his punishment by dispossession.
The eponymous founder of the tribe was Kayin; but there is also Keynan (קינן), an antediluvian patriarch in Genesis 5:9 and 1 Chronicles 1:2.
The eponymous founder of the tribe was Kayin; but there is also Keynan (קינן), an antediluvian patriarch in Genesis 5:9 and 1 Chronicles 1:2.
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