KADMONITES Eastern ;' . .
caw, ; Cantonal), one of the tribes which inhabited the country given in covenant promise to Abraham. The word Kadmoni occurs only in Gen. xv. 19. The Jerusalem Targum has in this passage, 'All the children of the East ' (Reland, p. 14i); and some of the Talmudists suppose the Nabatheans are meant (Id., p. 94) ; but this is impossible, since the Nabatheans were Ishmaelites, and the Kacl monites are mentioned as living in the time of Abmham. The country included in the promise cxtended from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates' (Gen. xv. 18). Of the tribes mentioned it would seem probable that the Kadmonites lived beyond the bounds of Canaan proper, that is, in Arabia or towards the Euphrates ; because, though the tribes of Canaan are often enumerated after wards, the Kadmonites are never alluded to. (See Exod. 17; xiii. 5 ; xxiii. 23 ; Deut. vii. ; Josh.
io, etc.) Perhaps, therefore, the Kadmonites, as the name would seem to imply, were a tribe, or number of tribes, living to the east ' of Canaan ; and the name would thus be equivalent to Belie Kedem, which occurs frequently in Bible history (A. V., people ' or children of the east :' Gen.
xxix. ; Judg. vi. 3. See BENEI-KEDEM). This is the opinion of Wells (Geog. p. 170), Kalisch (Gen., ad loc.), Ritter (Pal. una' 13S), and Lightfoot, wbo quotes the traditions of the Tat mudists (Ope2-a, ii. 429). Bochart advances a theory more curious than credible. The Cad rnonites were the same as the Hivites, and were so called because they dwelt under mount Hermon, which is the most easterly part of Canaan. Cad manite is thus identical with Hermanite; and hence he concludes that Cadmus was a Cadmonitc, and that his wife Hermione derived her name from her native place Hermon (Opera, i. 447).—J. L. P.