KENEZITE OR KENIZZITE opp, 'hunter ;' licycia(oc; Cenezieol). 1. One of the ancient tribes which inhabited the country given in covenant-pro mise to Abraham (Gen. xv. 19). The sacred writer gives no information as to what part of the country they inhabited ; but as they are not men tioned among the tribes of Canaan who were actually dispossessed by the Israelites (Exod. 8 ; Josh. iii. to ; Judg. 5), we may infer that the Kenizzites dwelt beyond the borders of those tribes. The whole country from Egypt to the Euphrates was promised to Abraham (Gen. xv. IS); the country divided by lot among the twelve tribes extended only from Dan to Beersheba, and consequently by far the larger portion of the land of promise ' did not then become the land of pos session,' and indeed never was occupied by the Israelites, though the conquests of David probably extended over it. Bochart supposes that the Keniz zites had become extinct between the times of Abraham and Joshua. It is more probable that they inhabited some part of the Arabian desert on the confines of Syria to which the expeditions of Joshua did not reach (see Bochart, Opera, i. 307).
This is the view of the Talmudists, as may be seen in the quotation from their writings given by Light foot (Opera, ii. 429). Forster's theory that the Kenizzites were descended from Kenaz, Esau's grandson, is altogether untenable (see, however, Geography of Arabia, ii. 43)• 2. A patronymic of Caleb (Num. xxxii. 12 ; Josh. xiv. 6). In the A. V. this is written Kenezile, but it ought to be .1(enizzite (1:p). Ewald main .. .
tains that Caleb really belonged to the tribe of the Kenizzites, and was an adopted Israelite (Isr. Gesch. 298). Prof. Stanley (Lectures on Yewislz Church, p. 26o) and Lord Arthur Hervey (Smith's Diet. of the Bible, s. v. Caleb) hold the same view, and regard Caleb as of hiumeean origin, and de scended from Kenaz, Esau's grandson. But a careful study of sacred history proves that the Edomites and Israelites had many names in com mon ; and the patronymic Kenizzite is derived from an ancestor called Kenaz, whose name is mentioned in Judg. 13, and who was per haps Caleb's grandfather. (See Art. CALEB). j. L. P.