Judges 4:11

Now Heber the Kenite,.... A descendant of Kain, a principal man among the Midianites; the Targum calls him the Salmaean: [which was] of the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses; who came

Now Heber the Kenite, which was of the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses, had severed himself from the Kenites, and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh.

Heber; the husband of Jael, . The Kenite; of whom see ,22 Jud 1:16. Hobab; called also Jethro. See . From the Kenites; from the rest of his brethren, who lived in the wilderness of Judah, ; which removal is here mentioned, lest any should wonder to find the Kenites in this place. His tent, i.e. his dwelling, which probably was in tents, as shepherds used.

Judges 4:11 Now Heber the Kenite, [which was] of the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses, had severed himself from the Kenites, and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim, which [is] by Kedesh.Ver. 11. Had severed himself from the Kenites.] Who dwelt in the wilderness of Judah. Why he severed himself is not expressed; perhaps for better pasture’ s sake, or it may be for conveniency of contemplation; for it is said in the next words, that he pitched his tent into the plain - or oak, or grove, as the Septuagint and others render it - of Zaanam. Bernard confessed of himself, that what knowledge of the Scriptures he had attained unto, he had got it in the woods and fields by meditation and prayer, Nullos se aliquando magistros habuisse nisi quercus et fagos, but the oaks and beech trees.

(11) Heber the Kenite.—See Judges 1:16; Judges 3:31; Numbers 10:29. Which was of the children of Hobab.—Rather, had separated himself from Kain,from the children of Hobab. Nomadic settlements are constantly liable to send off these separate colonies. The life and movements of the Kenites resembled those of gipsies, except that they had flocks and herds. To this day a small Bedouin settlement presents very nearly the same aspect as a gipsy camp. The father in law of Moses.—Rather, the brother-in-law. The names for these relationships are closely allied. (See Note on Judges 1:16.) Pitched his tent.—(Genesis 12:8, &c.) The “tents” of the Bedouin are not the bell-shaped tents with which we are familiar, but coverings of black goats’ hair, sometimes supported on as many as nine poles. The Arab word for tent is beit, “house.” Unto the plain of Zaanaim.—Rather, unto the terebinth in Zaanaim. (See Joshua 19:33.) Great trees are often alluded to in Scripture. (Allon-Bachuth, Genesis 35:8, “the oak of Tabor”; 1 Samuel 10:3, “the oak of the house of grace”; 1 Kings 4:9, “the enchanters’ oak”; Judges 9:37; Joshua 24:26, &c.) This terebinth is again alluded to in Joshua 19:33; and the size and beauty of the terebinths on the hills of Naphtali, to which we find allusion in the blessing of Jacob, probably led to its adoption as the symbol of the tribe. “Naphtali is a branching terebinth” (Genesis 49:21). The word elon (àìåï) is constantly rendered “plain” by our translators (Judges 9:6-37; Genesis 12:6; Genesis 13:18; 1 Samuel 10:3, &c), because they were misled by the Targums and the Vulgate, which render it sometimes by vallis and convallis. They always render the cognate word allon by “oak,” and, in the looseness of common nomenclature, the “oak” and the “terebinth” were not always carefully distinguished. There is a large terebinth, called Sigar em-Messiah, six miles north-west of Kedes. The word Zaanaim (also written Zaannanim) means “wanderings,” or “unlading of tents,” with possible reference to this nomad settlement. The LXX. render it “the oak of the covetous,” because they follow another reading. In contrast with these “wandering tents” of the Bedouin, Jerusalem is called in Isaiah 33:20 “a tent that wanders not.” Ewald, following the Targum, makes it mean “the plain of the swamp,” and this is also found in the Talmud, which seems to indicate this place by Aquizah hak-Kedesh (“swamp of the holy place”). Which is by Kedesh.—Oaks and terebinths are still found abundantly in this neighbourhood; and such a green plain studded with trees would be a natural camping-ground for the Kenites.

Verse 11. Hohab the father-in-law of Moses] For a circumstantial account of this person, and the meaning of the original word חתן chothen, which is translated son-in-law in Genesis 19:14, see the notes on Exodus 2:15-16; Exodus 2:18; Exodus 3:1; Exodus 4:20; Exodus 4:24; Exodus 18:5.

11. Now Heber the Kenite] The verse explains, with a view to Judges 4:17 ff., how the Kenites, who belonged properly to southern Palestine (see on Judges 1:16), came to be in this region: the family of Heber had branched off (cf. Genesis 10:5; Genesis 10:32) from the main clan, and pitched their tents as far north as the Tree of Bezaanim (so read, as below), near Kedesh. The words even from the children of Hobab … Moses are a gloss on from Kain, probably derived from Judges 1:16 in its original form. It is impossible to reconcile the geographical data in the narrative as it stands. Heber’s encampment is here said to be near Kedesh, which must be Kedesh-naphtali, judging from Judges 4:17 b, where Heber is brought into relation with Jabin king of Hazor. But Judges 4:18 ff. require a position for the Kenite tents in quite a different quarter, near the battle-field by the Kishon, on the route of Sisera’s flight. Kedesh and Hazor are elements in the story of Jabin (see Judges 4:6 n.); while Jael, and from her we can hardly separate Heber, belongs to the story of Sisera; yet in Judges 4:17 b Heber is connected with Jabin. The difficulty may be relieved by supposing that the writer who combined the two stories, the writer responsible for making Sisera the general of Jabin’s army Judges 4:7, has here confused Kedesh in Naphtali with another place of the same name, and thus brought Heber into connexion with Jabin, though originally they had nothing to do with each other. Two alternatives as to the position of another Kedesh may be considered. (1) In 1 Chronicles 6:72 a Kedesh in Issachar is mentioned (but Joshua 19:20; Joshua 21:28 give Kishion), perhaps Tell Abϋ Ḳ ?udηs between Megiddo and Taanach; this would suit Judges 4:11; Judges 4:17 a, 18 ff. Near this must be placed the Tree of Bezaanim, doubtless a sacred tree, not necessarily an oak. The name occurs again in Joshua 19:33 (see RVm.), but not in such a way as to determine its situation; it is mentioned as lying on the boundary of Naphtali, and this raises a difficulty—it could not be described as ‘near Kedesh’ in Issachar (? Abϋ Ḳ ?udηs). (2) Bezaanim (so read for in Zaanannim), Βεσεμιείν Joshua 19:33 LXX. B, is identified by Conder (Tent Work, p. 68 ff.), followed by G. A. Smith (Hist. Geogr., p. 395f.), with Khirbet Bessϋm on the plateau W. of the lake of Tiberias; to the W. there lies a Kedesh, 12 m. from Tabor, on the lake; not far off is Dβmiyeh, perhaps the Adβmi of Jos 19:33. We thus obtain the required conditions; but the identifications are very uncertain, and if we accept them we must give up the identification of Harosheth with Ḥ ?βrithξyeh, which would then lie too far from the battle-field. There are difficulties in both explanations, fewest perhaps in (1).

Read, “Heber the Kenitc had severed himself from the Kenites which were of the children of Hobab,” etc., “unto the oak (or terebinth tree) in Zaanaim” (or Bitzaanaim, which Conder identifies with

11. The Kenite — On the Kenites, see note at chap. Judges 1:16. The Hebrew reads, And Heber the Kenite had separated himself from Kain, of the sons of Hobab.