Judges 1:16

The text of this verse has been badly preserved, and some details of the restoration must remain doubtful.

the children of the Kenite, Moses" brother in law Marg. father in law, as O.T. usage requires. A proper name and the article (inserted by RV.) have fallen out before Kenite; LXX. cod. B restores Jethro, cod. A Hobab. The traditions differ as to the name of Moses" father in law; in J it is Hobab, Numbers 10:29, cf. ch.Judges 4:11; in E it is Jethro, Exodus 3:1; Exodus 4:18; Exodus 18:1. As this chapter is related to J, the former is preferable: the children of Hobab the Kenite. The traditions differ again as to the tribe to which Moses" father in law belonged; here and in Judges 4:11 he is called a Kenite (see the note below), but in Exodus 2:15 ff; Exodus 3:1; Exodus 18:1; Numbers 10:29 he is a Midianite. Common to both traditions is Moses" connexion by marriage with an Arab tribe. The verb went upin clause a is plur.; in clause b went and dweltare sing., and may be corrected to the plur. (with RV., LXX. B they dwelt). But the sing, verbs in clause b perhaps imply that the text originally ran And Hobab the Kenite … went up(sing.) … and went and dwelt, omitting the children of.

the city of palm trees i.e. Jericho, cf. Judges 3:13 n.and Deu 34:3, 2 Chronicles 28:15. The order in which the stages of the invasion are mentioned, Jerusalem, Hebron, Debir, Arad, Zephath, seems to indicate a movement starting from the E. and advancing towards the S.; hence Jericho, in the neighbourhood of Gilgal (Judges 2:1), may well have been the point of departure. On the theory that Judah came up from Kadesh in the southern desert, a -city of palm trees" has been looked for in the S., and Tamar, i.e. -palm tree" (Ezekiel 47:19; Ezekiel 48:28), in S.E. Palestine, is suggested as the place (Steuernagel, l.c. 75 ff.). The possibility that the Calebites and other clans which in time coalesced under the name of Judah, entered the land from the South has been noticed above, in Judges 1:10.

the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad in the Negeb of Arad. The wilderness, of Judah (Psalms 63 title, St Matthew 3:1, cf. Joshua 15:61) was the barren, rugged tract which descends from the Central Highlands eastwards to the Dead Sea. It is possible that the term may have included Arad = Tell -Arâd, 17 m. S.E. of Hebron (cf. on Judges 1:9); yet the description of the -wilderness of Judah" (properly in the E.) as within the Negeb (in the S.) is surprising. The text is certainly incorrect. The LXX. cod. A reads -into the desert of Judah, which is in the south, at the descent of Arad"; cod. B -into the desert which is in the south of Judah, which is at the descent of Arad." Both recensions of the LXX give the descent of Arad(cf. Joshua 7:5; Joshua 10:11 -the going down") instead of the Negeb of Arad; in the neighbourhood of Tell -Arâd the Judaean hills descend to the Wadi Seyyal on the E. and the Wadi el-Milḥ on the W., and thence to the plains. Following the LXX. cod. B we might restore -into the desert which is in the Negeb of Judah in the descent of Arad," which would give excellent sense; but we cannot feel sure that the LXX represents the original text. Other emendations are: -the wilderness of Judah which is in the descent of Arad" (Budde); -into the wilderness of Arad" (Moore, omitting the rest as partly gloss and partly correction of the Hebr.); -the Kenites went up from the city of palm-trees which is in the Negeb with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Arad" (Steuernagel). None of these is quite convincing.

with the people gives no sense; read with the Amalekite, following a group of cursive MSS. of the LXX which have -with the people Amalek"; this agrees with 1 Samuel 15:6; Numbers 24:20-22. -While the main Judaean stock settled on the arable land and in cities, and intermarried with the Canaanites, the Kenites, true to their nomadic origin, turned into the wilderness of Judah, and dwelt with the Amalekites" (G. A. Smith, Hist. Geogr., p. 277 f.). The Kenites, who were related to the Kenizzites (Genesis 15:19; Genesis 36:11; Genesis 36:15), seem to have been a branch of the Amalekites (Num. l. c.); they continued to dwell near Judah in the Negeb 1 Samuel 27:10, on friendly terms ib.1 Samuel 30:29. In Judges 4:11 we find a family of them settled in the N., in the territory of Naphtali.