New Findings help Confirm Brit-Am Researches
When the Children of Israel came out of Egypt and wandered in the Wilderness they were joined by Jethro the father-in-law of Moses. He did not come alone. Jethro was a Midianite. Even though the Midianites as a whole were destined to become the enemies of Israel (Numbers 3:12, Judges 6:3, etc) the clan of Jethro, known as the Kenites, joined themselves unto the Hebrews and identified with their cause.
Wikipedia tells us:
# The Kenites were coppersmiths and metalworkers. They played an important role in the history of ancient Israel. One of the most recognized Kenites is Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, who was a shepherd and a priest in the land of Midian. Judges 1:16 says that Moses had a father-in-law who was a Kenite... Certain groups of Kenites settled among the Israelite population... although the Kenites descended from Rechab maintained a distinct, nomadic lifestyle for some time.
# The Kenites journeyed with the Israelites to Canaan (Judges 1:16); and their encampment, apart from the latter's, was noticed by the pagan prophet Balaam. #
The Prophecy of Balaam when correctly translated (Numbers 21:21-22, see Rashi) says that the Kenites would be exiled with the Ten Tibes and RETURN with them in the End Times.
Numbers (ESV) 29:
9 And Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, 'We are setting out for the place of which the LORD said, "I will give it to you." Come with us, and we will do good to you, for the LORD has promised good to Israel.' 30 But he said to him, 'I will not go. I will depart to my own land and to my kindred.' 31 And he said, 'Please do not leave us, for you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you will serve as eyes for us. 32 And if you do go with us, whatever good the LORD will do to us, the same will we do to you.'
Note: It is generally accepted that "Hobab" is another name for Jethro.
A correspondent, "TubalCain," sent us the following observations that we have slightly edited:
Some of the Irish-Scottish Gaels appear to be descended from the Kenites. They also went along with Moses just as the Kenites did (Numbers 10:29-32)!
In the Irish "Book of Invasions" ("Leabhar Gabala") The Irish Ancestor, Nel, says to Moses 'Pharoah will come to us and oppress us in punishment for our friendship towards you ,and the welcome we have given you..." Moses said "come with us, with your whole people if you will, and remain permanently with us, and when we reach the land that God hath promised us, you will get a share in it".
TubalCain also quotes from:
"Phoenicians Ireland," 1833, by Joaquin Lorenzo Villanueva who was a Royal Bishop in Spain in the reign of Carol (Charles)-3 (r. 1759-1788). The work was translated and illustrated with Notes by Henry O'Brien, London 1833. [It is available for online viewing via Google Books].
Villaneuva based on place and ethnic names found Kenites in Northern Ireland, in Tyrone Armagh, Donegal, and part of Derry. The Irish sources refer to them as "Kini."
This is interesting in its own right. It also ties in with other information and sources that we have previously researched!
After the Israelites came out of Egypt, passed through the Wilderness, and conquered the Land we find the Kenites settling within the Territory of Judah:
Judges 1:
16 And the descendants of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad, and they went and settled with the people.
We also notice Kenites in the north.
Yael (Jael) the wife of Hebrew the Kenite in the time of the Prophetess, Deborah, killed Sisera the enemy of Israel who the Tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon were fighting against (Judges chapter 4).
One of the sub-groups of the Kenites were the Rechabites, descendants of Rechab. We find these both in the region of Judah and in the north in the area of the Ten Tribes.
Jehonadab the son of Rechab, who was a Kenite, assisted King Jehu of Samaria in eliminating the pagan priests of baal (2-Kings chapter 10).
Later, the Prophect Jeremiah relates how the Rechabites obeyed the command of their forefather and did not live in settled houses, nor did they drink wine. This had nothing to do with the Law of Moses but was a private injunction the clan had taken upon themselves.
Nevertheless, because of their faihtfulness to their ancestor they were promised a reward.
Jeremiah 35:
18 But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, 'Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done all that he commanded you, 19 therefore thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before me.'
We also find Kenites associated with a place named Hamath.
1-Chroniclers 2:
55 The clans also of the scribes who lived at Jabez: the Tirathites, the Shimeathites and the Sucathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.
The Modern Orthodox Jewish Commentary "Daat Mikra" quotes an opinion that "Hamath" in this case is a place in the territory of Naphtali (Joshua 10:35).
Nevertheless, there was a more important region named Hamath further to the north in what is now northern Syria but once was ruled over by Israel.
2-Kings 14:
23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 24 ....25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher....28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did, and his might, how he fought, and how he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah in Israel, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
This expression "Hamath to Judah in Israel" refers to the enclave known as Yadi in the north. "Yadi" is another way of saying "Yehudah."
This was associated with the descendants of Yair known as the IAARI. The Iaari are later recalled in Irish legend and in Irish and Scottish place-names. Irish tradition speaks of IAR (i.e. Yair) and relates him to both Judah and to NEMEDH whom we have shown to be a section of the Parissi in Gilead of Machir in Manasseh.
1-Chronicles 2:
23 Yair (Jair) the son of Segub, son of Hezron, son of Pharez, son of Judah, whose group had sixty cities amongst Gilead of Machir.
In the Biblical sources the name Yair was associated with both Manasseh and Judah. The section from Judah was related via Segub to Caleb who gave rise to the Chelubi. These were recorded by Ptolemy in the region of Yair and Yadi.
Judah was the son of Jacob son of Isaac son of Abraham. Judah begat Perets who begat Hetsron who begat Caleb (from one woman) and SEGUB from another lady, a daughter of Machir of Manasseh. Segub begat Yair. Segub was therefore a half-brother of Chaleb who was the unclde of Yair. Even though Yair was from Judah he stayed in the region of Machir. He established a group of settlements in the area known as the "Townships of Yair." Not long afterwards there appeared another leader from Manasseh also named Yair; and then later still another one. The other two also set up settlements of their own and gave them similar names to the first one. The different groups may have merged. They became a powerful entity whose realm reached to the Euphrates and beyond it. The Kingdom of Yadi was evidently an extension of the Iaari. Ptolemy mentioned the Chelubi in their area. Other sources speak of the Chalybes who were renowned as metal-workers. These too, evidently represented additional elements descendants of Caleb from Judah. The family relationship between Yair son of Segub and Caleb his uncle may have had something to do with this.
Adjoining Yadi were the Dananu in the Kingdom of Smal. At one stage Yadi and Smal were united.
In Ireland we find the Tribe of the goddess Dana referred to simply as Danaani by Vilaneuva in the same general area of Northwest Ireland in which VILANEUVA locates the Kenites.
VILLANEUVA (1700s CE) referred to the Dana of Ireland as 'Danaani.' They settled in Northwest Ireland. VILLANEUVA quotes from different Irish accounts. These place the Dana, before coming to Ireland, at first either in Northern Germany, or in North Britain. Before that they were traceable to,
'inhabitants of the city of Dan, at the foot of Mount Libanus, the boundary towards the north of the ten Israelite tribes.'
In early Jewish sources a tradition existed that the Children of Moses (from the Tribe of Levi) and the Rechabites were together with the Lost Ten Tribes (Midrash Yalkut Shimeoni, Song of Solomon, 905). They were believed to dwell in the Blessed Isles," i.e. in the "Islands of the Blessed Ones" which were in "the Ocean, the Great Sea", meaning the Atlantic Ocean. The Blessed Isles in Classical Terminology were identified with the British Isles especially Ireland. An early Aramaic document from the Christian Era even bears the title, "The History of the Sons of Jonadab, the Son of Rechab, who are in the Midst of the Ocean, the Great Sea... " Syriac MS B3. By 'the Ocean, the Great Sea,' the Atlantic Ocean was intended as explained in Rabbinical Commentaries (e.g. Aruch HaShalem). This corresponds with Classical Roman Literature. It is consistent with the Ten Tribes being assumed to be somewhere in the British Isles. Roman tradition also identified the Ten Tribes with the followers of Saturn who it was said had taken refuge on one of the Isles of Britain.
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