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accompanied them in their march as far as Jericho (Judges 1:16), and then returned to their old haunts among the Amalekites, in the desert to the south of Judah. They sustained afterwards friendly relations with the Israelites when settled in Canaan (Judges 4:11, 17-21; 1 Samuel 27:10; 30:29). The Rechabites belonged to this tribe (1 Chronicles 2:55) and in the days of Jeremiah (35:7-10) are referred to as following their nomad habits. Saul bade them depart from the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:6) when, in obedience to the divine commission, he was about to “smite Amalek.” And his reason is, “for ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” Thus “God is not unrighteous to forget the kindnesses shown to his people; but they shall be remembered another day, at the farthest in the great day, and recompensed in the resurrection of the just” (M. Henry’s Commentary). They are mentioned for the last time in Scripture in 1 Samuel 27:10; comp. 30:20.
•KENIZZITE (1.) The name of a tribe referred to in the covenant God made with Abraham (Genesis 15:19). They are not mentioned among the original inhabitants of Canaan (Exodus 3:8; Joshua 3:10), and probably they inhabited some part of Arabia, in the confines of Syria.
(2.) A designation given to Caleb (R.V., Numbers 32:12; A.V., Kenezite).
•KERCHIEF mentioned only Ezekiel 13:18, 21, as an article of apparel or ornament applied to the head of the idolatrous women of Israel. The precise meaning of the word is uncertain. It appears to have been a long loose shawl, such as Oriental women wrap themselves in (Ruth 3:15; Isaiah 3:22). Some think that it was a long veil or head-dress, denoting by its form the position of those who wore it.
•KERIOTH cities. (1.) A town in the south of Judah (Joshua 15:25). Judas the traitor was probably a native of this place, and hence his name Iscariot. It has been identified with the ruins of el-Kureitein, about 10 miles south of Hebron. (See HAZOR [4]).
(2.) A city of Moab (Jeremiah 48:24, 41), called Kirioth (Amos 2:2).
•KESITAH (Genesis 33:19, R.V., marg., a Hebrew word, rendered, A.V., pl. “pieces of money,” marg., “lambs;” Joshua 24:32, “pieces of silver;”