a seat · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
puttest
וְשִׂ֥יםve.Sim
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · conjunction + verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute
nest
קִנֶּֽךָki.Ne.cha
H7064
a nest (as fixed) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
rock
בַּסֶּ֖לַעba.Se.la'
H5553
a craggy rock · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 15:19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
Judges 1:16 And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness o…
Job 29:18 Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 24:15–end
The office of prophets was both to bless and to prophesy in the name of the Lord. Balaam, as a prophet, per force had blessed Israel; here he foretels future events.
I. His preface is much the same as that, Num 24:3, Num 24:4. He personates a true prophet admirably well, God permitting and directing him to do so, because, whatever he was, the prophecy itself was a true prophecy. He boasts, 1. That his eyes are open (Num 24:15), for prophets were in old time called seers (Sa1 9:9), because they must speak what they had seen, and therefore, before they opened their lips, it was necessary that they should have their eyes open. 2. That he has heard the words of God, which many do that do not hee…
Kenites . . . nest in a rock--Though securely established among the clefts in the high rocks of En-gedi towards the west, they should be gradually reduced by a succession of enemies till the Assyrian invader carried them into captivity (Jdg 1:16; Jdg 4:11, Jdg 4:16-17; also Kg2 15:29; Kg2 17:6).
John Gill on Numbers 24:21
And he looked on the Kenites,.... Not the family and posterity of Jethro, as Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Abendana; for they were not a people by themselves, but were now encamped with Israel, and went with them into the land of Canaan, and were not carried captive with the ten tribes, though some might that dwelt in Naphtali, Judges 9:4, for they after that remained with Judah under the name of Rechabites, Jeremiah 35:2 and returned with the two tribes, being carried captive with them, 1 Chronicles 2:55 but they were a people, though of the same original and family Jethro descended from, which dwelt near, and afterwards among the Amalekites, and therefore were seen by Balaam, and taken notice of…
And he looked on the Kenites. I have not yet referred to the sense in which Balaam is said to have seen the Kenites, as well as the other nations; and now, also, I should refrain from doing so, if some did not attribute it to prophetical vision, in which opinion I cannot agree: for Moses relates as a matter of history that Balaam turned his face in the directions in which they respectively lived: and, although he did not actually see the people themselves, the sight of the place in which they dwelt was sufficient for the purpose of prophecy.
By the Kenites I understand the Midianites, who were contiguous to the Amalekites; for it is altogether unreasonable to refer the name to the descendan…
The Church Fathers
Kenite means "possession." And who are those who possess present things but the ones who are skilled in the study of secular wisdom? They are those who, by their study, truly build themselves a sturdy dwelling, if they make themselves into little children with humility and are nourished by Christ's grandeur. They sense that they are weak, and [they] place their trust in the exalted humility of the Redeemer they have acknowledged and foster that trust. They do not seek out the heights. They transcend, by the flight of their hearts, everything that is passing. Let us ponder the holy man, how he builds his nest on the rock. For he says, "our conversation is in heaven," and "who revived and made us be seated in heaven." This holy man has his nest in the cliffs, because he took counsel on high. He does not want to cast his mind down into the depths; he does not want to dwell in the depths through dejected human conversation. Paul was imprisoned when he attested that he was seated with Christ in heaven. He was where he had fixed his mind, already afire, and not where sluggish flesh retained him by force.
Hence is that which is said to the Cinite, by Balaam when prophesying, Strong indeed is thy dwelling place, but if thou hast placed thy nest in the rock. For Cinite is interpreted 'possessor.' And who are they who possess present things, except those who are skilled in the ability of worldly wisdom? And they truly build themselves therein a strong dwelling place, if becoming, by humility, as little children in their own sight, they are nourished in the sublimity of Christ; if they feel themselves to be weak, and give up the confidence of their mind, to be cherished by the lofty humility of the Redeemer Who is known to them; if they seek not after things below; if they pass over, with the flight of their heart, every thing which passes away. Let us behold the eagle building itself the nest of hope in high places. He says; Our conversation is in heaven. And again; Who hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in heavenly places. He has his rest in high places, because in truth he fixes his thought on things above. He wishes not to degrade his mind to the lowest objects, he wishes not, by the baseness of human conversation, to dwell in things below. Paul was, perhaps, then confined in prison, when he was witnessing that he was sitting together with Christ in heavenly places. But he was there, where he had already fixed his ardent mind, not there, where the sluggish flesh was still necessarily detaining him.
Dictionary and topics
Cain — A possession; a spear. (1.) The first-born son of Adam and Eve (Gen. 4). He became a tiller of the ground, as his brother Abel followed the pursuits of pastoral life. He was “a sullen, self-willed,…
Cave — There are numerous natural caves among the limestone rocks of Syria, many of which have been artificially enlarged for various purposes. The first notice of a cave occurs in the history of Lot (Gen.…
Kenite, The — and Ken’ites (smiths), The, inhabited the rocky and desert region between southern Palestine and the mountains of Sinai, east of the Gulf of Akabah. They were a branch of the larger nation of…
Birds · Make their nests: In clefts of rocks — Make their nests: In clefts of rocks
Fortresses · Places strong by nature — Places strong by nature
Kenites · 1. A — 1. A
Kenites, The · Dwelt in strongholds — Dwelt in strongholds
Nest · Bird’s, in a rock — Bird’s, in a rock
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The third saying relates to the Kenites, whose origin is involved in obscurity (see at Gen 15:19), as there are no other Kenites mentioned in the whole of the Old Testament, with the exception of Gen 15:19, than the Kenites who went to Canaan with Hobab the brother-in-law of Moses (Num 10:29.: see Jdg 1:16; Jdg 4:11; Sa1 15:6; Sa1 27:10; Sa1 30:29); so that there are not sufficient grounds for the distinction between Canaanitish and Midianitish Kenites, as Michaelis, Hengstenberg, and others suppose. The hypothesis that Balaam is speaking of Canaanitish Kenites, or of the Kenites as representatives of the Canaanites, is as unfounded as the hypothesis that by the Kenites we are to understand…
The Kenites, a desert people who occupied some of the same regions as the Amalekites and Midianites, would be destroyed by Assyria. Moses married a Kenite (Judg 1:16; 4:11; cp. Num 10:29-32), and the Kenites remained mostly friendly with Israel thereafter (e.g., 1 Sam 15:6; 27:10; 30:27-30).
Rashi on Numbers 24:21
וירא את הקיני AND HE SAW THE KENITES — Because the Kenites were settled near the Amalekites — just as it is stated, (I Samuel 15:6) “And Saul said unto the Kenites, [Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites]’’ — he mentioned them immediately after the Amalekites. He beheld the greatness of the descendants of Jethro, of whom it is said, (I Chronicles 2:55) “The תרעתים, שמעתים, שוכתים" — [These are the Kenites] (see Sifrei Bamidbar 78:1 on Numbers 10:29; Sanhedrin 104a, 106a, Sotah 11a).
איתן מושבך FIRM IS THY DWELLING PLACE — “I wonder whence you merited this; for were you not with me in the advice we gave Pharaoh (Exodus 1:10): ‘Come, let us deal wisely with them’, and now you hav…
But the prophecy makes mention of the Kenite after Amalek, saying: "And seeing the Kenite, taking up his parable, he said: Strong is your dwelling, and if you set your nest in the rock, and if Beor be to you a nest of cunning, the Assyrians shall lead you captive." It seems to me that he names the Kenite not very blameworthily; for he is the one to whom in the earlier passages Saul also said: "Depart out of the midst of Amalek, and I will not smite you, because you did mercy in Israel, when it was coming up out of Egypt." Of this one, therefore, it is now said also that his dwelling is strong, if he sets his nest in the rock. The rock is Christ. If therefore he sets his nest in the rock, his dwelling is strong, provided that Beor does not become for him a nest of cunning. Beor is the father of Balaam, who can be taken in the person of the heretics; so that this seems to be said, that the Kenite can be saved if he sets his nest in the rock, that is, if he places his hope in Christ and does not surround and circumscribe him with the cunning of the heretics. For if this should happen, it will profit him nothing that he seems to be set in the rock, which is Christ; for he will be led captive by the Assyrians, that is, by the malignant powers, which lead captive and take into their power those whom heretical error has enveloped. It seems indeed, according to this exposition which we have set forth concerning the Kenite, that the conjunction "and" also disturbs the sense. But it must be known that it is a native property of the Hebrew tongue to use the conjunction "and" frequently in such a way that at times it is superfluous and, as appears in our language, seems inserted among unnecessary things. This certainly must be received with indulgence; for each language has something of its own property which among other languages may seem faulty. And here therefore the conjunction "and" is to be held as, so to speak, superfluous and redundant. Let the Kenite, therefore, who is interpreted "possessing," beware — let him beware, I say — even if he possesses and earns this grace, that he be in the Church of Christ, lest perhaps the cunning of Beor circumvent him and turn him aside to depraved and perverse doctrines and for this cause he be handed over to the Assyrians. For those who blaspheme, being set within the Church, are handed over to Satan, as Phygelus and…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
