And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwellingplace, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock.
And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, х ha-Qeeyniy (H7017) (cf. Genesis 15:19; Judges 4:14; Judges 4:17); ha-Qiyniym (H7017) (1 Chronicles 2:55); Qeeyniy (H7017) (1 Samuel 27:10); and Qaayin (H7014) (Numbers 24:22; Judges 4:11)]. In all these varied forms this Gentile name occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is evident that the people here referred to were not the Kenite tribe of Midianites, with the phylarch of which Moses was connected by family ties; because that branch continued always on terms of the most friendly alliance with Israel (1 Chronicles 2:55); whereas it was the enemies of Israel against whom the prophetic utterances of Balaam were directed.
Moreover, their tents were pitched at that time near the Israelite encampment on the plains of Moab; and if they did not actually join in the measures taken for the overthrow of Jericho, they were immediately subsequent to that event located near the city of palm-trees (Judges 1:16), whence, migrating to the north of Canaan, they chose a pastoral circuit for themselves on the spacious plains lying upon the Kishon.
In very different circumstances were the Kenites whose doom was predicted by Balaam. They inhabited the wild mountainous region south of Palestine, extending along the west side of the Arebah and on both shores of the Gulf of Akabah. They were an old Canaanite tribe; because, whatever was their origin, they had acquired a local habitation and a name as one of the numerous tribes in that land which was promised to Abraham's posterity (Genesis 15:19); and they are mentioned by Balaam next after Amalek, from their relative position to that tribe, on the border of whose settlement they dwelt, and with whom they are described as closely associated in a league of hostile opposition to Israel (Numbers 14:25; Numbers 14:43; Numbers 14:45; 1 Samuel 15:6; 1 Samuel 27:10; 1 Samuel 30:29). In accordance with these statements, their settlement is described by Procopius as embracing Petra and the adjacent territory.
Balaam "looked" on them. In surveying the regions to the south of Moab, he may have turned significantly from Edom in a direction westward to Amalek and the Kenites. But the phrase, "looked on the Kenites," must be taken in the sense not of actual sight, but of prophetic vision, which it bears (Numbers 24:20); because their distant mountain-land could not be visible from the summit of Peor.
Strong is thy dwelling-place х 'eeytaan (H386) mowshaabekaa (H4186)] - perpetuity is thy habitation (Gesenius).
And thou puttest thy nest in a rock, х wªsiym (H7760)]. Ewald, considering siym (H7760) as a passive participle, renders the clause, 'thy nest is set.' Others, who regard it in the imperative mood, translate, 'let thy dwelling-place be strong, and put thy nest in the rock.' There is a play upon the words in the original-`Queneka, thy ken or nest, nevertheless Ken shall be wasted'-which is lost in a translation. х Bacela` (H5553), in the rock], which Stanley and others interpret Sela - i:e., Petra, the far-famed metropolis of Idumea, situated in Wady Musa. [The Septuagint has: in petra; and we prefer taking 'the nest in the rock,' where they had planted themselves, as descriptive of the high precipitous region about Tell 'Arad, as well as of Petra (cf. Obadiah 1:3; Jeremiah 49:16: also Robinson, 'Biblical Researches,' vol. 2:, pp. 202, 618; Wilton, 'Negeb,' p.
76).] The Kenites proudly imagined that in their lofty and inaccessible mountain eyrie they were secure from all risk of peril; and Balaam tacitly admits that they were beyond the reach of human assault; but they would not escape the just retribution which their hostility to the chosen people of God had provoked.