Kenites [key], in the Bible, wilderness nomadic tribe friendly to the Hebrews. They came with the Hebrews and inhabited S Palestine up to the time of David. Moses' father-in-law was a Kenite, and so was the husband of Jael. Scholars have argued that the Israelites were introduced to the worship of God by the Kenites (the so-called Kenite hypothesis). The genealogy of Cain in the Book of Genesis may contain Kenite traditions.
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