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Ke´nites, a tribe of Midianites dwelling among the Amalekites (; comp. ), or occupying in semi-nomadic life the same region with the latter people in Arabia Petræa. When Saul was sent to destroy the Amalekites, the Kenites, who had joined them, perhaps upon compulsion, were ordered to depart from them that they might not share their fate; and the reason assigned was, that they 'shewed kindness to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt.' This kindness is supposed to have been that which Jethro and his family showed to Moses, as well as to the Israelites themselves, in consequence of which the whole tribe appears to have been treated with consideration, while the family of Jethro itself accompanied the Israelites into Palestine, where they continued to lead a nomad life, occupying there a position similar to that of the Tartar tribes in Persia at the present day. To this family belonged Heber, the husband of that Jael who slew Sisera, and who is hence called 'Heber the Kenite' (). At a later age other families of Kenites are mentioned as resident in Palestine, among whom were the Rechabites (; ); but it is not clear whether these were subdivisions of the increasing descendants of Jethro, as seems most likely, or families which availed themselves of the friendly-dispositions of the Israelites towards the tribe to settle in the country. It appears that, whatever was the general condition of the Midianites, the tribe of the Kenites possessed a knowledge of the true God in the time of Jethro [HOBAB]; and that those families which settled in Palestine did not afterwards lose that knowledge, but increased it, is clear from the passages which have been cited [MIDIANITES; RECHABITES].
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John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three years of erratic and interrupted education. At the age of twelve John Kitto fell on his head from a rooftop, and became totally and permanently deaf. As a young man he suffered further tragedies, disappointments and much loneliness. His height was 4 ft 8 in, and his accident left him with an impaired sense of balance. He found consolation in browsing at bookstalls and reading any books that came his way.
From these hardships he was rescued by friends who became aware of his mental abilities and encouraged him to write topical articles for local newspapers, arranging eventually for him to work as an assistant in a local library. Here he continued to educate himself.
One of his benefactors was the Exeter dentist Anthony Norris Groves, who in 1824 offered him employment as a dental assistant. Living with the Groves family, Kitto was profoundly influenced by the practical Christian faith of his employer. In 1829 he accompanied Groves on his pioneering mission to Baghdad and served as tutor to Groves's two sons. In 1833 Kitto returned to England via Constantinople, accompanied by another member of the Groves mission, Francis William Newman. Shortly afterwards he married, and in due course had several children.
A London publisher asked Kitto to write up his travel journals for a series of articles in the Penny Magazine, a publication read at that time by a million people in Britain, reprinted in America and translated into French, German and Dutch. Other writing projects followed as readers enquired about his experiences in the East amidst people living in circumstances closely resembling those of Bible times.
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