Kenath

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Kenath . A city lying to the E. of the Jordan, taken by Nobah , whose name for a time it bore (  Numbers 32:42 ). Geshur and Aram re-conquered it (  1 Chronicles 2:23 ). It is usually identified with Kanawât , fully 16 miles N. of Bozrah, on the W. slope of Jebet ed-Druze . It occupies a commanding position on either bank of the Wâdy Qanawât , which here forms a picturesque waterfall There are tall, graceful columns, and massive walls, together with other impressive remains of buildings from Græco-Roman times. The modern village, lower down the slope, is now occupied by Druzes. Baedeker ( Pal. 8 , 207), stating no reason, Moore ( Judges , 222), for reasons that do not appear adequate, and others reject the identification. To speak of Qanawât as ‘in the remote north-east’ (Moore), conveys a wrong impression. It is only some 50 miles N.E. of Jerash , which in turn is near the S. boundary of Gilead. No other identification seems possible.

W. Ewing.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Now Kenawat, near the S. end of the tract el Lejah, and on the W. slopes of the Hauran mountains ( Numbers 32:41-42). Its conqueror Nobah named it after himself ( Judges 8:11); the original name has supplanted his name. Translated in  1 Chronicles 2:23 as "Geshur (Its People N.W. Of Bashan) and Aram (The Aramaeans Or Syrians) took the towns of Jair (Rather Havoth Jair) from them (The Jairites) with Kenath and the towns thereof, 60 cities," i.e. 23 of the Havoth Jair (I.E. Jair'S Life, Conquered By Jair) and 37 of Kenath and her dependent towns (Conquered By Nobah) , 60 in all.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

City of Bashan, taken by NOBAH, and called after his own name. It was afterwards re-taken with the villages of Jair by Geshur and Aram, as the passage in Chronicles should read.  Numbers 32:42;  1 Chronicles 2:23 . Identified with Kanawat, 32 46' N, 36 34' E .

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Kenath ( Kç'Nath ), Possession. A city of Gilead, in the tribe of Manasseh; captured by Nobah,  Numbers 32:42; a place of splendor and importance under Rome; a Christian bishop's see; 20 miles from Bostra; now called Kunawat.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Ke'nath. (Possession). One of the cities on the east of Jordan, with its "daughter-towns," (Authorized Version, "villages"), taken possession of by a certain Nobah, who then called it by his own name,  Numbers 32:42.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Numbers 32:42 1 Chronicles 2:23Decapolis

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Numbers 32:42

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Kenath', קְנָת , Possession; Sept. Κανάθ ), a city of Gilead, captured, with its environs, from the Canaanites by Nobah (apparently an associate or relative of Jair), and afterwards called by his name ( Numbers 33:42; compare  Judges 8:11); although in the parallel passage ( 1 Chronicles 2:23) the capture seems not to be distinguished from' the exploits of Jair himself, a circumstance that may aid to explain the apparent discrepancy in the number of villages ascribed to the latter. (See Jair). Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. s.v.) call It Kanatha ( Καναθά ), and reckon it as a part of Arabia (Trachonitis). -It is probably the Canatha (Κάναθα ) mentioned by Ptolemy (v, 15, and 23) as a city of the Decapolis (v, 16), and also by Josephus (War, i, 19, 2) as being situated in Coele-Syria. In the time of the latter it was inhabited by Arabians, who defeated the troops led against them by Herod the Great. In the Peutinger Tables it is placed on the road leading from Damascus to Bostra, twenty miles from the latter (Reland, Pal. p. 421). It became the seat of a bishopric in the 5th century (Id. p. 682). All these notices indicate some locality in the Hauran (Auranitis) (Reland, Palest. p. 681), where Burckhardt found, two miles northeast of Suweidah, the ruins of a place called Kunawat (Trav. in Syria, p. 83-6), doubtless the same mentioned by Rev. E. Smith (Robinson's Researches, 3 Append. p. 157) in the Jebel Hauran (see also Schwarz, Palest. p. 223). This situation, it is true, is rather distant north-easterly for Kenath, which lay not far beyond Jogbehah ( Judges 8:11), and within the territory of Manasseh ( Numbers 33:39-42), but the boundaries of the tribe in this direction seem to have been quite indefinite. (See East Manasseh).

The suggestion that Kenawat was Kenath seems, however, to have been first made by Gesenius in his notes to Burckhardt (A.D. 1823, p, 505). Another Kenawat is marked on Van de Velde's map about ten miles farther to the west. The former place was visited by Porter (Damascus, ii, '87-115), who describes it as "beautifully situated in the midst of oak forests, on the western declivities of the mountains of Bashan, twenty miles north of Bozrah. The ruins, which cover a space a mile long and half a mile wide, are among the finest and most interesting east of the Jordan. They consist of temples, palaces, theatres, towers, and a hippodrome of the Roman age; one or two churches of early Christian times, and a great number of massive private houses, with stone roofs and stone doors, which were probably built by the ancient Rephaim. The city walls are in some places nearly perfect, In front of one of the most beautiful of the temples is a colossal head of Ashteroth, a deity which seems to have been worshipped here before the time of Abraham, as one of the chief cities of Bashan was then called Ashterotli-Karnaim ( Genesis 14:5). Kunaw't is now occupied by a few families of Druses, who find a home in the old houses" (Handbook for Palest. p. 512 sq.; comp. Ritter, Pal. and Syr. ii, 931-939; Buckingham, Travels among the Arab Tribes, p. 240).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kē´nath ( קנת , ḳenāth  ; Καάθ , Kaāth , Kaanath , in Septuagint, Codex Alexandrinus): A city in Bashan, taken along with its "daughters," i.e. "villages" from the Amorites by Nobah who gave it his own name (  Numbers 32:42 ). It was recaptured by Geshur and Aram ( 1 Chronicles 2:23 ). It is probably identical with the modern Ḳanawāt , which is built on the site, and largely from the materials of an ancient city. It lies about 16 miles to the North of Boṣra eski Shām , the Bostra of the Romans, on both sides of Wādy Kanawāt , where, descending from the slopes of Jebel ed - Druze , it plunges over a precipice, forming a picturesque waterfall. On the plateau above the modern village, there is a striking collection of Roman and Christian remains, the shapely forms of many columns lending distinction to the scene. One large building is associated with the name of the patriarch Job - Maḳām Ayyūb . The position commands a spacious and interesting view over the whole of the Chauran. The identification has been rejected by Socin (Baedeker, Pal3 , 207), but his reasons are not given. Moore ( Judges , 222) also rejects it, but for reasons that are not convincing.