Cain and the Kenites: the name question

Says The firstborn is named קַיִן (Qayin, Gen 4:1). Balaam sees הַקֵּינִי (“the Kenites”, Num 24:21) and says קָיִן (“Kain”, Num 24:22) will be destroyed. Heber the Kenite moved away מִקַּיִן (“from the Kenites”, Judg 4:11). Saul spares the Kenites because they “showed kindness to all the Israelites” (1 Sam 15:6).

Driver notes the name might be explained from Arabic as “smith”, and would naturally belong to the Kenites’ ancestor. He grants a link is possible, but sees no grounds for supposing that the Kenites stood out among nomad tribes for the traits given Cain in 4:14–15. He also judges it probable that before Moses the name Yahweh was current only in a limited circle, possibly, as others suggested, among the Kenites. Skinner calls the Kenite identity a minor, overstressed point, and finds it almost incredible that a people friendly to Israel and devoted to Yahweh was pictured as under a special curse. For Keil the origin of the Kenites “cannot be determined”. These are their views.

Uncertain Whether Cain’s name bears on the Kenites is open. For a link: the shared name (Num 24:22; Judg 4:11). Against: Genesis draws none, and the Kenites appear as Israel’s friends. Reading Cain as a tribe’s personified ancestor does not displace the New Testament’s treatment of Cain and Abel as persons (Heb 11:4; 1 John 3:12; Jude 11). The divine name at 4:26 is treated with that verse. No lean is taken, and this background does not fix the meaning of Gen 4.