Kain
Kain is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Khirbet Bani Dar. It appears across 2 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Kain appears in Scripture in two related contexts within the tribal allotment of Judah. In Joshua 15:57, it is listed among the cities in the hill country district of Judah, grouped with settlements such as Gibeah and Timnah. This places Kain in the central Judean highlands, part of the dense network of small towns that populated the tribal heartland. The city is also connected to the Kenites, the semi-nomadic people descended from Moses' father-in-law Jethro (Judges 1:16). In Numbers 24:21-22, Balaam's oracle addresses the Kenite people with a wordplay on their name, declaring, "Your dwelling place is secure, and your nest is set in the rock; yet Kain shall be burned." This prophetic utterance uses the place name Kain to represent the Kenite people as a whole, foretelling their eventual displacement. The Kenites had a unique relationship with Israel, living among the tribes of Judah in the Negev and hill country. Kain thus represents the intersection of Israelite tribal geography and the allied Kenite people who shared Judah's territory.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Kain is tentatively identified with Khirbet Bani Dar (also proposed as Khirbet Yaqin), located in the Judean hill country south of Hebron. The identification rests on both geographical context within the Joshua 15 city list and the preservation of a similar toponym in the area. The site lies in rugged limestone terrain typical of the southern Judean highlands, characterized by terraced hillsides, seasonal wadis, and scattered ancient ruins. Surface pottery collected from the vicinity includes Iron Age sherds consistent with the period of Israelite settlement. The broader region has been extensively surveyed as part of the Judean hill country archaeological surveys, documenting hundreds of small settlements from the Iron Age that correspond to the dense city lists preserved in Joshua 15. No formal excavation has been undertaken at the specific site.
Verse Appearances (2)
Num
Josh
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]