Search the encyclopedia
212 articles found for “descendant of Cain”
Tribe of Benjamin
[Bible]The tribe of Benjamin was one of the tribes of Israel, made up of the descendants of Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob. Israel's first king, Saul, and the apostle Paul both came from this tribe.
Tribe of Dan
[Bible]The tribe of Dan was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, made up of the descendants of Dan, the son of Jacob. Unable to hold the territory it was first allotted, it migrated north and settled there.
Kingdom of Judah
[Bible]The Kingdom of Judah, usually called simply "Judah" in the Bible, was the southern kingdom, with Jerusalem as its capital, that remained when the kingdom of Israel divided after Solomon's death. Descendants of David held its throne until its fall to Babylon.
Shammai (son of Onam)
[People]Shammai was a member of the Jerahmeelite clan of the tribe of Judah, the son of Onam and the father of Nadab and Abishur. His name appears only in the genealogy of 1 Chronicles 2.
Wilderness of Judah
[Bible]The Wilderness of Judah is an arid region stretching from the eastern slopes of the Judean hill country down to the Dead Sea. Scripture presents it as the place where David hid from Saul and where John the Baptist proclaimed repentance.
Shebuel
[People]Shebuel was a Levite in the time of David and the chief among the descendants of Gershom, the son of Moses. First Chronicles records him as the officer in charge of the temple treasuries.
Wilderness of Judea
[Bible]The Wilderness of Judea is the arid land that descends east of Jerusalem and the hill country of Judah toward the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. Scripture presents it as the place where David hid from Saul and where John the Baptist preached repentance.
Division of Abijah
[Bible]The division of Abijah was the eighth of the twenty-four priestly divisions established in the time of David for rotating temple service. In the Gospel of Luke, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, is introduced as a priest belonging to this division.
Shechaniah
[People]Shechaniah was the son of Jehiel, of the descendants of Elam, in the time of Ezra. Repenting of marriages to foreign women, he proposed to Ezra that the people make a covenant to put away their foreign wives and the children born to them (Ezra 10:2–4).
Levites
[Bible]The Levites were members of the Israelite tribe descended from Levi, the son of Jacob. Rather than receiving land as an inheritance, they were set apart for the work of the tabernacle and the temple. Among them, the descendants of Aaron became priests.
Amalek
[Bible]Amalek was an ancient nomadic people whom the Bible presents as descendants of Esau. Because they attacked Israel shortly after the Exodus, the Amalekites are remembered throughout the Old Testament as Israel's archetypal enemy.
Ammon
[Bible]Ammon was a people whom the Bible describes as the descendants of Ben-ammi, the son of Lot. Living east of the Jordan River, the Ammonites were a neighboring nation related to Israel by kinship, yet frequently in conflict with it.
Hill Country of Ephraim
[Bible]The hill country of Ephraim is the mountainous region of central Canaan west of the Jordan River. Occupied mainly by the tribe of Ephraim, it is the setting for numerous events in Joshua, Judges, and 1 Samuel.
Zuriel
[People]Zuriel is a Levite mentioned once in the Book of Numbers. The son of Abihail, he was the chief of the Merarite families during the wilderness period. The descendants of Merari camped on the north side of the tabernacle.
Jonathan (Son of Shimeah)
[People]Jonathan was the son of Shimeah (Shammah), David's older brother, and thus David's nephew. He is recorded as having killed a giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot during a battle against the Philistines at Gath.
Armoni
[People]Armoni was the son of King Saul by his concubine Rizpah. During a famine in the reign of David, he was handed over to the Gibeonites and executed along with six other descendants of Saul, including his brother Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 21:8–9).
Uzzi
[People]Uzzi was the overseer of the Levites living in Jerusalem after the return from exile. He was the son of Bani and belonged to the descendants of Asaph, the family responsible for singing in the temple (Nehemiah 11:22).
Moab
[Bible]Moab is the name of a people who lived on the plateau east of the Dead Sea and of the land they inhabited. The Bible presents the Moabites as descendants of Lot, and Ruth, the central figure of the Book of Ruth, was a Moabite woman.
Circumcision
[Bible]Circumcision is the rite of cutting away the foreskin of the male genital organ. In the Old Testament it was the sign of the covenant between God and the descendants of Abraham; in the New Testament it is interpreted in connection with circumcision of the heart and with baptism.
Mahli (Son of Merari)
[People]Mahli was a grandson of Levi and a son of Merari, and the ancestor of the Levitical clan of the Mahlites. His name appears in the genealogies and lists of Levites in Exodus, Numbers, 1 Chronicles, and Ezra.