Kedar

Biblical Text

Kedar is the name of the second son of Ishmael. In the genealogies of Ishmael in Genesis 25:13 and 1 Chronicles 1:29, he is listed after the firstborn, Nebaioth. In the later poetic and prophetic books, the name generally refers to the tribe formed by his descendants or to the land they inhabited.

• Psalm 120:5: The psalmist laments, "Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!" He uses this image to describe his life among those who hate peace.
• Song of Solomon 1:5: The woman says of herself, "I am black, but comely... as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon."
• Isaiah 21:16-17: A prophecy of judgment declaring that within a year all the glory of Kedar will fail and only a small remnant of its archers will remain.
• Isaiah 42:11; 60:7: Scenes of restoration in which the villages that Kedar inhabits lift up their voices in praise and the flocks of Kedar are gathered to Zion.
• Jeremiah 2:10: Pointing to Chittim in the west and Kedar in the east, the prophet declares that no nation has ever changed its gods as Israel has.
• Jeremiah 49:28-33: A prophecy concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar would strike.
• Ezekiel 27:21: The princes of Kedar appear as merchants who traded with Tyre in lambs, rams, and goats.

Background

Kedar is understood to have been a nomadic tribe that lived in tents and herded sheep and goats in the northern Arabian desert east of Canaan. Scripture portrays its people as archers (Isaiah 21:17), as owners of abundant livestock, and as a people dwelling alone, without gates or bars (Jeremiah 49:31). Arab tribes that appear to correspond to Kedar are also known from Assyrian and Babylonian records. The name is often explained in connection with a Hebrew root meaning "to be dark" or "black." It is also commonly linked to tents woven from black goat hair, though this explanation is not certain.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

Kedar serves as a representative name for the distant desert peoples outside Israel. Under this same name both judgment (Isaiah 21; Jeremiah 49) and restoration (Isaiah 42; 60) are proclaimed. The name Kedar does not appear in the New Testament. However, Matthew 12:18-21 applies Isaiah 42:1-4 to Jesus Christ. For this reason, Christian tradition has read the scene later in the same chapter, in which even the people of Kedar are summoned to praise, as a vision of salvation extending to the Gentiles.

Interpretation and Issues

• Song of Solomon 1:5: Read literally, the verse is taken to refer to skin darkened by the sun. In figurative interpretation, Jewish tradition reads the woman as Israel, while Christian tradition reads her as the church or the believer's soul. An example of the latter is the reading "black through sin, yet comely through grace."
• Psalm 120:5: Meshech (KJV "Mesech") lay in the far north and Kedar in the Arabian desert, a great distance apart. Many interpreters therefore take the verse not as a statement that the psalmist actually lived in both places but as a metaphor for living among hostile foreign peoples.
• Relationship to Islamic tradition: Some Islamic traditions trace Muhammad's lineage to Kedar, and some Muslim interpreters read Isaiah 42 as a prophecy concerning Muhammad. Christian interpreters reject this reading, pointing out that Matthew's Gospel applies the passage to Jesus.
• Distinguishing text from tradition: The claim that Kedar is the ancestor of all Arabs is a later tradition or generalization, not something the biblical text itself states.