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Kenaz Burned the Guilty and the Books Would Not Burn

A guilty man told Kenaz to question the tribes one at a time so the confessions would be honest. The Amorite books turned up in his own tent.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Lot Fell in Caleb's Tribe
  2. Six Thousand One Hundred and Ten
  3. Ask Us One Tribe at a Time
  4. The Seven Idols Under Shechem
  5. The Fire at the Brook
  6. Dew From the Ice of Paradise
Kenaz Burned the Guilty and the Books Would Not Burn Click for full size

The Lot Fell in Caleb's Tribe

Joshua was dead and nobody would go up.

The people asked who should lead them against the Canaanites the way it had been done before, and the answer came back with a condition attached. If the heart of this people is whole, let Judah go up. If it is not, nobody goes up at all.

They asked how a man is supposed to know the heart of a people. Cast lots, they were told, tribe by tribe, and the lot will tell you. Then they asked for someone to stand over the lots and run them, and the angel said to cast in the tribe of Caleb.

The lot came out on Kenaz.

He took the office and said one thing before he used it. Moses told you not to turn from the road to the right or the left, and Joshua told you the same, and the heart of this people is not with Him. So every tribe comes forward. He looked at them and finished it. "If I am taken, and my house with me, burn us with fire."

They told him he had spoken well.

Six Thousand One Hundred and Ten

The tribes came up one after another and the lot picked men out of them like a hand pulling weeds.

Three hundred and forty-five out of Judah. Five hundred and forty out of Reuben. Three hundred and thirty-five out of Simeon, three hundred and fifty out of Levi, six hundred and sixty-five out of Issachar, five hundred and forty-five out of Zebulun, three hundred and eighty out of Gad, six hundred and sixty-five out of Asher, four hundred and eighty out of Manasseh, four hundred and sixty-eight out of Ephraim. Dan, Naphtali and Benjamin gave up men too.

The count came to six thousand one hundred and ten. They stood apart from their families in a camp that had thought itself clean, and Kenaz put them under guard while he asked what should be done with them.

He prayed with Eleazar the priest and the elders. The answer he got was short. Make them confess what they did. Then burn them.

Ask Us One Tribe at a Time

Kenaz stood in front of six thousand condemned men and told them about Achan, who took what was devoted and was caught by lot and confessed before he died. Confess, he said, and you will stand with the ones God raises when the dead are raised.

One of the guilty answered him. His name was Elah.

"We only die once in this fire," Elah said. "Ask each tribe by itself."

Kenaz put his own tribe first. Judah said they had chosen to make themselves a calf, the way their fathers made one in the desert. Reuben said they had burned offerings to the gods of the nations. Levi said they had wanted to test whether the Tabernacle was really holy. Issachar said they had gone to the idols to ask what would become of them. Zebulun said they had wanted to eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters, to find out whether the Lord loved them.

Dan said they had been teaching their children out of the books of the Amorites, and that the books were buried under Mount Abarim. Kenaz sent men and the books came back.

Then Naphtali said they had done everything the Amorites did, and that their share of it was hidden in the tent of Elah. The man who had told Kenaz how to run an honest interrogation had the contraband under his own bedding. Kenaz sent men there too, and it was where Naphtali said it was.

Gad confessed to their neighbors' wives. Manasseh had broken the Sabbath. Ephraim had put their children through the fire the way the Amorites did. Benjamin said they had wanted to find out whether the law came from God or whether Moses had written it himself.

The Seven Idols Under Shechem

Asher was the one that stopped the room.

They had found seven golden idols, they said, the ones the Amorites called their holy ones, and they had buried them under Mount Shechem rather than hand them in. Send there and you will find them. Kenaz sent, and they were there.

These were not cast by any craftsman. Seven men made them after the Flood, and their names were remembered: Canaan, Put, Shelah, Nimrod, Elah, Diul, Shuah. The stones set in them came from Havilah, where the onyx is, and at night they threw off light like daylight, so that a room with them in it never went dark. An Amorite who had lost his sight could kiss one of them, put his fingers to his own eyes, and see. At set times they told the Amorites what to do, and the Amorites did it.

Kenaz wrote every confession into a book and read the book aloud before the Lord.

The Fire at the Brook

Take the men and everything that belongs to them down to the water of Pishon, he was told, and burn them there, so the people can say out loud what happens to a man who turns his heart away.

Kenaz asked the one question a treasurer asks. The stones are worth more than anything we own. Do we burn them, or do we give them to You?

The answer went through him like a blade. If God would take what has been put under the ban, why should a man not take it too?

Keep the books, He was told. Keep the stones. Hold them until I tell you how they die, because fire will not eat them.

They burned at the brook that day, six thousand one hundred and ten men and everything they owned. When the ash cooled, the Amorite books lay in it unmarked and the seven idols lay in it still shining. Fire would not touch them. Water would not either.

Dew From the Ice of Paradise

Kenaz carried them up a mountain and built an altar. The people brought offerings all day and kept the day as a festival, with the books and the idols lying on the stone in front of them, waiting.

In the night dew rose off the ice of Paradise and came down on the books, and the letters went out of them like breath off a window. An angel came and finished what the dew had started. A second angel picked up the seven glowing idols and dropped them into the deep part of the sea, where nobody has seen them since.

Then another angel came up the mountain carrying twelve stones, and no two of them were alike, and each one had a name cut into it. Reuben on the sardius. Simeon on the topaz. Levi, emerald. Judah, carbuncle. Issachar, sapphire. Zebulun, jasper. Dan, ligure. Naphtali, amethyst. Gad, agate. Asher, chrysolite. Joseph, beryl. Benjamin, onyx.

Those went into the breastplate, and after that a priest walked into the sanctuary wearing the sons of Jacob on his chest, in the place where the Amorites had worn stones that answered questions.

KenazProphecyStonesJudgesRepentance
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From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Chronicles of Jerahmeel LVIChronicles of Jerahmeel (Gaster, 1899)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, trans. Moses Gaster (1899) · Public Domain

After Joshua died, Israel had no leader. The people asked God who should fight the Canaanites, and God told them to cast lots. The lot fell on Kenaz, from the tribe of Caleb, who became Israel's first judge. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, Kenaz was no ordinary ruler. He was a warrior-prophet who purged Israel of its hidden idolaters and then received one of the most haunting visions in all of Jewish literature.

Kenaz first ordered a census to root out anyone who had secretly worshipped foreign gods during Joshua's campaigns. He commanded the sinners to confess. Many did, revealing that they had hidden Amorite idols, golden images, and magical books beneath their tents. Kenaz gathered the forbidden objects and brought them before God. He placed the stolen idols, precious stones, and pagan books on a new altar on the mountain, and God consumed them all with fire.

That night, God performed something extraordinary. He transformed the remains into twelve precious stones engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. God instructed Kenaz to place these stones in the Ark of the Covenant alongside the tablets of the law. They would remain there until Solomon built the Temple, when they would be set upon the two Cherubim as a memorial.

Then God revealed the future. When Israel's sins reached their limit and the Temple was defiled, God would remove the stones and the tablets and return them to the place from which they originally came. There they would wait until the end of days, when God would bring them back as an everlasting light, seven times more powerful than the sun or the moon. When Kenaz finished prophesying, his soul returned to him and he remembered nothing of what he had said. His only response was devastating: "If such is the rest the righteous receive after death, it would be better for them to die at birth than to sin in this world." Kenaz died, and his son Othniel arose after him.

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Legends of the Jews 2:5Legends of the Jews

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909) · Public Domain

One man, Kenaz, is tasked with a monumental mission: to bring forth the truth from each of the tribes. It's a daunting task, like trying to hold water in your hands.

As the story goes, one of the "sinful," a man named Elah, proposes a clever, perhaps even manipulative, solution. "If thou desirest to bring forth the truth," he says, "address thyself to each of the tribes separately." (Legends of the Jews). This way, each tribe would face its own demons, without being influenced by others.

So, Kenaz begins. He starts with his own tribe, Judah. And what do the wicked of Judah confess? Worshipping the golden calf, just like their ancestors in the desert. (Legends of the Jews). It’s a stark reminder that some sins, some temptations, are timeless.

The Reubenites admit to burning sacrifices to idols. The Levites offer a strange defense: "We desired to prove whether the Tabernacle is holy." (Legends of the Jews). Were they testing the limits of holiness? Or their own faith?

Then come the tribe of Issachar. Their sin? Consulting idols to know what the future holds. (Legends of the Jews). We all want a glimpse of tomorrow, don't we? But at what cost?

The sinners of Zebulon offer a truly chilling confession: "We desired to eat the flesh of our sons and daughters, to know whether the Lord loves them." (Legends of the Jews). It’s a horrifying admission, a descent into the darkest depths of human depravity, all in the twisted pursuit of divine love.

The Danites admit to teaching their children from forbidden books, books of the Amorites, hidden under Mount Abarim. Kenaz finds them right where they said they’d be. (Legends of the Jews). The Naphtalites confess a similar transgression, hiding their illicit texts in Elah’s tent. (Legends of the Jews). Secrets, lies, and hidden knowledge – it's a tangled web.

The Gadites acknowledge leading an immoral life. The Asherites confess to hiding seven golden idols under Mount Shechem. (Legends of the Jews). These weren't just any idols. They were called "holy nymphs" by the Amorites, created miraculously after the flood by seven sinners: Canaan, Put, Shelah, Nimrod, Elath, Diul, and Shuah. These idols, made of precious stones from Havilah, radiated light, turning night into day. (Legends of the Jews). And, incredibly, they possessed the power to restore sight to the blind.

The Manasseh tribe admits to desecrating the Sabbath. The Ephraimites confess to the horrific act of sacrificing their children to Moloch (Legends of the Jews) – Moloch referring to an ancient deity associated with child sacrifice.

Finally, the Benjamites say: "We desired to prove whether the law emanated from God or from Moses." (Legends of the Jews). It was a test of faith, or perhaps a test of authority.

What does this litany of sins and confessions reveal? It's a raw, unflinching look at the human capacity for both good and evil. It suggests that the struggle between faith and doubt, obedience and transgression, is a constant battle, fought in every generation, within every tribe, within every heart.

It makes you wonder: What idols are we hiding? What forbidden knowledge are we seeking? And what truths are we afraid to confess?

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Legends of the Jews 2:6Legends of the Jews

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909) · Public Domain

Legends of the Jews turns to Amorite Books and Precious Idols Survive Divine Fire.

That. Everything reduced to ash, but these artifacts remain untouched. Fire couldn’t burn them. Water couldn't wash them away. They just… persisted. What do you do with something like that?

Kenaz, a figure not explicitly identified in the original text but implied to be a leader or righteous individual, stepped forward. He thought to consecrate these idols to God. A noble impulse. Turn something evil into something holy. But then, a revelation came to him, a divine voice questioning the very idea. "If God were to accept what has been declared anathema, why should not man?" In other words, if God were to accept something utterly cursed, what standard would we have left?

The message was clear: God would take care of things that were beyond human power to destroy. So Kenaz, following divine instructions, took the books and idols to the top of a mountain. There, he built an altar. The cursed objects were placed upon it, and the people offered sacrifices and celebrated a festival all day long. It was a communal act, a way of purging the land, perhaps.

But the real magic happened that night.

Dew rose from the ice in Paradise – talk about evocative imagery! – and descended upon the books. The letters of their writing, the very essence of their corrupting influence, were obliterated. Then, an angel appeared and completely annihilated what was left. Divine intervention, pure and simple.

The idols suffered a different fate. An angel carried off seven of the precious gems and threw them into the depths of the sea. Why the sea? Perhaps because the sea is often seen as a place of chaos and primordial power, a place where even divine power must work.

But that’s not the end of the story. A second angel then brought twelve other gems. These weren’t just any gems; they were destined for something special. This angel engraved the names of the twelve sons of Jacob – the twelve tribes of Israel – on them, one name on each gem. Each gem was unique, its character reflecting the tribe it represented.

The order in which the tribes are named, and the stones linked to them, are themselves significant. We have Reuben, the firstborn, linked to a sardius stone; Simon, to a topaz; Levi, the priestly tribe, to an emerald; Judah, the kingly tribe, to a carbuncle; Issachar to a sapphire; Zebulon to jasper; Dan to ligure; Naphtali to amethyst; Gad to agate; Asher to chrysolite; Joseph to beryl; and finally, Benjamin to onyx.

This transformation is powerful. Cursed objects, instruments of sin, are not simply destroyed, but repurposed. The precious materials are reclaimed, re-inscribed with the very names of the tribes of Israel. It's a message of hope, of redemption, of the possibility that even the most corrupted things can be transformed into something holy and meaningful. Can something truly evil ever be fully destroyed, or is transformation always a possibility?

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