1 Chronicles 2:23 mentions a town called Kenath then later refers to Kenites in verse 55 leading me to believe this is the origin of the title. It also appears that the Recabites could also be descendants of Hammath (Hemath in King James) as also stated in verse 55. The Recabites appeared in Jeremiah 35.
Kenites are first mentioned in Genesis 15:12-18.
12. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
13. Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
14. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.
15. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.
16. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."
17. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.
18. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates--
19. the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
20. Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
21. Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."
As early as Numbers 24, the Assyrian threat was foretold.
Numbers 24:21-22:
20. Then Balaam saw Amalek and uttered his oracle: "Amalek was first among the nations, but he will come to ruin at last."
21. Then he saw the Kenites and uttered his oracle: "Your dwelling place is secure, your nest is set in a rock;
22. yet you Kenites will be destroyed when Asshur takes you captive."
Later in Numbers 32:12-42, Moses was leading the Israelites to the threshold
of Canaan and the Kenites were said to have been defeated. The last portion of the passage (Numbers 32:39-42) reads:
39. The descendants of Makir son of Manasseh went to Gilead, captured it and drove out the Amorites who were there.
40. So Moses gave Gilead to the Makirites, the descendants of Manasseh, and they settled there.
41. Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, captured their settlements and called them Havvoth Jair.
42. And Nobah captured Kenath and its surrounding settlements and called it Nobah after himself.
Three references appear in 1 Samuel with kings Saul and David.
1 Samuel 15:6:
6. Then he said to the Kenites, "Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.
1 Samuel 30:29 holds the last references to the Kenites:
26. When David arrived in Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, who were his friends, saying, "Here is a present for you from the plunder of the LORD's enemies."
27. He sent it to those who were in Bethel, Ramoth Negev and Jattir;
28. to those in Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa
29. and Racal; to those in the towns of the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites;
30. to those in Hormah, Bor Ashan, Athach
31. and Hebron; and to those in all the other places where David and his men had roamed.
A few Kenites were mentioned in the book of Judges - Jethro (aka Reuel), Heber and his wife.
Judges 1:16:
16. The descendants of Moses' father-in-law, the Kenite, went up from the City of Palms with the men of Judah to live among the people of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad.
Judges 4:11-17 names Heber the Kenite while Judges 5:24 names his wife Jael during the time Deborah acted as a judge.
11. Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses' brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.
...
17. Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.
