Kenath

Kenath (meaning possession) was a city of Gilead or Bashan in the Transjordanian highlands, captured by Nobah of the tribe of Manasseh who renamed it Nobah after himself (Numbers 32:42). The renaming proved impermanent—it continued to be known by its original name in later tradition. The city is mentioned alongside Beeshterah and other Bashan settlements in the records of Manassite expansion east of the Jordan.

Kenath is identified with Qanawat (ancient Canatha) in the region of the Hauran in modern Syria, a site where substantial Roman-era ruins survive. The Decapolis city of Canatha lay in the same region, and the connection between ancient Kenath and this later settlement is generally accepted. In 1 Chronicles 2:23, Kenath and its daughter-villages are said to have been taken from Manasseh by Geshur and Aram—a reversal of the earlier Israelite conquest suggesting the city changed hands multiple times as regional powers competed for control of the fertile Hauran plateau.