Kinah

Kinah (meaning an elegy or lamentation) was a city in the extreme south of Judah, listed in Joshua 15:22 among the towns in the southernmost district of Judah near the border with Edom. It was located near the Edomite frontier in the arid Negev region, the dry southern highlands where permanent settlement was marginal and population sparse.

The city's evocative name—derived from the Hebrew word for funeral dirge or lamentation (qînâ)—is unusual as a place name and has prompted speculation about the site's association with mourning customs, perhaps the burial place of a notable individual or the scene of some forgotten tragedy. It is thought by some to have been inhabited by the Kenites (whose name bears a related root), who settled in this region of Judah after accompanying Israel from the wilderness. Kinah appears only in the Joshuanic city list and is not otherwise attested in biblical history, making its precise identification uncertain.