KEDAR
(Keʹdar) [perhaps, mighty, swarthy, or, black-tented].
1. One of the twelve sons of Ishmael.—Gen. 25:13-15; 1 Chron. 1:29-31.
2. An Arab tribe descended from Ishmael’s son Kedar and classed with “the sons of the East.” Their land is also called Kedar. (Jer. 2:10; 49:28, 29) A nomadic and pastoral people, having herds of sheep, goats and camels (Isa. 60:7; Jer. 49:28, 29), the Kedarites evidently inhabited the Syro-Arabian desert E of Palestine in the NW part of the Arabian Peninsula. The reference to “the settlements that Kedar inhabits” (Isa. 42:11), while possibly referring to temporary encampments, may instead indicate that a portion of them were somewhat settled. Perhaps because of their importance among the Arab tribes, the name of Kedar in later times came to apply to desert tribes in general. In the Targums and in rabbinical literature, Arabia itself is sometimes called “Kedar.”
The Shulammite girl of The Song of Solomon likened her swarthy appearance to the “tents of Kedar” (Song of Sol. 1:5, 6; compare Psalm 120:5), these likely being made of black goat’s hair, as are the tents of many modern-day Bedouins. Ezekiel’s prophecy mentions the “chieftains of Kedar” along with the Arabs as merchants in male lambs, rams and he-goats for the commercial city of Tyre.—Ezek. 27:21.
During the time of Assyria’s dominance in the Near East, the prophet Isaiah foretold the sudden decline of Kedar’s glory, her mighty bowmen being reduced to a mere remnant. (Isa. 21:16, 17) The Kedarites are evidently the Qidri or Qadri referred to in Assyrian records of warring campaigns. Assyrian King Ashurbanipal includes them with the Aribi (Arabs) and Nebaioth (compare Isaiah 60:7) in one campaign account and boasts of the asses, camels and sheep taken from them as booty.
At a later time, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, struck down Kedar. (Jer. 49:28, 29) The monarch’s conquest of N Arabia is mentioned by Babylonian historian Berossus, quoted by Josephus.—Flavius Josephus Against Apion, Book I, par. 19.
A silver bowl (considered to be of the fifth century B.C.E.) found at Tell el-Maskhuta in Egypt bears the Aramaic inscription: “Qainu the son of Geshem, king of Kedar.” The Geshem meant in this case may be “Geshem the Arabian” who opposed the work of rebuilding Jerusalem’s wall in Nehemiah’s day.—Neh. 2:19; 6:1, 2, 6.
Assyrian records indicate that at the shrine of King Hazail of Kedar (at Adumatu) there were images of the following false deities: Atarsamain (the Assyrians identified her with Ishtar Dilbat), Dai, Nahai, Ruldaiu, Atarquruma and Abirillu. A star of gold decorated with precious stones served as a symbol of the goddess Atarsamain. According to the Babylonian Talmud (Taʽan. 5b), the people of Kedar also worshiped water.