Kadesh (Israel)
- This article is about Kadesh in the South of Israel, see also Kadesh or Kedesh.
Kadesh or Qadhesh in Classical (Hebrew: קָדֵשׁ), also known as Qadesh-Barneʿa (קָדֵשׁ בַּרְנֵעַ), was a place in the south of Ancient Israel. The name "Kodesh" means holy. The name "Barnea" may mean desert of wandering. There are two Kadeshes: one in the north Negev, visited by Abraham and by Moses and the children of Israel two years after leaving Egypt; and the other, on the eastern border by Petra in Transjordan.
The western Kadesh was an important site in Israelite history.[1] Miriam, the sister of Moses, died there (Nu. 20:1), and Moses disobediently struck the rock that brought forth water at this location (Nu. 20:11). [This is the western Kadesh.]
Moses subsequently sent envoys to the King of Edom from Kadesh (Numbers 20:14), asking for permission to let the Israelites pass through his terrain. The Edomite king denied this request. [This is the eastern Kadesh.]
Since 1905 modern Ain el-Qudeirat in the Wadi el-Ain of the northern Sinai has been widely accepted as the location of biblical Kadesh Barnea. Several Iron Age fortresses have been excavated there. the oldest, a small, elliptical structure dates to the tenth century BC. but was evidently abandoned for some time after the first fort's destruction. A second fort constructed during the eighth century BC. (probably during the reign of Uzziah) was destroyed during the seventh century BC, most likely during Manasseh's reign. Two ostraca engraved in Hebrew have been recovered there, suggesting the Israelites did indeed occupy this site.[2] However, these Kadesh-Barnea ostraca are dated to the 8th or 7th century B.C.E. and therefore are hundreds of years too recent to be associated with the biblical Exodus.[3]
However excavations at Kadesh conducted by Dr Rudolph Cohen (former head of the Israeli Antiquities Service) during the Israeli occupation of Sinai following the 1967 war uncovered copious remains of the Middle Bronze I period (sometimes known as Intermediate Bronze Age), which were also found a numerous other sites in the Negev. On the other hand, Late Bronze Age, the conventional time of the Exodus, is unattested in the Negev. In an article in Biblical Archaeology Review of July, 1983, Cohen put forward the suggestion that the Exodus took place at the start of MBI and that the MBI people were, in fact, the Israelites. The idea, fully accepted by those who have worked at sites such as Ein Hatzeva, has not been widely adopted.
Kadesh-Barnea is 11 days march by way of Mt. Seir from Horab.
There is a moshav in the Negev desert in Israel with the name Kadesh Barne'a, also called Nitzanei Sinai. Josephus says he recognizes exactly where Miriam is buried and it is by the rock, but he refers to the rock (selah in hebrew) while writing for the Romans in the langua franca at the time, which was Greek, and the word for rock in Greek is "petra". The Nabataeans came to Petra in about 400 B.C. knowing it to be an ancient burial ground of caves, and buried their dead on top of the graves used 100 years earlier by the Hebrews.
References
- ^ *Gen 14:7 And they returned and came to Enmishpat, which [is] Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dweltin Hazezontamar.
- Gen 16:14 Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi; behold, [it is] between Kadesh and Bered.
- Gen 20:1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.
- Num 13:26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.
- Num 20:1 Then came the children of Israel, [even] the whole congregation, into the "desert" (a better translation of the word bmidbar is wilderness) of Zin in the first month and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there. The problem with this analysis and most analysis of Kadesh is that there are 2 cities called Kadesh. The first is Kadesh Barnea located in the south in the wilderness of Zin, and the second is located in the east in the wilderness of Paran. It is in the second city where Miriam died and why it was renamed Kadesh was because it was a holy place because of the rock where water came out and because it was the burial ground for the entire people of Israel where they lived for 38 years on the west side of the Jordan before going up thru Moab and Edom and then across the Jordan into Israel.
- Num 20:14 And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us
- Num 20:16 And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt and, behold, we [are] in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border
- Num 20:22 And the children of Israel, [even] the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh, and came unto mount Hor.
- Num 27:14 For ye rebelled against my commandment in the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the water before their eyes that [is] the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.
- Num 33:36 And they removed from Eziongaber, and pitched in the wilderness of Zin, which [is] Kadesh.
- Num 33:37 And they removed from Kadesh, and pitched in mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom. This is far in the west. kadesh number 2.
- Deu 1:46 So ye abode in Kadesh many days, [yes, 38 years] according unto the days that ye abode [there].
- Deu 32:51 Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel. This is Kadesh Barnea, in the south.
- Jdg 11:16 But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh; This is discussing the original Kadesh that the Hebrews came to after leaving Egypt and where the spies went into Canaan to check out the land. It is also where after God gets upset and tells the Hebrews they will wander in the wilderness for 38 more years that they decide the next day to agree with God and entire Israel on their own and are slaughtered by the Amalekites and the Canaanites without the help of God and Moses.
- Jdg 11:17 Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying , Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land but the king of Edom would not hearken [thereto]. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab but he would not [consent]: and Israel abode in Kadesh.
- Psa 29:8 The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
- Eze 47:19 And the south side southward, from Tamar [even] to the waters of strife [in] Kadesh, the river to the great sea. And [this is] the south side southward.
- Eze 48:28 And by the border of Gad , at the south side southward , the border shall be even from Tamar [unto] the waters of strife [in] Kadesh, [and] to the river toward the great sea.
- ^ "Kadesh Barnea" pg. 214 in the NIV Archaeological Study Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005
- ^ Davies, Graham I., et al., "Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, Volume 2", Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp82-85
See also