Kadesh (Israel)

This article is about Kadesh in the South of Israel, for other uses see Qadesh (disambiguation).

Kadesh Barnea location

Kadesh or Qadhesh in Classical (Hebrew: קָדֵשׁ‎), also known as Qadesh-Barneaʿ (קָדֵשׁ בַּרְנֵעַ),^[1] is a location mentioned in the Hebrew Bible where a number of historical events took place. Kadesh was an important site in Israelite history. It was the chief site of encampment for the Israelites during their wandering in the wilderness of Zin (Deuteronomy 1:46); it was from Kadesh that the Israelite spies were sent out into Canaan (Numbers 13:1-26); The first failed attempt to take the land was made from Kadesh (Num. 14:40-45); Moses disobediently struck the rock that brought forth water at this location (Num. 20:11); Miriam (Numbers 20:1) and Aaron (Numbers 20:22-29) both died and were buried nearby; and Moses sent envoys to the King of Edom from Kadesh (Num. 20:14), asking for permission to let the Israelites pass through his terrain. The Edomite king denied this request.

Kadesh-Barnea is also a key feature in the common biblical formula delineating the southern border of Israel (cf. Num. 34:4, Josh. 15:3, Ezek. 47:19 et al.)^[2] and thus its identification is key to understanding both the ideal and geopolitically realized borders of ancient Israel.

There is a moshav in the Negev desert of modern-day Israel with the name Kadesh Barne'a, also called Nitzanei Sinai.

Biblical references

• Genesis 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 dwelt in Hazezon Tamar.

• 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.

• Numbers 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 these references and with most analysis of Kadesh is that there are two distinct cities called Kadesh. The first was Kadesh Barnea, located in the south in the wilderness of Zin, and the second was located in the east in the wilderness of Paran. It was in the second city that Miriam died, and this place was renamed Kadesh because it was a holy place for the rock where water came out, and because it was the burial ground for the entire people of Israel when they lived for 38 years on the west side of the Jordan before going up through 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 further in the west: Kadesh number 2.

• Deuteronomy 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.

• Judges 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.

• Psalm 29:8 The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.

• Ezekiel 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.

Location

Kadesh-Barnea is an oasis south of Canaan, west of Arabah and east of the Brook of Egypt.^[3] It is 11 days march by way of Mt. Seir from Horeb (Deut 1:2).

As many as eighteen sites have been proposed as the identification of biblical Kadesh.^[4] Part of the confusion may arise from the fact that Kadesh is sometimes mentioned in connection with the Desert of Paran (Num. 13:26) and at other times in connection with the Zin Desert (Num. 20:1).^[5] This discrepancy has been noted since the time of the medieval commentators, leading some (e.g. Hezekiah bar Manoah) to seek a reconciliatory model, while others (Abraham ibn Ezra and Nahmanides) have proposed two separate sites being identified as Kadesh.

A minority of modern scholarship has maintained that there were two sites identified as Kadesh^[6]—western Kadesh (in the wilderness of Zin) and eastern Kadesh (often associated with Petra, Jordan in the wilderness of Paran). This view seems to be represented by Josephus ^[7] and Eusebius of Caesarea.^[8] 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 lingua 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.

However, 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.^[9] 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.^[10]

Archeological evidence

Excavations at Kadesh conducted by Dr. Rudolph Cohen (former head of the Israeli Antiquities Authority) 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 at 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.

References

See also

• Nitzanei Sinai, a communal settlement in modern-day Israel also known as Kadesh Barne'a

Coordinates: 30°38′54″N 34°25′20″E / 30.64833°N 34.42222°E / 30.64833; 34.42222