so, Kadesh became yet again the "Fountain of Judgment" against the insurgents, when there "the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up;" and a consuming fire came from the Lord; and a pestilence was among the people, destroying "fourteen thousand and seven hundred, besides them that died about the matter of Korah." And it was then and there, also, that the rod of Aaron budded' in confirmation of his priestly authority from Jehovah. It was certainly at Kadesh that Miriam died and was buried;2 that the people murmured for water; and that Moses struck the Rock,—when he had been told only to speak to it, and the Lord caused it to give forth again its waters in abundance.3 And Kadesh, on this latter occasion, became (perhaps for the third time) the "Fountain of Judgment," the place of the uttering of a sentence of God's condemnation, by the Lord's passing judgment on Moses for his presumption, his impatience, and his lack of reverent obedience; sentencing him, as also Aaron, to die outside of the Land of Promise. Then it was, also, that Kadesh, the Holy, became Meribah, or Strife." It was from Kadesh-barnea that Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom, asking if the Israelites might pass through his country on their way to Canaan; and from the same point, also, a like request was made of the king of Moab. Nor does Kadesh lose its pre-eminence in the story of the wanderings until the final move is made toward Canaan by the Way of the Red Sea, around the mountains of Edom and Moab. It is, in fact, a central point in both the geography and the history of the wanderings. Stanley' says, in reviewing the movements of the Israelites: "Two stages alone of the journey are distinctly visible [after Israel has received Num. 20: 12, 24. This point is more fully treated farther on. "Kadesh, names of." 3 Num. 20: 2-11. See Index, under 5 Num. 20: 13. 6 Num. 20: 14-21. Judges 11: 16, 17. 8 Num. 20: 22; 21: 4-20. 9 Hist. of Jewish Ch., I, 199. its divine charter as a nation]; from Sinai to Kadesh, and from Kadesh to Moab." 4. THE LINKINGS OF KADESH. Not only does the name "Kadesh" ("Holy") seem to have been gained by the abiding there of the tabernacle; but the cognomen "Barnea" is thought by many to have been given, in consequence of the sentence of dispersion there passed upon the Israelites. Simon' would derive this word from bar "desert," and nea "wandering;" rendering it, "Desert of the Wandering."2 Fürst and others give a similar origin, but would take bar in its later signification of "son." Jerome held this latter view, and rendered “Barnea" "Son of Change," corresponding to the idea of "Bed'wy." Others, again, think that "Barnea" was an earlier name for the locality; or, that it was the name of a 3 In the Onomast. s. v. of the Israelites (from 'wandering.')" 5 Barnea." 'Barnea, the Desert of the Wandering; that is bar, Chaldaic, Syriac, and Arabic, 'desert,' and '! nea, 2 Edersheim (Exod. and Wand. p. 172) approves this rendering, and gives as its equivalent, "the Land of Moving to and fro," or, "the Land of being Shaken." 3 In his Bible Concordance (in appended "Onomasticon," pp. 1272, 1290): “Barnea, Son of Wandering: Bed'wee." "Kadesh-barnea, Holy City of the Nomads." Again, (in his Heb. u. Chald. Wörterb.,) Fürst thinks that Barnea may correspond with the Arabic (marne'ah), “a green or blooming meadow." He claims that on sound linguistic principles "Barnea" may come from the root "ba-ran," "to be green," or "blooming." This would accord with the prominence of the site of Kadesh as an oasis in the desert. 4 Hackett (Smith-Hackett Bib. Dict., s. v. "Kadesh," note) points out that ", bar does not occur as 'son,' in the writings of Moses." Hackett adds that "The reading of the LXX. in Num. 34: 4, Kádný rov Bapvý, seems to favor the notion that it was regarded by them as a man's name." In both these suggestions, Hackett is followed by the Speaker's Com. in a note on Numbers 32: 8. 5 De Nominibus Hebraicis; “On Deuteronomy." 6" Filius mutationis." 7 See Keil and Delitzsch, Bib. Com. at Num. 20: 14–21; Kurtz's Hist. of Old Cov., III., 221. prominent place in the neighborhood of Kadesh.1 2 Whatever may have been its signification, that name became subordinate to the name which memorialized the abiding there of God's people with the sacred tabernacle. The exceptional importance of Kadesh-barnea, in its relation to the Israelitish wanderings, and to the Israelitish possessions and history, has long been recognized by students of the Bible story and of the lands of the Bible. Ewald, thorough and discriminating in his study of the main features of the Hebrew story, despite the fancifulness of many of his theories, says emphatically: "Kadesh is a place which emerges from the darkness of those times as especially important, and where evidently the community of Israel had their central station during a very long period." The cautious and conservative Ritter is even more explicit in making Kadesh the centre of a new national life to the Israelites. "Here began a new capital, so to speak," he says; "the long sojourn at this spot, and their constant conflicts with their warlike neighbors were the means of thoroughly training in warlike discipline the new generation which was born in the wilderness, and which had before it the task of entering the Promised Land." Wellhausen," the cold-blooded German critic, who looks only at the bald historic facts, as he sees them in the ancient story, goes a great deal farther than Ewald and 1 Ewald, in Hist. of Israel, II., 293. 2 Hillerus (in the Onomast. Sac., Tübingen, 1526, s. v. "Barnea ") explains it as from, beer-nea, meaning "Fountain of the Exile;" that is, of Ishmael. Leusden (in the Onomast Sac., Leyden, 1656; s. v. "Kadesh-barnea ") explains it as "holiness of the unstable son;" or "holiness of grain," or "of commoved-or unstable-purity." Thomas Wilson, in his Christian Dict. (London, 1678) and Calmet, in his Dictionary (Paris, 1720) adopted the same explanation as Leusden. Bünting (in the Itin. Sac. Script., Magdeburg, 1591) says "Kadesh means holy: a pure moving." There certainly is no lack, here, of suggested renderings from which to make a choice. Hist. of Israel, II., 193. Geog. of Pal., I., 428 f. 5 In Art. "Israel," in Encyc. Brit., ninth edition. 4 Ritter (and Moses), in his estimate of the exceptional importance of Kadesh in the Israelitish history. He not only believes that the Israelites remained there for many years, "having at the well of Kadesh their sanctuary and judgment seat only, while with their flocks they ranged over an extensive tract;" but, in his opinion, Kadesh was the "locality they had more immediately had in view in setting out" from Goshen. It was there, as he sees it, that Moses laid the foundations of the Hebrew commonwealth, and prepared the way for "the nomads of the wilderness of Kadesh" to become the occupants and transformers of Canaan, "If we eliminate from the historical narrative the long Sinaitic section, which has but a loose connection with it," he says, "the wilderness of Kadesh becomes the locality of the preceding and subsequent events. It was during the sojourn of many years here that the organization of the nation, in any historical sense, took place." Such a view as this of the inspired record has its chief value in showing how prominent a place is Kadesh in the Israelitish story, if the plain indications of the sacred text be considered with candor and thoroughness. Thomson, who is exceptionally familiar with the main correspondences of the Land and the Book, does not hesitate to speak of Kadesh as "one of the most interesting sites in the entire history of the Hebrew wanderings." Stanley, who can certainly see the salient points in a great historical picture, however he may give his own coloring to the minor details of that picture in its reproduction, declares: "There can be no question that next to Sinai, the most important resting place of the children of Israel is Kadesh." And in this declaration, Stanley but re-phrased the opinion of the devout and observing Durbin: "With the exception of Horeb, no place between the passage of the Red Sea and the passage of the 4 1 In Art. "Israel," in Encyc. Brit., ninth edition. 2 South. Pal. (Land and Book, new ed.), p. 200. Sinai and Pal., p. 93. Observ. in East, I., 199. Jordan concentrates so much interest as Kadesh." Milman,' the pioneer of modern English historians of the Jewish race from its beginnings, declared, as a result of his study of the wanderings, and of the entrance into Canaan: "The key to the whole geography is the site of Kadesh." And this opinion of Milman has been reiterated and restated by many a student who has followed him. Lowrie, the competent and careful American translator of Lange's Numbers, says, similarly: "Kadesh is the key to all the geographical problems of the wanderings after the departure from Sinai." Palmer, the distinguished explorer of the desert of the exodus, and of the country above it, was of the same opinion, when he affirmed,3 of the wilderness of Kadesh: "This is perhaps the most important site in the whole region, as it forms the key to the movements of the children of Israel during their forty years wanderings." Graetz, the latest eminent Jewish historian of his own people, quotes this saying of Palmer as fully a just one. And William Smith, whose extensive historical studies have involved a close acquaintance with the geographical questions of the Israelitish wanderings and possessions, concludes: "To determine the position of Kadesh itself, is the great problem of the whole route." In short, an agreement on the site of Kadesh is an essential preliminary to any fair understanding of the route and the movements of the Israelites, between Sinai and the Jordan. Yet this "essential preliminary" has thus far been unattainable by Bible students generally. When the English Palestine Exploration Fund began its good work, in 1866, one of the widely known geographers of Great Britain, in expressing his hope of the good results of that. undertaking, spoke of Kadesh, as "one of the most hotly contested sites in biblical investigation, and the settlement of which is much 'Hist. of Jews., Vol. I., Book IV., p. 242, note. 2 Schaff-Lange Com., Des. of Exod., II., 349 f. Student's Old Test. Hist., p. 186. Gesch. d. Juden, I., 395. 6 |