to be desired." Fifteen years later, the chief representative' of the Palestine Exploration Fund, in the immediate field of its researches, could say no more, after all those added years of investigation, than that "the recovery of the site of Kadesh-barnea is [still] the most interesting question of the topography of the Sinaitic Desert; and any indication leading to a clearer understanding of the question will be of some value."3 Nor is it alone as a key to the geography of the wanderings, that the site of Kadesh has an importance in the field of biblical research. Kadesh is the one place spoken of as "a city" in all the Israelitish encampments. For centuries before this it had been a landmark by which routes of travel were noted, and by which the location of other places had their bearing; and for centuries afterward it was referred to as one of the chief boundary marks of the Land of Promise. To settle its whereabouts is to aid in settling the boundary stretch of Edom,5 or Seir; the locality of the wilderness of Paran; of the wilderness of Zin; of the Negeb or South Country; and to fix more definitely one of the homes of Abraham; 10 the dwelling-place of rejected Hagar;" the sites of mounts Hor1 and Halak; 13 the site of Tamar;14 and the route of Kedor-la'omer, in the first really great military campaign of history.15 It would, indeed, be strange if the Bible text on the one hand, and the explorations into the lands of the Bible on the other, gave no sure indications of a site so important as is Kadesh-barnea, in both its biblical and its geographical aspects and relations. 1 From "Quarterly Statement," No. IV., as reprinted in Surv. of West. Pal., "Special Papers,” p. 71 f. Capt. C. R. Conder. 4 Compare Num. 34: 4; 5 Num. 20: 16. 8 Num. 20: 1; 27: 14; 33: 36. 10 Gen. 20: 1. Num. 13: 26. 9 Num. 34: 3-5; Josh. 15: 1-4. 12 Num. 20:21, 22; 33: 37. 11 Gen. 16: 14. 13 Josh. 11: 16, 17; 12: 7. 14 Ezek. 47: 19; 48: 28. 15 Gen. 14: 1-7. KADESH-BARNEA. 1. THE FIRST CAMPAIGN OF HISTORY. And now what are the indications in the Bible text of the site of Kadesh? What help to its locating is given in the earlier and later references to it in the sacred narrative? The first mention of Kadesh is in the record of the devastating march of "Chedorlaomer, king of Elam," in the days of the patriarch Abraham.' Elam2 was a country north of the Persian Gulf and east of the Tigris. It was later known as Susiana, with Shushan as its capital. From the Assyrian monuments it has been learned, that, not long before the days of Abraham, an Elamite king had conquered Babylon; and the Bible record here 1 Gen. 14: 1-16. See Niebuhr's Gesch. Assur's u. Babel's, pp. 382-409; Loftus's Chald. and Sus., chaps. 26 and 28; Encyc. Brit., ninth edition, Art. "Elam," by Sayce; Rawlinson's Origin of Nations, pp. 229-231; his Five Great Mon., II., 435; Lenormant and Chevallier's Anc. Hist. of East, I., 59, 82, 343, 352; Tomkins's Times of Abraham, pp. 166-203; Winer's Bibl. Realwörterb., Art. "Elam;" Schaff-Lange Com. and Speaker's Com., at Gen. 14: 5. See, also, Isa. 11: 11; 21: 2; Jer. 25: 25; 49: 34-39; Ezek. 32: 24; Acts 2: 9. "Elam was bounded on the east by Persia and Parthia; on the west by Assyria and Babylonia; and on the south by the Persian Gulf." (Hamburger's Real-Encyc., 8. v. "Elam.") Neh. 1: 1; Esther 1: 2, etc.; Dan. 8: 2. 5 "Asshur-bani-pal, the last of the Assyrian conquerors, mentions in two inscriptions that he took Susa 1635 years after Kedor-nakhunta, king of Elam, had con shows that the Elamite king Chedorlaomer' (or Kedor-la'omer, or Kudur-Lagamar) had sway not only over the whole TigroEuphrates basin, but westward over Syria and Canaan, even to the borders of Egypt. This outreaching of the Eastern king was on a scale before unknown in the history of the world. The Bible story says quered Babylonia. He found in that city the statues of the gods taken from Erech by Kedor-nak hunta, and replaced them in their original position. It was in the year 660 B. C. that Asshur-bani-pal took Susa. The date, therefore, of the conquest of Babylon by Kedor-nakhunta, and the establishment of the Elamite dynasty in Chaldea, must have been 2295 B. C." (Lenormant and Chevallier's Anc. Hist. of East, I., 352.) Authorities differ slightly as to this precise date. See also, on this point, George Smith's translation of "The Annals of Assurbanipal,” in Rec. of Past, I., 88, and of the "Early History of Babylonia," in Rec. of Past, III., 4; and Tomkins's Times of Abraham, p. 175 f. 1"Though the name of Chedor-laomer has not been found [in the course of the Chaldean researches], Laomer or Lagamar appears as an Elamite god, and several of the Elamite kings bore names compounded with Kudur 'a servant,' as KudurNankhunte, 'the servant of the god Nankhunte,' Kudur-Mabug, 'the servant of Mabug,' and the like." (George Smith's Chald. Acc. of Genesis, p. 272 f.) Sir Henry Rawlinson suggested the identification of Kudur-Mabuk, lord of Elam, mentioned on the Babylonian monuments, with the Kedor-la'omer of Genesis. Afterwards he was inclined to abandon this idea. But it has been taken up by the Rev. Henry George Tomkins, and pressed with a strong show of probabilities in its favor. The latter quotes George Smith (apparently from a private letter) as saying: "From his Elamite origin and Syrian conquests, I have always conjectured KudurMabuk to be the same as the Chedor-la'omer of Genesis XIV." Smith had, however, shown that Rawlinson's finding of the title "Apda Martu" (Conqueror, or Ravager, of the West) on the bricks of Kudur-Mabuk, was a misreading of Adda (lord) for Apda (conqueror). Compare Tomkins's Times of Abraham, pp. 175–181; Rawlinson's Five Great Mon., I., 161-163, 176-178; George Smith's translation of the "Early History of Babylonia," in Rec. of Past, III., 19. See, also, Bunsen's Chron. of Bible, p. 11 f.; Rawlinson's Origin of Nations, pp. 37-40; Sayce's Art. "Elam," in Encyc. Brit., ninth edition. "Kedar-el-Ahmar, or 'Kedar the Red,' is, in fact, a famous hero in Arabian tradition, and his history bears no inconsiderable resemblance to the Scripture narrative of Chedor-laomer." (Sir H. Rawlinson, in Rawlinson's Herodotus, Vol. I., Essay VI., 25, note 1.) See also, on this, Lenormant and Chevallier's Anc. Hist. of East, II., 146. "He [Kedor-la'omer] is the forerunner and prototype of all those great Oriental |