Kadesh lay on the southern border of Canaan. After the return of the spies, who made their search during the vintage (August) of the second year of the Exodus [WANDERING], and after the defeat of the sinful people by the Canaanites (Num. xiv. 45), they were ordered to turn back from Kadesh into the wilderness, by the way of the Red Sea' (Deut. i. 4o). This incidental notice affords also a slight indication of the situation of Kadesh. 'The way of the Red Sea' is doubtless the valley of Arabah, and this is the natural road to the wilderness of Sinai from Kadesh-Mishpat, situated as it was on the borders of Edom. Again, in the list of the journeys contained in Num. xxxiii., which seems to fill up the blank left in chap. xii., we find that in going from Ezion gaber towards Canaan they came to Kadesh (ver. 36) ; and this Kadesh, we know, was on the borders of Edom, not far from Mount Hor (cf. ch. xx. 16). Thus it will be seen that in going from the wilder ness of Sinai to Kadesh the Israelites passed up the Arabah, at the southern end of which Ezion-gaber stood ; and in going back from Kadesh to the wilderness they passed down it. And this leads to the conclusion that En-Mishpat Kadesh, whence the spies were sent, and Kadesh-Barnea, were both in or very close to the Arabah, near the borders of Moab, and therefore most probably identical.
There is one objection to this view. The Kadesh from which the spies were sent was in Me wilder ness of Paran (Num. xiii. 26); Kadesh-Barnea was in the wilderness of Zin (xx. 1). This is easily removed. Paran was the general name for the whole desert west of the Arabah, extending from Palestine to Sinai (Gen. xxi. 21; Num. x.
; xii. t6 ; I Sam. xxv. t). It even seems to have included the Arabah, reaching to the very I base of Mount Seir (Gen. xiv. 6). Zin was a specific name for that part of the Arabah which bordered on Edom and Palestine (Num. xiii. 21; xxxiv. 3, 4 ; Josh. xv. 1-3). If Kaclesh was situ ated on the western side of the Arabah, then it might be rethoned either to Paran or to Zin; or, if we agree with Keil, Delitzsch, and others (Keil yosh. x.), that Paran was the general name for the whole, and Zin the specific name of a portion, the obj,ection is removed at once.
One or two other topographical notices tend to fix the position still more definitely. Moses says, in his message to the Edomites, Behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border' (112,1 ;Ts? Ty, literally, a city of the extremity of thy border,' Num. xx. 16). It must thus have stood Von, not, however, within, the border of Edom ; but the Arabah, or wilderness of Zin, was the border of Edom ; and hence Kadesh must be looked for in it. Again, it was one of the chief landmarks, at the wilderness of Zin, of the south-eastern border of the Israelitish territory (Num. xxxiv. 4), and of the tribe of Judah ( Josh. xv. 3), which reached to the border of Edom ' ; Josh. xv. r). It was. besides, within a short distance of Mount Hor, whose posi tion is well known [Holt]. All these facts and notices tend to fix the site of Kadesh in the valley of Aiabah, to the west of Mount Hor, or Petra ; and they are fatal to the theories of Rowlands and S tanley.
There was a fountain (IT), and a very noted one, at Kadesh. Fountains are permanent landmarks, and in this region they are very rare. Now, there is one spot, and apparently only one, to which all these notices point as the site of Kadesh ; and that is Ain el-Weibeh. Here is a copious fountain, to this day one of the most important watering-places in the great valley. It is situated on the western border of the Arabah, north-west of Petra. From it Mount Hor is seen to fine advantage, towering in lone majesty at the distance of about twenty miles. We were much struck,' says Dr. Robinson, while at Weibeh, with the entire adaptedness of its posi tion to the scriptural account of the proceedings of the Israelites on their second arrival at Kadesh. There was at Kadesh a fountain, called also En Mishpat ; this was then either partially dried up, or exhausted by the multitude, so that there was no water for the congre,gation. By a miracle water was brought forth abundantly out of the rock.
Moses now sent messengers to the king of Edom, informing him that they were in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of his border ;' and asking leave to pass through his country, so as to continue their course around Moab and approach Palestine from the east. This Edom refused ; and the Israelites accordingly marched to Mount Hor, where Aaron died; and then along the Arabah to the Red Sea. Here all these scenes were before our eyes. Here was the fountain, even to this day the most fre quented watering-place in all the Arabah. On the north-west is the mountain, by which the Israelites had formerly assayed to ascend to the land of Palestine, and were driven back. Over against us lay the land of Edom ; we were in its uttermost border ; and the great Wady el-Ghuweir, affording a direct and easy passage through the mountains to the table-land above, was directly before us ; while farther in the south, Mount Hor formed a pro minent and striking object' (B. R. ii. 174, sg-) The traditions preserved by Josephus, the Tal mudists, Eusebius, and Jerome, which Professor Stanley adduces as tending to prove the identity of Petra and Kadesh, certainly show that th.e two places v.-ere near each other, and closely linked to gether by the facts of Israelitisla history ; but farther than this they do not go (S. and P., 95). Kadesh appears to have been known to Eusebius and Jerome, and they clearly distinguish it from Petra. The former says, Bappii, abril 6,7,1 Kan, Bapoi3 4v 44.4471 rotparetpoticrg llgrpg. raft ; and Jerome translating BARNE, haee ipsa est, quae Cacles Borne 171 a'eserto, quod extenditur usque ad urbent Petranz' (Onomast., s.v. Barne). In his Commen tary on Gen. xiv. 7, Jerome writes Significal autem locum apud Petram, qui fans judicii nonzinatur ; quiaibiDens populumjna'icavit ; and again he says, Cades, fints est judicii, et Cadesbarne in desert° quae conjzingitur (mite/ Petra 171 Arabia' (Ono mast., s.v. Cada). The local traditions which now linger round Petra are far too obscure to have any influence on a question of topography. One fact alone is final against the identification of Petra and Kadesh. The former is ten miles within the border of Edom, and in the very heart of Mount Seir ; whereas Kadesh was on the border of the territory of Judah, and became apparently one of the cities of that tribe ( Josh. xv. 3, 23. See, how ever, Stanley, S. and P., pp. 94-97).
Kadesh is called a city (Num. xx. 16, -1,3"); and it is the only station of the Israelites so called. The houses were probably constructed rudely and slightly, like those of the semi-nomad tribes of the Sinai Peninsula; and we have no notice whatever of the inhabitants. There are no ruins round or near the fountain of El-Weibeh. The Israelites were unquestionably twice at liadesh, and remained there on each occasion for a considerable time. They came here about July of the second year of the Exodus, and again about the same time of the fortieth year (Num. xii. 16; xiii. 26; xx. r, etc.) During the intervenin, thirty-eight years they wandered through the desert ; and of the journey in,s during that period, no account is given. lases, in summing up the principal journeys (Num. xxxiii.), enumerates the stations as far as Kadesh, to which they proceeded after the giving of the Law on Sinai ; then he passes over the whole interval of the thirty-eight years, during which the curse was upon them, and takes up the narra tive again when they visit Kadesh the second time, and leads them on to Canaan. During this second visit Miriam dies, and Jerome speaks of her tomb as still shown there in his day (Onontast.,s. v. Cades); Moses and Aaron bring water from the rock, and in doing so sinned so heinously that the I,ord would not permit them to enter Canaan. The fountain opened was appropriately named Meribah, 'strife.' After this sad event, and the refusal of Edom to grant them a passage, the whole congregation journeyed from Kadesh and came unto Mount Hor ' (Num. xx. 1-22); and we hear of Kadesh no more except as a mark of the boundary of Palestine. --J. L. P.