Kadesh Barnea #32

Kadesh Barnea, often simply called Kadesh, was an oasis on the southern border of Canaan and the main base of Israel during much of the wilderness years. The Bible places it in the wilderness of Zin, also called the wilderness of Paran (Numbers 13:26; 20:1; 33:36). Deuteronomy notes that it is an eleven-day journey from Mount Horeb by the way of Mount Seir (Deuteronomy 1:2), which underlines how close Israel came to the promised land just after leaving Sinai.

Biblical Significance

The turning point of the wilderness story happens here. Moses sends twelve men from Paran to explore Canaan, and they return to Kadesh with a huge cluster of grapes and a report that the land is rich but its cities are fortified and its people strong (Numbers 13:1-33). Only Caleb and Joshua urge Israel to go up. The congregation weeps and rebels, and the Lord declares that the generation which refused to trust him will not enter the land. They will wander for forty years, one year for each day the spies were gone (Numbers 14:26-35; Deuteronomy 1:19-46).

Israel returns to Kadesh near the end of the forty years. There Miriam dies and is buried (Numbers 20:1). The people quarrel over lack of water, and Moses and Aaron are told to speak to the rock, but Moses strikes it twice, and both brothers are told they will not lead Israel into the land (Numbers 20:2-13). The place is called Meribah, meaning “quarrel.” From Kadesh Moses sends messengers to the king of Edom to ask for safe passage along the King’s Highway, and the request is refused (Numbers 20:14-21). Deuteronomy sums up the period by noting that Israel stayed at Kadesh for “many days” and that thirty-eight years passed between leaving Kadesh and crossing the brook Zered (Deuteronomy 1:46; 2:14). Earlier, Genesis mentions Kadesh in connection with the patriarchs (Genesis 14:7; 16:14; 20:1).

Today

Most scholars identify Kadesh Barnea with the area of Ain el-Qudeirat, the largest spring in the northeastern Sinai, close to the border between Egypt and Israel. Nearby Ain Qudeis preserves the ancient name Kadesh, and the region has several springs and wadis that would have supported a large group for an extended period. Excavations at Tell el-Qudeirat in the 1970s and 1980s, directed by Rudolph Cohen, uncovered a series of Iron Age fortresses from the time of the Judean monarchy.

These fortresses are much later than the wilderness period, and they do not confirm the biblical account, which leads some scholars to look to other springs in the area, or to suggest the earlier camp left few traces. The general location, on the boundary of Canaan, fits the biblical description well.