Kadesh (Israel) - Location

Location

Kadesh-Barnea is an oasis south of Canaan, west of Arabah and east of the Brook of Egypt. 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. 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). This discrepancy has been noted since the time of the medieval commentators, leading some to seek a reconciliatory model (i.e. Hezekiah bar Manoah), while others have proposed two separate sites being identified as Kadesh (i.e. Abraham ibn Ezra & Nahmanides).

A minority of modern scholarship has maintained that there were two sites identified as Kadesh—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 and Eusebius of Caesarea. 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 langua 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. 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.