Kadesh (biblical)

• : "And they [King Chedorlaomer and his allies] turned back, and came to En-mishpat--the same is Kadesh--and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazazon-tamar." • : "Wherefore the well was called 'Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered." • : "And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the land of the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar." • : "And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land." • : "And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month; and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there." • : "And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom: 'Thus saith thy brother Israel: Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us; how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and our fathers; and when we cried unto the LORD, He heard our voice, and sent a messenger, and brought us forth out of Egypt; and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border." • : "And they journeyed from Kadesh; and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came unto mount Hor." • : "And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother was gathered; because ye rebelled against My commandment in the wilderness of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify Me at the waters before their eyes.'--These are the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin." • : "And they journeyed from Ezion-geber, and pitched in the wilderness of Zin--the same is Kadesh. And they journeyed from Kadesh, and pitched in mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom." • : "So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there." • : "Because ye trespassed against Me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribath-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified Me not in the midst of the children of Israel." • : "But when they came up from Egypt, and Israel walked through the wilderness unto the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh; then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying: Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land; but the king of Edom hearkened not. And in like manner he sent unto the king of Moab; but he would not; and Israel abode in Kadesh." • : "The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh." • : "And the south side southward shall be from Tamar as far as the waters of Meriboth-kadesh, to the Brook, unto the Great Sea. This is the south side southward." • : "And by the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar unto the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the Brook, unto the Great Sea." ==Location==

The most common identification of Kadesh or Kadesh Barnea in modern scholarship is with the present-day Tell el-Qudeirat, with most contemporary scholars seeing the biblical references to Kadesh as referring to a single site. The Bible locates Kadesh, or Kadesh Barnea, as an oasis south of Canaan, west of the Aravah and east of the Brook of Egypt. It is 11 days' march by way of Mount Seir from Horeb (Deuteronomy 1:2). By the late nineteenth century, as many as eighteen sites had been proposed for biblical Kadesh. One source of confusion has been the fact that Kadesh is sometimes mentioned in connection with the Desert of Paran () and at other times with the Zin Desert (). The two-site theory also appears to have been held by Josephus and Eusebius of Caesarea. Josephus identifies Miriam's burial site (which the Bible identifies as Kadesh) with Petra, which he called Rekem (Nabataean Aramaic , *Raqēmō). After a period in which researchers identified Kadesh with the similarly named Ein Qedeis, since 1905, Ain el-Qudeirat in the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt has been widely accepted as the location of Kadesh Barnea. ==Archaeological exploration==

The Ain el-Qudeirat oasis in Wadi el-Ain of northern Sinai was first archaeologically investigated in 1914 by two British researchers, Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") as part of their regional survey on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund. At the top of the Ain el-Qudeirat site they identified a fortress—built in the last decades of the 8th century BCE and destroyed around 600 BCE—and they cut a sounding into one of its rooms. Cohen wrapped up his excavation campaign in 1982, shortly before Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai as part of the peace agreement with Egypt. All field research at the ancient tell (mound) ceased at that point and as of 2015, has not been resumed since. ==See also==