KADESH BARNEA

generally accepted site of Kadesh Barnea, courtesy, TouchPointIsrael.com

In Biblical times, the site of Kadesh-Barnea was a major encampment of the Israelites during the Exodus, located at the westernmost edge of the Kingdom of Edom, south of Canaan.

Several times, Kadesh Barnea is mentioned in the Biblical texts: Genesis 14:7 "And they [Canaanite King Chedorlaomer of Elam and his allies] turned back, and came to En-mishpat--the same is Kadesh [Petra?]--and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazazon-tamar." From Kadesh, Moses sent the Israelites to spy out the Land of Canaan. Only two came back with positive reports. Numbers 13:26 "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." Numbers 20:1 "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." At the site of Meribah which is in Kadesh, Moses disobediently struck the rock that brought forth water (Numbers 20:11). Numbers 20:14-16 "And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom…” According to Numbers 34:4, when the time comes that the Israelites will take over Canaan, Kadesh Barnea was designated as being the southwestern most site of the Land of Israel. Deuteronomy 9:23 “And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and did not believe him or obey his voice.” Once the Israelites did take possession of Canaan and divided it among the tribes, Kadesh Barnea was allotted to Judah, becoming its westernmost point (Joshua 15:3).

For centuries, since the beginning of the Roman occupation of Judea, the location of Kadesh Barnea was a source of debate among scholars and later, archaeologists. Recent scholars have maintained a two-site theory, with a western Kadesh in the area of the Sinai Desert, and an eastern Kadesh centered around Petra in, what is today, the southwest of Arab-occupied Jordan. This two-site theory also appears to have been held by Josephus who identified Miriam's burial site (which the Bible identifies as Kadesh) with Petra, and Eusebius of Caesarea an early church father. This was also the opinion of Rabbis Abraham ibn Ezra (12^th century) and Moshe ben Nahman (13^th century). In 1842, archeologists had concluded that the site actually lies midway between Al-'Arish and Mount Hor in a great treeless limestone plateau. The spring of clear water, which rises at the foot of a limestone cliff, has been called, by the Arabs "Ain-Ḳadis", "spring of Kadesh". By the late nineteenth century, as many as eighteen sites had been proposed. One source of confusion has been the fact that Kadesh is sometimes mentioned in connection with the Desert of Paran (Numbers 13:26) and at other times with the Wilderness of Zin (Numbers 20:1). Nowadays however, a majority tend to agree that the site is the location of a group of springs centered around a place called El Godayrat Spring, in the near vicinity of Ain Kadis, about 46 miles southwest of Beersheba, just over the border from Israel in the Arab-occupied Sinai. And in fact, the Bible does locate Kadesh as south of Canaan, west of the Arabah and east of the Brook of Egypt. According to Deuteronomy 1:2, it is 11 days' march by way of Mount Seir from Horeb. In the aftermath of the Sinai Campaign of 1956, a large fortress from the period of the kings of Judah was discovered Ain Kadis as well as numerous remains strewn throughout the whole area from the Middle Bronze (c. 2000 b.c.e.) and Israelite periods.  

In modern times, Jews began to return to the area. Kadesh was liberated in the Six-Day War in 1967 and in 1980, a Jewish community was established nearby – Nitzanei Sinai. But due to the peace treaty with Egypt, in 1982, Prime Minister Menahem Begin ordered the Israeli army, acting in the form of the SS, to destroy and expel the Jewish inhabitants of the town, as they were ordered to do with the rest of the Sinai Peninsula. In 1986, the whole of Nitzanei Sinai was relocated to the western Negev in an area about midway between Eilat and Rafiah, almost adjacent to the Israel-Sinai border.