Kadesh-Barnea
(its importance and probable site, with the story of a hunt for it:
including studies of the route of the exodus and the southern boundary of the Holy Land)
Henry Clay Trumbull, 1884 AD

(Kadesh-Barnea Henry Clay Trumbull, 1884 AD)

KADESH-BARNEA

ITS IMPORTANCE AND PROBABLE SITE

THE STORY OF A HUNT FOR IT

INCLUDING

STUDIES OF THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS

AND THE SOUTHERN BOUNDARY

OF THE HOLY LAND

H. elAY TRUMBULL D. D.

Editor of "The Sunday School Times"

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 1884

COPYRIGHT BY H. elAY TRUMBULL

PHILADEPHIA

TO

THE REV. JOHN ROWLANDS

AND TO THE MEMORY OF

PROFESSOR EDWARD HENRY PALMER

AND

THE REV. F. W. HOLLAND

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED

BY

AN AMERICAN FOLLOWER IN THEIR TRACK

AND ADMIRER OF THEIR

SPIRIT AND WORK.

CONTENTS.

TITLE PAGE 1

DEDICATION 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS 5

INTRODUCTION . 9

I.

KADESH-BARNEA:

ITS MANIFOLD IMPORTANCE.

(1.) IN STORY AND IN PROPHECY, 15. (2.) FROM SINAI TOKADESII, 1C. (3.) LIGHTS AND SHADOWS AT KADESH, 17. (4.) THE LINKINGS OF KADESH, 24.

II. KADESH-BARNEA:

BIBLICAL INDICATIONS OF ITS SITE.

(1.) THE FIRST CAMPAIGN OF HISTORY, 31. (2.) KEDOR-LA OMER S ROUTE, 35. (3.) A STRATEGIC HALTING-PLACE, 42. (4 ) THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL, 44. (5.) A TYPICAL TRAINING-PLACE, 58. (6.) GERAR AND BERED, 61. (7.) THE MOUNTAIN OF THE AMORITES, 65. (8.) PARAN AND ZIN, 67. (9.) AN ELEVEN DAYS COURSE, 71. (10.) THE WAY OF MOUNT SEIR, 74. (11.) THE AMORITE HILL-COUNTRY ROAD, 80. (12.) THE BORDER OF EDOM, 83. (13.) A SWEEP TO GAZA, 102. (14.) THE PROMISED LAND S SOUTHERN BOUNDARY, 106. (15.) SEL A PETRA THE ROCK, 124. (16.) THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOR, 127. (17.)

THE TIME BETWEEN STATIONS, 139. (18.) KADESH IN THE LIST OF STATIONS, 147.

5

6 CONTENTS.

III. KADESH-BARNEA:

ANCIENT REFERENCES TO IT OUTSIDE OF THE BIBLE TEXT.

(1.) IN THE EGYPTIAN RECORDS, 159. (2.) IN THE APOCRYPHA, 165. (3.) IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS, 167. (4.) IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN NAME LISTS, 178.

IV. KADESH-BARNEA:

LATER ATTEMPTS AT ITS IDENTIFYING.

(1.) WHY IT DROPPED FROM NOTICE, 185. (2.) A GLEAM DURING THE CRU SADES, 186. (3.) NATURAL MISTAKES OF MEDIAEVAL WRITERS, 188. (4.) BEGIN NINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH, 191. (5.) FRESH HINTS AND SURMISES FROM DESERT TRAVEL, 203. (6.) ROBINSON S PROPOSED IDENTIFICATION, 208. (7.) ROWLANDS S DISCOVERY, 211. (.8.) THE CONFUSION OF SITES, 216. (9.) FAIL URES TO RE-FIND ROWLANDS S SITE, 229.

V.

KADESH-BARNEA:

STORY OF A HUNT FOR IT.

(1.) ITS ARAB GUARDIANS, 237. (2.) A MID-DESERT STARTING POINT, 243. (3.) FAVORING CIRCUMSTANCES AT NAKIIL, 247. (4.) A MOVE NORTHWARD, 253. (5.) YANKEE CATECHISING, 255. (6.) A RESTLESS NIGHT, 259. (7.) HELP FROM A NOTABLE DRAGOMAN, 260. (8.) OFF FROM THE MAIN TRACK, 263. (9.) DES ERT DANGERS, 265. (10.) TRACES OF OLD-TIME OCCUPANCY, 269. (11.) HOPE DEFERRED, 271. (12.) THE LOST SITE RE-FOUND, 272. (13.) A BLOODLESS EN COUNTER, 275. (14.) A PLACE OF PILGRIMAGE, 277. (15.) LOST IN THE DESERT,

CONTENTS.

278. (16.) AN ANCIENT VILLAGE, 280. (17.) AYN EL-QADAYRAT DISCOVERED, 282. (18.) A RIDE IN THE DARKNESS, 284. (19.) INTO CAMP AGAIN, 286. (20.) A SECOND DAY S PLAN, 287. (21.) THE THIRD WELL VISITED, 288. (22.) ANOTHER LANDMARK RECOGNIZED, 289. (23.) AN ARAB S SHORT CUT, 292. (24.) OWDY S USE OF SALT, 293. (25.) A CAMP AT EL- AUJEH, 295. (26.) ARAB MODE OF BALANCING AN ACCOUNT, 296. (27.) AN AZAZIMEH PRO TEST, 298.

VI. KADESH-BARNEA:

THE SITES COMPARED.

(1.) SUGGESTED IDENTIFICATIONS, 303. (2.) THE Two REPRESENTATIVE SITES, 304. (3.) elAIMS FOR AYN EL-WAYBEH, 305. (4.) OBJECTIONS TO AYN EL-WAYBEH, 306. (5.) OBJECTIONS TO AYN QADEES, 309. (6.) THE ARGUMENT FOR AYN QADEES, 311. (7.) FAIR CONCLUSIONS, 320.

THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS.

A SPECIAL STUDY.

(1.) THE BARRIER TO ISRAEL S PASSAGE, 325. (2.) KHETAM AND ETHAM, 327. (3.) THE THREE ROADS DESERTWARD, 337. (4.) THE PIIILISTIA ROAD, 338. (5.) THE WALL ROAD, 340. (6.) THE YAM SOOPH ROAD, 352. (7.) THE MANY MIGDOLS, 364. (8.) No CITIES ox THE ROUTE, 379. (9.) TAKING TIME AND BAKHSHEESII, 384. (10.) THE PLACE OF RENDEZVOUS, 392. (11.) THE FIRST UNITED MOVE, 395. (12.) A SHARP TURN AND ITS PURPOSE, 396. (13.) THEO RIES OF THE ROUTE, 402. (14.) THE LAST CAMP WITHIN THE WALL, 405. (16.) UNLOOKED-FOR PURSUIT, 423. (16.) THE GREAT WALL FLANKED, 425. (17.) POINTS NOW MADE clear, 429.

g CONTENTS.

MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

MAP OF BIBLE LANDS (FROM ELAM TO EGYPT) ... In front.

VIEW OF CASTLE NAKHL. "EL-PAKAN" ... . Frontispiece.

OUR SINAITIC SHAYKII : SIIAYKH MOOSA .... Facing page, 247 OUR DRAGOMAN : MUHAMMAD AHMAD HEDAYAH ..." " 2C1

AYN EL-WAYBEH (TWO VIEWS) " " 308

SECTION THROUGH THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ " 341

MAP OF THE NEGEB AND SURROUNDINGS (SHOWING THE SOUTHERN BOUNDARY OF THE HOLY LAND, AND THE FIELD OF THE EXODUS AND WANDERINGS) . . . . In pocket of second cover.

INDEXES.

PAGE.

. 435

LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED

INDEX OF PERSONS NAMED 44G

INDEX OF FOREIGN WORDS CITED 453

INDEX OF BIBLE TEXTS CITED 458

TOPICAL INDEX ... .463

INTRODUCTION.

At first thought, Kadesh-barnea may seem a small subject for a large book ; and it may even be deemed a subject of minor interest in the realm of biblical and geographical research. But Kadesh-barnea was a site of importance forty centuries ago. It was more than once the scene of events on which, for the time, the history of the world was pivoting. And for now well-nigh twenty centuries the location of Kadesh-barnea has been a matter of doubt and discussion among Jewish and Christian scholars.

Going into the desert of Arabia for the express purpose of avoiding study, on an enforced-vacation ramble, I was enabled, most unexpectedly, to re-discover a long-lost site which had borne an important part in the discussions over Kadesh-barnea. This laid upon me the duty of giving to the public the results of my personal observations. Desiring, however, to present the facts of my discovery in the light of kindred facts brought out by prede cessors in this field of research, I delayed the publication of my story until I could examine anew the more important works already treating on this subject. Giving a mere announcement of my discovery, in the Quarterly Statement of the (London) Palestine Exploration Fund, on my return from the East, in the summer of 1881, I set myself at the study of the facts involved.

The linkings of Kadesh-barnea proved far more numerous and varied than I anticipated, and the possibilities of gain from farther

1 INTR OD UCTION.

investigation in the fields of ancient and modern scholarship, opened more widely at every step of my progress. The four hundred volumes specifically cited, and the more than two thousand notes separately given from those volumes, indicate but a minor portion of the many volumes searched, and of the many note worthy passages examined, in the course of that prolonged investigation. But the results have fully justified the belief, that to settle the location of Kadesh-barnea would be to settle many another point in dispute ; and I think it will be found that this volume furnishes the material for determining the Route of the Exodus, the main outline of the Wanderings, and every landmark on the line of the Southern Boundary of the Land of Promise.

The necessity of furnishing the proof of old errors assailed, and of truths newly declared, has expanded this volume far beyond its original plan, and has multiplied its citations of works in various tongues. Yet the main text of the work is so written as to be complete by itself, and intelligible to a reader who understands only English. The appended notes are largely for the benefit of those who desire to verify, or to test, my statements ; although many of them are in fuller illustration of points made in the text.

Having fresh evidence, at every stage of my studies, of the frequent errors of my predecessors through their failure to verify quotations, I have been careful in every citation to cite directly from the authority quoted ; except in the few instances where I have specifically mentioned an intermediary agency through which alone I was able to refer to a work cited.

I have reason to acknowledge gratefully the kind assistance, at one point and another in my researches, of the late Professor Edward Henry Palmer, the Rev. John Rowlands, Mr. Walter Besant, and Mr. Trelawney Saunders, of England ; of the Rev. Dr. II. H. Jessup, of Syria, and Mr. Edward Van Dyck, of Egypt ; also of Professors Isaac H. Hall, J. A. Paine, C. H. Toy, Charles A. Briggs, S. T. Lowrie, C. D. Hartrauft, and T. W.

INTROD UCTION. 1 1

Coit, the Rev. Dr. T. W. Chambers, and of Drs. W. C. Prime, and J. Hammond Trumbull, and Mr. M. Heilprin, on this side of the Atlantic. Moreover, I desire to recognize my special indebtedness to Mr. John T. Napier, of Philadelphia, without whose varied and accurate scholarship, and unvarying readiness of efficient service at every point in my researches, I should never have been able to bring this work to completion, or to give it the exceptional value in its peculiar line, which 1 think it will be found to possess.

The transliterating of Oriental words has naturally proved a vexed question ; there being n jommonly recognized system to which I could conform, and no possibility of framing a system which should fully meet every difficulty in the premises. My endeavor has been, to employ such phonetic equivalents as will best convey the sound of the original, according to the English (or the American) uses of the Roman letters. My spelling, in this line, differs at some points from that of any one writer with whom I am familiar ; yet it follows at each point some such authority as Lane, or Wilkinson, or Robinson, or Palmer, or Birch, or Meyer, or Burton. Its peculiarity is, that at nearly all points it is conformed to a common standard.

In my citations I have adopted the spelling of the writer cited ; and so in the case of all biblical names, except the name of " Kedor- la omer," for which I have employed two forms. A thoroughly established proper name, like " Cairo," I have given in its popular form. The vowels I have employed, as nearly as may be, in their ordinary English force, instead of in their French or German or Italian force. For example, the designation of the Arabs of the desert is here given as Bcd wcen, rather than as the French-English Bedouin, or the German-English Bedaitfin. The double vowel ee has its sound as in meet; and oo, as in moon. With a circumflex sign, d has a long and broad sound, somewhat as in bard. With the same sign, 6 is sounded long, as in gore. With a long quan tity, d is sounded long, as in day. The diphthong ay, in the body

12 INTRODUCTION.

of a word, is sounded as a cross between the ei in vein and the ey in eye; where (in the Arabic) it is modified by a preceding guttural, as in ayn, its sound is more nearly that of the latter, ey in eye. The sign of the aspirate, as in ayn, marks a peculiar guttural sound unattainable by the ordinary American.

To distinguish between the Arabic letters, qaf and kaf, q is used for the former, and k for the latter. The fifth letter of the Arabic alphabet is pronounced by the Egyptians as hard g; while in Palestine and the Sinatic desert it is pronounced as j; and that distinction I have recognized by the use of g and j in the same word as it appertains to the different regions: thus the Gebel (Mountain) in Egypt, is the Jebel (Mountain) in Palestine.

The phototype illustrations are from photographs taken, with this work in view, by Mr. Edward L. Wilson, of Philadelphia, who subsequently went over a portion of the desert traversed by me (as also to Petra, and beyond), under the guidance of my old dragoman ; bringing back from his tour a choice collection of pho tographic views. The maps are compiled from the best available sources, with such tentative changes as will indicate to the reader the geographical points made in the text of my work. Having no new survey of the region, I cannot be sure of its topography, be yond the statements in my verbal description.

That there are errors in this volume I cannot doubt. That it throws fresh light upon the subject of which it treats, I firmly believe. That, as a whole, it will prove a means of correcting time-honored mistakes, and of bringing overlooked truths into prominence, I sincerely hope. It is, moreover, my confident expectation that more good will come from the new discussion which this volume provokes, than from the immediate conclusions of its own discussion of the main points at issue.

H. elAY TKUMBULL.

PHILADELPHIA, December 1, 1883.

KADESH-BAKKEA . ITS MANIFOLD IMPORTANCE,

KADESH-BAKNEA.

1. IN STORY AND IN PROPHECY.

KADESH-BARNEA has a manifold importance in the sacred story. Its historical, its geographical, and its providential rela tions, as disclosed in the inspired record, are of no ordinary or mean degree. A study of Kadesh-barnea in its varied biblical associations involves a study of the story of God s peculiar people, from the days of their great progenitor Abraham to the still vague and shadowy days of unfulfilled prophecy concerning their re-gathering and re-establishing.

This place comes into view as a strategic stronghold in the earliest military campaign of history; at the beginning in the time of the Father of the Faithful of the yet progressing strug gle of the world-powers with the kingdom of God on earth. It looms up as the objective point of the Israelites in their movement from Sinai to the Promised Land. It is the place of their testing, of their failure, of their judging, and of their dispersion. It is their rallying centre for the forty years of their wandering, and the place of their re-assembling for their final move into the land of their longings. It is the scene of repeated and varied displays of God s power and of his people s faithlessness. And finally it is the hinge and pivot of the southern boundary of the Holy Land in history, and of the Holy Land

in prophecy.

15

16 KADESH-BARNEA.

To ascertain the location, and to consider the associations of a place of such importance as this, cannot be unworthy of the attention of any careful student of sacred history, of biblical geography, or of God s providential dealings with his chosen people. And to enter upon such a study intelligently, it is de sirable to look first at the place as it is shown in its more promi nent relations to the movements of that people in the days of their exodus and wanderings.

2. FROM SINAI TO KADESH.

In the history of the Israelitish wanderings, Kadesh-barnea stands over against Sinai in interest and importance. Even Sinai takes a minor place when the element of time is considered ; for the Israelites were at the latter point less than a year, while Kadesh-barnea seems to have been their head- quarters, or chief rallying-place, during a space of more than thirty-seven years.

When the unorganized throng of Israelites, which had been hurried out from the bondage of Egypt into the lawless freedom of the desert, had become a compact nation, with its divinely given government and rulers, and its experiences of discipline, the divine command was given for the departure of the mighty host of that nation, from the forming-school of Sinai, across the desert to the sacred rendezvous of Kadesh l the divinely chosen camp ing ground and sanctuary, on the borders of the Promised Land. "The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb," says Moses, "say ing, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites. . . . And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great

1 The Hebrew word, Kadesh, or Qadhesh (EHp), means Holy, or Sacred. It corresponds with the Arabic Quds, ((jwjLs) or, with the article, J^l-Quds, which is applied to Jerusalem. Concerning the use of this term in biblical and elassical history, Bee Prideaux s Connection, Part I., Book 1, p. 87 /.

LIGHTS AND SHAD OWS AT KADESH. 1 7

and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the AYay of the Mountain of the Arnorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea." l

3. LIGHTS AND SHADOWS AT KADESH.

Kadesh-barnea once reached, and history was there made rapidly, by the people who were yet unready for their inheritance.

From that mountain-shielded covert 2 Moses sent forward spies into Canaan, to examine the land in order to learn its possessions and its possibilities. 3 On the return of those spies to Kadesh, 4 their report caused a fright of the Israelites, which led to a general murmuring and rebellion. 5 It was then that the people turned from their divinely appointed leader, and refused to accept the divine plan for their inheritance ; even choosing a captain of their own, with a view to their return to the bondage of Egypt. 6 For this cause, that boundary-line gathering-place of the chosen people on their way to the Promised Land became a limit to their progress for a full generation, and a place of dispersion for a people under the divine displeasure. Kadesh, the sanctuary, now became, or again became, En-mishpat 7 ( Ayn 8 Mishpat), a Fountain of Judg ment ; and there the guilty people were sentenced to complete a period of forty years, as wanderers in the desert they had already once passed successfully.

1 Dent. 1 : 6, 7, 19. * Deut. 1: 20, 24; Num. 14: 40.

"Num. 13: 1-20; 32: 8; Deut. 1: 20-24; Josh. 14: 7.

* It is thought by some, that the spies were sent from the wilderness of Paran (Num. 13: 3) before reaching Kadesh, although one statement (Deut. 1: 19, 22) would show that they were sent from the latter place; and again (Num. 13 : 20) the two places are spoken of interchangeably.

5 Num. 14: 1-34. Num. 14: 4; Neh. 9: 16, 17.

7 In Gen. 14: 7, it is called En-mishpat (33190 } #"), or Fountain of Judgment. The probable origin of this name is treated farther on in this volume.

8 In modern Arabic ayn (literally "an eye") means "a fountain," a natural spring of waters, as distinct from beer, " a well " that has been dug.

1 8 KA DESII-BARNEA.

Unwilling to lose all they had gained in reaching that threshold of their coveted inheritance, the rebellious Israelites determined to make at least a struggle for possession by venturing forward into the land which was now forbidden them. 1 elambering the moun tain-pass immediately above their secure possession, in disregard of the warning of Moses, they pushed up into the South Country the Xcgeb, 2 or tract of high land between the desert and Canaan proper ; but they were met and discomfited by the Amorites and Amalek- ites 3 of the region they had invaded. All this was within three years after the coming out of Egypt ; probably within two years. 4

. 14: 39, 40.

2 The Hebrew word ^cghelh or Xegcb pjj) which is rendered in the King James Version "the south," or the "south country," or "southward," (e. <j. Gen. 12: J; 24: G2 ; Num. 13: 17,) is a proper name the Xegeb and should commonly be so rendered, in order to its better understanding. " The tract below Hebron, which forms the link between the hills of Judah and the desert, was known to ancient Hebrews by a terra originally derived from its dryness (Xe- geb). This was the Soutli Country." (Grove, in Smith- Hackctt. Lib. Diet., s. v. "Palestine.") "It was a line of stoppe-land with certain patches here and there that admitted of cultivation, but in which tracts of heath prevailed, for the most part covered with grass and bushes, where only grazing could be carried on with any success. The term which Eusebius and Jerome employ for Xegeb in the Onomasticon is Daromas, but they carry it farther northward than the Xegeb of the Old Testament." (Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com. at Josh. 15: 21-32.) "Asa geographical term the name has been entirely ignored in the English version; . . . and the misapprehension has given rise to several absurd contradictions in terms." (Palmer s DCS. of Exod., II., 2!2.) "The rendering south in our Authorized Ver sion, is apt to confuse the general reader." (Edersheim s Exod. and Wand., p. 1C5.) This point is treated at length in Wilton s The Xegeb.

3 In Deut. 1: 44 the Amorites are mentioned, and in Num. 14: 45 the Amalekites. As Kurtz says (Hist, of Old Cor., III., 254) : " In the passage in which the historical facts are narrated with greater precision, Amalekites are spoken of along with the Amoritcs or Tanaanites, whereas in Deuteronomy the Amorites (i. c. Canaanites), who were incomparably more important, are mentioned alone."

4 It is not clear, from the text, how long the Israelites were journeying from Sinai to Kadesh. The season of the year is plain, but not the year itself, as various critics have shown in their attempts to prove it clear ; e. fj., Kurtz says (as above, III., 215 /.), "On the twentieth day of the second month (early in May), in the second year of

LIGHTS AND SHADO WS A T KADESH. \ 9

Then came a long halt at Kadesh. " So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there." l No mention is made in the sacred narrative of any formal departure of the Israelites from Kadesh, until the time came for a new move toward Canaan, at the elose of their prescribed wanderings; and then, it is said, all the people, "even the whole congregation," : had again come together in Kadesh, as if in re-assembling at the recognized rendezvous and rallyiug-point of the scattered nation. The indications of the text are, that when the people found their progress into Canaan barred for a generation, they gradually scat tered themselves in larger or smaller groups among the wadies 3 of

the exodus, the people departed from Sinai (Xum. 10: 11). On their arrival at the desert of Paran they sent out spies to Palestine (from Kadesh-barnea; Num. 32: 8; Deut. 1: 19 /.; Josh. 14: 7), at the time of the first grapes (Xum. 13: 21) that is, August (or earlier). . . . Forty days afterwards the spies returned to the camp at Kadesh (Xum. 13: 27). The people murmured at the reports of the spies, and Jehovah pronounced the sentence upon them." Lowrie, in the Schaff-Lange Com mentary (at Num. 14: 1-45), would add at least a year to this computation. He says: "We must infer that the journey from Sinai to Kadesh lasted at least from May of the second year of the exodus to July or August of the third year, i, e., fourteen to fifteen mouths. ... It may even have lasted longer."

1 Deut. 1 : 46. The rabbins held that this indicates that the Israelites remained at Kadesh as long as at all the other stations combined; or, say, nineteen years. Light- foot takes the meaning to be, as long as the stay at Mount Sinai. Patrick, following older authorities, understands it, as long after the mutiny as before; or, forty days. Keil, and Lange, and others, consider the phrase as intentionally indefinite ; the facts being well understood by the Israelites to whom Moses was speaking. Fries, as followed by others, woxild find here an intimation of the permanent stay at Kadesh, until the march Canaanward was finally resumed. "So ye abode [or, waited] at Kadesh, according unto the days that ye abode [or, as long as ye were sentenced to be waiting]." For light on this point see Critici Sacri, Pool s Synops. Crit., Barrett s Synops. of Crit., Schaff-Lange Com., Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., all in loco; also Fries s " Ueber die Lage von Kades," in Stud. u. Krit., 1854, p. 55.

2 Xum. 20: 1; Deut. 2: 1.

3 A "wady" is any depression of the desert surface, or any space between the hills, which becomes the bed of a water-course in the rainy season. From its extra water supply a wady is more fertile and arable than the higher ground about it. It is commonly marked with some signs of vegetation throughout the year.

20 KADESH-BARNEA.

the desert, living a nomad life, .seeking sustenance by sowing and reaping with the divinely added supply of daily manna, having, all this time, Kadesh as the northernmost limit of their roving, and as, in a peculiar sense, the centre of their occupancy, or the pivot of their wanderings. Meantime, the tabernacle, with its ministry, would seem to have moved, under the divine guidance, from place to place within the limits of the wanderings, as if on circuit, in order that Moses and Aaron might retain a spiritual oversight of the scattered people.

Certain it is, that the popular opinion, of a formal marching to and fro in the desert for the forty years of wandering, finds no more countenance in the text than it does in reason in view of the purposes of God with his people, and of the habits of Oriental nomads. 1 In this light of the narrative, the stations named in the sacred text, for the period of the wanderings, 2 may be taken either as the stations of the tabernacle on its circuit ; or as the excep tionally prominent encampments of the people as a whole, at the earlier or at the later portion of that period. 3

Hardly a glimpse is given us of the covenant people, in all those years between their first and second formal gatherings at Kadesh ; nor can it be supposed that this inspired silence is with out a substantial reason. Students of the covenant record, and historians of the covenant people, have recognized a pregnant meaning in the very shadows which obscure the life-story of Israel from Kadesh to Kadesh. "So far as the sacred records

1 Yet Cok-nso (The Pentateuch, etc., I., 124) insists that the popular opinion is the biblical view, as precedent to his elaim that the biblical view is an unreasonable one.

2 Num. 33: l$-3<3.

3 This reasonable view of the settlement, or the prolonged stay, of the Israelites at Kadesh, and of the nmnadic character of the forty years life in the wilderness, is held by many careful and judicious students of the Bible text; however those stu dents may differ in an understanding of the list of stations given in Numbers 33. For example, see: Hasius, in Ileg. David. ctSo.L, pp. 211-214; Ewald, in IKst. of Israel, II., 193 Jf.; Hitter, in Geotj. of Pal., I., 42S/.; Kurtz, in Hist, of Old Coi:, III., 202-

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS A T KADESH. 21

were concerned," says Kurtz, 1 "there was no history between the first and second encampments at Kadesh. But whatever happened while the first encampment lasted, and whatever occurred after the second encampment had taken place, was regarded as forming part of the history to be recorded. . . . Nothing of a stationary (or retrograde) character \vas regarded as forming part of the history to be recorded; but only that which was progressive. . . . During the thirty-seven years, about which the scriptural records are silent, the history of Israel did not advance a single step towards its immediate object, the conquest of the Promised Land. . . . The thirty-seven years were not only stationary in their character, years of detention and therefore without a history, but they were also years of dispersion. The congregation had lost its unity, had ceased to be one compact body ; its organization was broken up, and its members were isolated the one from the other. ... It was only Israel as a whole, the combination of all the component parts, the whole congregation, with the ark of the covenant and the pillar of eloud in the midst, which came within the scope of the sacred records." 2

" Not only are the names of the encampments [during the wan-

288; Winer, in Bibl. Realworterb., Art. " Wiiste, Arabische;" Tuch, in "Kemarks on Gen. XIV.," in Jour, of Sac. Lit., July, 1848, p. 91; Fries, in "Ueber die Lage von Kades," in Stud. u. Krit., 1S54, p. 55; Lange (and more fully Lowrie, his translator), in Schaff-Lange Com. "Numbers"; Espin, in Speaker s Com., at Num. 20: 1; Hayman, in Smith-Hackett Bib. Diet., Art. "Wilderness of the Wan dering;" Palmer, in Des. of Exod., II., 515-519; Edersheim, in Exod. and Wand., pp. 171-174; Smith, in Student s Old Test. Hist., pp. 187, 189; Payne Smith, in Bible Educator, I., 228 ff. ; Geikie, in Hours with Bible, II., 347. And the rationalistic Wellhausen agrees with his more evangelical fellow-critics on this point, as shown in his article on "Israel" in Encyc. Brit., ninth edition.

1 Hist, of Old Cov., III., 270 /.

3 "The subject divides itself into two parts; the emancipation and the preparation for conquest. Both of these, Moses treats at large. The space of years which he passes over in silence, is, if I may so speak, the interlude between the two acts of the great drama." (Palfrey s Lect. on Jewish Script and Antiq , I., 373)

22 KADESH-BARNEA.

derings] still lost iu uncertainty," says Stanley, 1 " but the narrative itself draws the mind of the reader in different directions ; and the variations, in some instances as it would seem, of the sacred text itself, repel detailed inquiry still more positively. To this out ward confusion corresponds the inward and spiritual aspect of the history. It is the period of reaction, and contradiction, and failure. It is chosen by Saint Paul 2 as the likeness of the corres ponding failures of the first efforts of the primitive Christian church; the one type of the Jewish history expressly mentioned by the w r riters of the New Testament."

In this view of the pivotal and typical character of the Israel ites halt at Kadesh 3 a peculiar interest attaches to every gleam of light on the place itself, and on the incidents having their centre there. It is possible that the rebellion of Ivorah and his company 4 occurred at Kadesh; 5 and that thus the attempt to wrest the priestly power from Aaron was made at the same place as the effort to take the civil government from the hands of his brother. 6 If this was

1 Hist. of Jewish Ch., I., 199 /.

2 1 Cor. 10: 11. These things happened unto them for examples types in the original. This is the true meaning of the word ; and it is the only case in which it is applied in the New Testament to the Jewish history."

8 In the parting blessing, or dying song of Moses, wherein the story of the The- ophany is rehearsed to Israel, the Septuagint gives " myriads of Kadesh," where our text gives "tun thousands of saints" (Deut. 33: 2); thus showing Sinai, Paran, Seir, and Kudesh, as uplifted into pre-eminence, as boundary limits of the place of God s chief wonder-working for his people, during their years of training. On this point, see Critici Sucri, Pool s Synops. Crit., Barrett s Synops. of Crit., and Kchuff- Lunge Com., all in loco; Ewald s Ilist. of Israel, vol. II., p. 198, note; Stanley s Sinai and Pal., p. 90.

* Xum. 16.

5 So elaim Kurtz (Ifist. of Old Cov., III., 257); Lange (Schaff-Lange Com. " Exod. and Lev." "Introduction" p. 25; and "Xum. and Deut." p. 85); and others. Forster (Israel in Wild., pp. 290-303) shows reason for believing that Korah s rebellion occurred not earlier than say twenty years after the exodus ; but the ques tion of its dote is apart from the question of its place.

6 Xum. 14: 4; Xeh. 9: 16, 17.

LIGHTS AND SHADO WS A T KADESH. 23

so, Kadesh became yet again the " Fountain of Judgment " against the insurgents, when there "the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up ; " and a consuming fire came from the Lord ; and a pestilence was among the people, destroying " fourteen thou sand and seven hundred, besides them that died about the matter of Korah." And it was then and there, also, that the rod of Aaron budded 1 in confirmation of his priestly authority from Jehovah.

It was certainly at Kadesh that Miriam died and was buried; 2 that the people murmured for water ; and that Moses struck the Rock, when he had been told only to speak to it, and the Lord caused it to give forth again its waters in abundance. 3 And Kadesh, on this latter occasion, became (perhaps for the third time) the " Fountain of Judgment," the place of the uttering of a sen tence of God s condemnation, by the Lord s passing judgment on Moses for his presumption, his impatience, and his lack of rever ent obedience ; sentencing him, as also Aaron, to die outside of the Land of Promise. 4 Then it was, also, that Kadesh, the Holy, became Meribah, or Strife. 5

It was from Kadesh-barnea that Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom, asking if the Israelites might pass through his country on their way to Canaan ; 6 and from the same point, also, a like request was made of the king of Moab. 7 Nor does Kadesh lose its pre-eminence in the story of the wanderings until the final move is made toward Canaan by the Way of the Red Sea, around the mountains of Edom and Moab. 8 It is, in fact, a central point in both the geography and the history of the wanderings. Stanley 9 says, in reviewing the movements of the Israelites : " Two stages alone of the journey are distinctly visible [after Israel has received

1 Num. 17. J Num. 20: 1. 3 Num. 20: 2-11.

4 Num. 20: 12,24. This point is more fully treated farther on. See Index, under " Kadesh, names of."

5 Num. 20 : 13. Num. 20 : 14-21. T Judges 11 : 10, 17.

8 Num. 20 : 22; 21 : 4-20. 9 Hist, of Jewish Ch., 1 , 199.

24 KADESH-BARNEA.

its divine charter as a nation] ; from Sinai to Kadesh, and from Kadesh to Moab."

4. THE LINKINGS OF KADESH.

Not only does the name " Kadesh " (" Holy ") seem to have been gained by the abiding there of the tabernacle; but the cog- iiomeu " Barnea " is thought by many to have been given, in con sequence of the sentence of dispersion there passed upon the Is raelites. Simon 1 would derive this word from bar " desert/ and nca " wandering ; " rendering it, " Desert of the Wandering." 2 Fiirst 3 and others give a similar origin, but would take bar in ite later 4 signification of "son." Jerome 5 held this latter view, and rendered " Barnea " " Son of Change," 6 corresponding to the idea of "Bed wy." Others, again, think that "Barnea" was an earlier name for the locality ; 7 or, that it was the name of a

1 In the Onomast. s. v. Barnea." " Barnea, the Desert of the Wandering ; that is of the Israelites (from 13 bar, Chaldaic, Syriac, and Arabic, desert, and >*J vcn, wandering. )"

2 Edersheim (Exod. find Wand. p. 172) approves this rendering, and gives as its equivalent, "the Land of Moving to and fro," or, "the Land of being Shaken."

3 In his Bible, Concordance (in appended Onomasticon," pp. 1272, 1290): "Bar nea, Son of Wandering : Bed wee." " Kadesh-barnca, Holy City of the Nomads." Again, (in his Ileb. u. Chnld. Worterb.,) Fiirst thinks that Barnea may correspond with the Arabic XXJ fJH (marne ah), " a green or blooming meadow." lie elaims that on sound linguistic principles " Barnea" may come from the root " bci-ran," " to be green," or "blooming." This would accord with the prominence of the site of Kadesh as an oasis in the desert.

4 Hackett (Smith-Hnckett Bib. Diet., s. v. " Kadesh," note) point* out that " "O, bar does not occur as son, in the writings of Moses." Hackett adds that " The reading of the LXX. in Num. 34 : 4, K()//f rov Bapvij, seems to favor the notion that it was regarded by them as a man s name." In both these suggestions, Ilackett is followed by the Speaker s Com. in a note on Numbers 32 : 8.

5 De Nominibus Ilebraicis; " On Deuteronomy."

6 " Filius mutationis."

7 See Keil and Delitzsch, Bib. Com. at Num. 20: 14-21 ; Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cor., III., 221.

THE LINKINGS OF KADESH. 25

prominent place in the neighborhood of Kaclesh. 1 Whatever may have been its signification, 2 that name became subordinate to the name which memorialized the abiding there of God s people with the sacred tabernacle.

The exceptional importance of Kadesh-barnea, in its relation to the Israelitish wanderings, and to the Israelitish possessions and history, has long been recognized by students of the Bible story and of the lands of the Bible.

Ewald, 3 thorough and discriminating in his study of the main features of the Plebrcw story, despite the fancifulness of many of his theories, says emphatically : " Kadesh is a place which emerges from the darkness of those times as especially important, and where evidently the community of Israel had their central station during a very long period." The cautious and conservative Rit- ter 4 is even more explicit in making Kadesh the centre of a new national life to the Israelites. " Here began a new capital, so to speak," he says ; " the long sojourn at this spot, and their constant conflicts with their warlike neighbors were the means of thor oughly training in warlike discipline the new generation which was born in the wilderness, and which had before it the task of enter ing the Promised Land." Wellhauseu, 5 the cold-blooded German critic, who looks only at the bald historic facts, as lie sees them in the ancient story, goes a great deal farther than Ewald and

1 Ewald, in Hist, of Israel, II., 293.

Z llilleru3 (in the Onomast. Sac., Tiibingen, 1526, s. v. "Barnea") explains it as from J J "liO, leer-nea, meaning "Fountain of the Exile ; " that is, of Ishniael. Leusden (in the Onomast Sac., Leyden, 1650 ; s. r. " Kadesh-barnea ") explains it as " holiness of the unstable son ; or " holiness of grain," or " of comtnoved or unsta ble purity." Thomas Wilson, in his Christian Diet. (London, 167S) and Calmet, in his Dictionary (Paris, 1720) adopted the same explanation as Leusden. Biinting (in the Itin. Sac. Script., Magdeburg, 1591) says " Kadesh means holy : a pure moving." There certainly is no lack, here, of suggested renderings from which to make a choice,

Hist, of Israel, II., 193. * Geog. of Pal., I., 428 /.

6 In Art. " Israel," in Encyc. Brit., ninth edition.

2(3 KADESH-BARNEA.

Hitter (and Moses), in his estimate of the exceptional importance of Kadesh in the Israelitish history. 1 He not only believes that the Israelites remained there for many years, " having at the well of Kadesh their sanctuary and judgment seat only, while with their flocks they ranged over an extensive tract ; " but, in his opinion, Kadesh was the " locality they had more immediately had in view in setting out" from Gosheu. It was there, as he sees it, that Moses laid the foundations of the Hebrew commonwealth, and prepared the way for "the nomads of the wilderness of Kadesh" to become the occupants and transformers of Canaan. " If we eliminate from the historical narrative the long Siuaitic section, which has but a loose connection with it," he says, " the wilder ness of Kadesh becomes the locality of the preceding and subse quent events. It was during the sojourn of many years here that the organization of the nation, in any historical sense, took place." Such a view as this of the inspired record has its chief value in showing how prominent a place is Kadesh in the Israelitish story, if the plain indications of the sacred text be considered with can dor and thoroughness.

Thomson, 2 who is exceptionally familiar with the main corres pondences of the Land and the Book, does not hesitate to speak of Kadesh as "one of the most interesting sites in the entire history of the Hebrew wanderings." Stanley, 3 who can certainly see the salient points in a great historical picture, however he may give his own coloring to the minor details of that picture in its reproduction, declares: "There can be no question that next to Sinai, the most important resting place of the children of Israel is Kadesh." And in this declaration, Stanley but re-phrased the opinion of the de vout and observing Durbin : 4 " With the exception of Horcb, no place between the passage of the Red Sea and the passage of the

1 In Art. "Israel," in Encyc. Brit., ninth edition.

2 South. Pal. (Land and Book, new ed.), p. 200.

3 Sinai and Pal., p. 93. 4 Observ. in East, I., 199.

THE LINKINGS OF KADESH. 27

Jordan concentrates so much interest as Kadesh." Milman, 1 the pioneer of modern English historians of the Jewish race from its beginnings, declared, as a result of his study of the wanderings, and of the entrance into Canaan : " The key to the whole geogra phy is the site of Kadesh." And this opinion of Milman has been reiterated and restated by many a student who has followed him. Lowrie, 2 the competent and careful American translator of Lange s Numbers, says, similarly : " Kadesh is the key to all the geographi cal problems of the wanderings after the departure from Sinai." Palmer, the distinguished explorer of the desert of the exodus, and of the country above it, was of the same opinion, when he affirmed, 3 of the wilderness of Kadesh : " This is perhaps the most important site in the whole region, as it forms the key to the movements of the children of Israel during their forty years wanderings." Graetz, 4 the latest eminent Jewish historian of his own people, quotes this saying of Palmer as fully a just one. And William Smith, 5 whose extensive historical studies have involved a elose acquaintance with the geographical questions of the Israel- itish wanderings and possessions, concludes : " To determine the position of Kadesh itself, is the great problem of the whole route." In short, an agreement on the site of Kadesh is an essential pre liminary to any fair understanding of the route and the movements of the Israelites, between Sinai and the Jordan. Yet this " essen tial preliminary " has thus far been unattainable by Bible students generally. When the English Palestine Exploration Fund began its good work, in 1866, one of the widely known geographers 6 of Great Britain, in expressing his hope of the good results of that undertaking, spoke of Kadesh, as " one of the most hotly contested sites iu biblical investigation, and the settlement of which is much

1 Hint, of Jeivs., Vol. I., Book IV., p. 242, note.

2 Schnff-Lanye Com.. " Num. and Deut," p. 80.

3 Des. of Exod., II., 349 /. * Gesch. d. Juden, I., 395.

6 Student s Old Test. Hist., p. ISO. 6 Trelawney Saunders.

28 KADESH-BARNEA.

to be desired." Fifteen years later, the chief representative 2 of the Palestine Exploration Fund, in the immediate field of its re searches, could say no more, after all those added years of investi gation, than that " the recovery of the site of Kadesh-barnea is [still] the most interesting question of the topography of the Sina- itic Desert ; and any indication leading to a clearer understanding of the question will be of some value." 3

Xor is it alone as a key to the geography of the wanderings, that the site of Kadesh has an importance in the field of biblical re search. Kadesh is the one place spoken of as "a city" in all the Israelitish encampments. For centuries before this it had been a landmark by which routes of travel were noted, and by which the location of other places had their bearing ; and for centuries afterward it was referred to as one of the chief boundary marks of the Land of Promise. 4 To settle its whereabouts is to aid in set tling the boundary stretch of Edom, 5 or Seir; 6 the locality of the wilderness of Parau ; 7 of the wilderness of Zin ; 8 of the JSTegeb or South Country; 9 and to fix more definitely one of the homes of Abraham; 10 the dwelling-place of rejected Hagar; 11 the sites of mounts Hor 12 and Halak; 13 the site of Tamar; 11 and the route of Kedor-la omer, in the first really great military campaign of his tory. 13

It would, indeed, be strange if the Bible text on the one hand, and the explorations into the lands of the Bible on the other, gave no sure indications of a site so important as is Kadesh-barnea, in both its biblical and its geographical aspects and relations.

J From " Quarterly Statement," No. IV., as reprinted in Surv. of West. Pal., "Special Papers," p. 71 /.

2 .Capt. C. R. Cornier. 3 " Quart. Statement," January, 1881, p. GO/.

* Compare Num. 34: 4; Josh. 15: 3; Ezek. 47: 19; 48: 28. 5 Num. 20: 16. 6 Gen. 36: 8; Dout. 1: 2,44, 7 Num. 13: 26.

8 Num. 20 : 1 ; 27 : 14 ; 33 : 3G. 9 Num. 34: 3-5 ; Josh. 15 : 1-4.

10 Gen.20:l. u Gen.l6:14. 12 Num. 20 : 21, 22; 33 : 37.

" Josh. 11 : 16, 17 ; 12 : 7. u Ezek. 47 : 19 ; 48 : 28. 15 Gen. 14 : 1-7.

II.

KADESH-BARNEA. BIBLICAL INDICATIONS OF ITS SITE.

1. THE FIRST CAMPAIGN OF HISTORY.

And now what are the indications in the Bible text of the site of Kadesh? What help to its locating is given in the earlier and later references to it in the sacred narrative?

The first mention of Kadesh is in the record of the devastating march of " Chedorlaomer, king of Elam," in the days of the patriarch Abraham. 1 Elam 2 was a country north of the Persian Gulf and east of the Tigris. 3 It was later known as Susiana, with Shushau 4 as its capital. From the Assyrian monuments it has been learned, that, not long before the days of Abraham, an Elamite king had conquered Babylon; 5 and the Bible record here

J Gen. 14: 1-16.

3 See Niebuhr s Gesch. Assur s u. Babel s, pp. 382-409 ; Lofttis s Chald. and Sus., chaps. 2G and 28; Encyc. Brit., ninth edition, Art. "Elam," by Sayce; Rawlinson s Origin of Nations, pp. 229-231; his Five Great Hon., II., 435; Lenormant and Chevallier s Anc. Hist, of East, I., 59, 82, 343, 352; Tomkins s Times of Abraham, pp. 166-203; Winer s Bibl. Realworterb., Art. "Elam;" Schaff-Lange Com. and Speaker s Com., at Gen. 14: 5. See, also, Isa. 11: 11; 21: 2; Jer. 25: 25; 49: 34-39; Ezek. 32: 24; Acts 2: 9.

3 " Elam was bounded on the east by Persia and Pnrthia ; on the west by Assyria and Babylonia; and on the south by the Persian Gulf." ( Hamburger s Beal-Encyc., s.v. "Elam.")

* Neh. 1:1; Esther 1 : 2, etc. ; Dan. 8 : 2.

6 "Asshur-bani-pal, the last of the Assyrian conquerors, mentions in two inscrip tions that he took Susa 1635 years after Kcdor-uakhunta, king of Elam, had con-

31

32 KADESH-BARNEA.

shows that the Elamitc king Chedorlaomer 1 (or Kedor-la omer, or Kudur-Lagamar) had sway not only over the whole Tigro- Euphrates basin, but westward over Syria and Canaan, even to the borders of Egypt.

This outreachmsr of the Eastern kmty was on a scale before

O o

unknown in the history of the world. 2 The Bible story says

quered Babylonia. lie found in that city the statues of the gods taken from Erech by Kedor-nakhunta, and replaced them in their original position. It was in the year 660 B. C. that Asshur-bani-pal took Susa. The date, therefore, of the conquest of Babylon by Kedor-nakhunta, and the establishment of the Elamite dynasty in Chaldea, must have been 2295 B. C." (Lenormant and Chevallier s Anc. Hist, of East, I., 352.) Authorities differ slightly as to this precise date. See also, on this point, George Smith s translation of "The Annals of Assurbanipal," in Ecc. of Past, 1., 88, find of the "Early History of Babylonia," in Ecc. of Pant, III., 4; and Tom- kins s Times of Abraham, p. 175/.

1 "Though the name of Chedor-laomer has not been found [in the course of the Chaldean researches], Laomer or Lagamar appears as an Elamite god, and several of the Elamite kings bore names compounded with Kudur a servant, as Kudur- Nankhunte, the servant of the god Xankhunte, Kudur-Mabug, the servant of Mabug, and the like." (George Smith s Chald. Ace. of Genesis, p. 272 /.)

Sir Henry Rawlinson suggested the identification of Kudur-Mabuk, lord of Elarn, mentioned on the Babylonian monuments, with the Kedor-la omer of Genesis. Afterwards he was inclined to abandon this idea. But it has been taken lap by the Rev. Henry George Tomkins, and pressed with a strong show of probabilities in its favor. The latter quotes George Smith (apparently from a private letter) as saying : "From his Elamite origin and Syrian conquests, I have always conjectured Kudur- Mabuk to be the same as the Chedor-la omer of Genesis XIV." Smith had, however, shown that Rawlinson s finding of the title "Apda Martu" (Conqueror, or Ravager, of the West) on the bricks of Kudur-Mabuk, was a misreading of Adda (lord) for Apda (conqueror). Compare Tomkins s Times of Abraham, pp. 175-181; Rawlinson s Fire. Great Hon., I., 161-163, 176-17*; George Smith s translation of the "Early History of Babylonia," in Rcc. of Past, III., 19. See, also, Bunsen s Chron. of r>il/lc, p. 11 /. ; Rawlinson s Origin of Nations, pp. 37^0; Sayce s Art. " Elam," in Enryc. Brit., ninth edition.

" Kedar-el-Ahmar, or Kedar the Red, is, in fact, a famous hero in Arabian tradi tion, and his history bears no inconsiderable resemblance to the Scripture narrative of Chedor-laomer." (Sir II. Rawlinson, in Eawlinson s Herodotus, Vol. I., Essay VI., 2 5, note 1.) See also, on this, Lenormant and Chevallier s Anc. Hist, of East, II., 146.

1 "He [Kedor-la omer] is the forerunner and prototype of all those great Oriental

THE FIRST CAMPAIGN OF HISTOR Y. 33

nothing of the events which led toward it, but mentions the fact of it incidentally, in giving the record of an attempt by the Canaanites to throw off the yoke of vassalage, and of the part performed by Abraham in aiding his kinsman Lot 1 against the power of the oppressor, when the latter came westward to re-forge the chains of bondage. 2

An immediate gain of Kedor-la omer s then unparalleled scheme of conquest was the control of the one great highway of travel and

conquerors who from time to time have built up vast empires in Asia out of hetero geneous materials, which have in a larger or a shorter space successively crumbled to decay. At a time when the kings of Egypt had never ventured beyond their borders, unless it were for a foray in Ethiopia, and when in Asia no monarch had held dominion over more than a few petty tribes, and a few hundred miles of terri tory, he conceived the magnificent notion of binding into one the manifold nations inhabiting the vast tract which lies between the Zagros mountain-range and the Mediterranean. Lord by inheritance (as we may presume) of Elam and Chaldea or Babylonia, he was not content with these ample tracts, but, coveting more, proceeded boldly on a career of conquest up the Euphrates valley, and through Syria, into Palestine. Successful here, he governed, for twelve years, dominions extending near a thousand miles from east to west, and from north to south probably not much short of five hundred." (Rawlinson s Five Great Mon,, I., 177.)

1 Gen. 14: 12-16. "It is indeed true that affection for Lot may have been the motive, and his deliverance from captivity the object, of Abram s expedition. But both this and his victory had a higher meaning when viewed objectively and ia their bearing upon history. It is not the purpose of the narrative to exalt Abram, but to show the wonderful leadings of God towards his elect, by which everything is brought into immediate relation to the divine plan." (Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., I., 217.)

2 " The imperial power of Asia had already extended as far as Canaan, and had subdued the valley of the Jordan, no doubt with the intention of holding the Jordan valley as the high-road to Egypt. We have here a prelude of the future assault of the worldly power upon the kingdom of God established in Canaan ; and the impor tance of this event to sacred history consists in the fact, that the kings of the valley of the Jordan submitted to the worldly power, whilst Abram, on the contrary, with his home-born servants, smote the conquerors and rescued their booty a prophetic sign that in the conflict with the power of the world the seed of Abram would not only not be subdued, but would be able to rescue from destruction those who appealed to it for aid." (Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com. at Gen. 14: 1-12.)

34 KADESH-BARNEA.

commerce between the East and the West. 1 In the very nature of things, from the formation of the earth s surface, that little belt of land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, hedged in by mountain and desert and sea, was, and must continue to be, the one passable isthmus between Asia and Africa and Europe. From the earliest dispersion of the families of men, the Land of Canaan has been in a sense a geographical centre of the world s interest; and rival forces have never ceased to contend for the possession* of the great thoroughfare which the immediate region of that land practically controls. The building of the Suez Canal, in our own day, is but an effort to secure in another way what Kedor-la omer sought by the subjugation of the peoples and tribes on either side of the Jordan. 2

And the keeping open of that highway continuing its control by his subjects and tributaries was vital to the supremacy of the great Eastern conqueror. 3 "When, therefore, after twelve years,

1 The reference in Joshua 7: 21 to the "goodly Babylonish garment" "a choice robe of Shinar" among the spoils of Jericho, is an indication of the traffic in that day between Shinar and Canaan.

2 " The true reason [of Kedor-la omer s campaign] cannot be doubtful, when we remember of what importance that extensive valley [of the Jordan] was at all times, in regard to the intercourse of tribes with one another. It always formed (comp. Strabo XVI. 4, IS/.) the road marked out by nature itself, which, from the yElantic gulf, divides the boundless wilderness watered by the Nile and Euphrates; the medium of intercourse between Arabia and Damascus. ... To have dominion over the whole of this important locality must have appeared of the greatest conse quence. . . . By this occupation Arabia in particular, with its choice productions (comp. Ezck. 27: 19 ff.), was completely enclosed; and all commerce with the southern coast, and the bazaars in Western and Eastern Asia, came into the hands of one and the same power ; which was a sufficient reason for procuring these advantages by conquest, and for maintaining them against revolt, by the putting forth offeree." (Tuch s "Remarks on Gen. XIV.," in Jonr. of Sac. Lit., July, 1848, p. 82.)

3 "In fact they [of the Pentapolis] commanded the great route of Arabian com merce, and enriched themselves with the wealth which the Egyptians, the Phoeni cians, the. Babylonians and Elamites valued so highly. Doubtless many a rich caravan of Midianite merchantmen, with spicery and balm and myrrh [Gtu.

KEDOR-LA OMER S ROUTE. 35

there was a general revolt against Kedor-la omer s authority by the dwellers in the five Cities of the Plain, it became necessary for him to make a personal campaign for their re-subjugation and punishment. It is in this campaign that Kadesh first appears in history.

2. KEDOR-LA OMER S ROUTE.

It is probable, indeed it may be said to be certain, that the route of Kedor-la omer toward Canaan was up along the eastern bank of the Euphrates to Syria, and thence down by Damascus; for this was the only practicable military road from Elam to Syria. The great Arabian desert was, and ever has been, impassable for such an army as his. 1 From Damascus he moved down on the east of the Jordan and of the great mountain range east of the Dead Sea. And he and his allies, as they went along this route, "smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in the plain of Kiriathaim, and the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-Paran, which is by the wilderness." 2

37 : 25], many a long train of Amu with their bales of rich elothing, and cosmetics, and metals, would pass within reach of those Cana,anite lords, who must not be allowed to levy their blackmail for their own independent profit." (Tomkins s Times of Abraham, p. 182.)

1 A careful study of the route of Kedor-la omer was first made, in modern times, by Prof. Tuch, of Leipzig. It was published under the title " Bemerkungen zu Genesis XIV.," in the Zeitechrift der deutschen morgenJdndischen GeseUschaft, and an English translation of it, by Dr. Samuel Davidson, appeared in Kitto s Journal of Sacred Literature for July, 1848. A more recent and an admirable study of the same subject, in the light of later discoveries, is to be found in the Rev. Henry George Tomkins s Studies in the Times of Abraham.

2 Gen. 14: o, 6. "Drawing together the contingents of the different states in Babylonia, Kedor-la omer would pass up the Euphrates, cross the Khabour, perhaps at Arban (ancient Sidikan), the Belik near Kharran, the Euphrates at Carchemish, and so [onward], . . . passing Aleppo, Ilarnath, and Emesa (where, perhaps, already the sons of Kheth were entrenched in their lake fortress). The further march is in dicated in the biblical narrative, if we take for granted (which we may well do) that

36 KADESH-BARNEA.

This description covers the regions of Bashan and Moab and Edom, and the entrance between the lower mountains of Seir and the ^Elanitic Gulf, or Gulf of Aqabah, into the Wilderness of Paran, or the central desert of the Sinaitic Peninsula. 1

It has been common to suppose that "El-Paran, which is by the wilderness," was Ailch, or "Eloth, on the shore [or, the lip ] of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom;" 2 because just there was a gateway of the great route between Arabia and Egypt and Syria. 3 But it would seem more probable, that this plantation, or grove,

the army returned over the same ground, excepting where the contrary is stated; Kedor-la omer then doubtless received the homage and tribute of the ruler of Damascus ; but instead of pouring down the valley of the Jordan in a direct course to the revolted cities, he first cutoff their supports, and completely cleared his flanks by an extended campaign ; for, sweeping all the highland plateau to the east of Jordan, and following the great ancient course of commerce where now the Iladj road goes down into Arabia, he chastised and disabled the old world tribes who had evidently shared in the rebellion." (Tomkins s Studies, as above, p. 1S5.)

1 For added facts and suggestions as to this route, and as to various proposed identifications along its course, see Davidson s translation of Tuch, and Tomkins s Studies, as above ; Rawlinson s Five Great Man., I., 177; Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com. at Gen. 14: 1-12; Schaff-Lange Com., Speaker s Com., and Murphy s Com. in loco; also Wetzstein s Reisebericht iiber Hauran u. d. Trachonen, pp. 108-113; Por ter s Giant Cities, pp. 43, 68, 84/.; Merrill s East of Jordan, pp. 328-330; Oliphant s Land of Gilead, pp. 94-100. 2 1 Kings 9: 26, and "margin."

3 "The more surely we must understand with the Septuagint and Peshitto TX el (as in Gen. 35: 4 and Judges 6: 11, 19) to be a plantation of terebinth, the more easily can we consider ourselves justified in referring that name to an oasis situated, on any view of the subject, to the west of the Edomite mountains. . . . On eloser examination, it cannot admit of a doubt that El-Paran is identical with .EYaZ/i-Aileh, on the shore of the Eed Sea (1 Kings 9: 26), manifestly at the extreme end of Wadi Arabah." (Tuch, as above, p. 85.)

But Wilton (The Negcb p. 196) has shown that el, meaning " the strong," applies to the strong tree of the particular region, whether palm, terebinth, tamarisk, or oak. TIence it is fair to consider " El-Paran " as the grove, or oasis, which was the ex hibit and type of the strength of the wilderness.

See Burton and Drake s Unexplored Syria (note at p. 68, Vol. I.), as to the use of " alah (cloth and elath)" for the terebinth tree or groves. Forster (Geog. of Arabia,

KEDOR-LA OMERS ROUTE. 37

> or oasis, of Paran, " which is upon 1 the wilderness/ was the one

oasis which is in mid-desert on the great highway across the Wilderness of Paran; known in later times as "Qala at Nukhl," 2 or " Callah Xahhar," 3 or " Bathu-Xakhl," 4 or, more commonly, " Cas tle Nakhl." It is there that the great desert roads centre ; and it is at that point that a turn northward would naturally be made ; that indeed a turn northward must be made in following the road Canaanward.

And from the Wilderness of Paran " they returned ; " 5 that is, they went back northward ; but clearly not by the way they had come, for their work in Canaan was yet to be done. They " came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country [the field] of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites that dwelt in

p. 34), with his wonted fancifulness, would find in Elana a vestige of " Elon the nit- tite," whose daughter was a wife of Esau.

1 The Hebrew word here is al (~>y), " upon." They were not upon the Wilder ness of Paran until they ascended westward from the Arabah.

2 See Thevenot s Reisen, Part I., Book II., Chap. 17; Burckhardt s Trav. in Syria, p. 450; Map in Lepsius s Denkmaler, Abth. I.; Stewart s Tent and Khan, p. 173 ff.; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 287, 327 ff., and Map; etc.

3 See Shaw s Travels, p. 477.

4 See quotation from Hajj Chalfa s Itinerary, in Hitter s Geog. of Pal., I., 42. Bonar (Desert of Sinai, p. 383) calls attention to this designation of Chalfa s, as repeated by Wellsted (Travels, II., 458), and suggests that Butm may have been intended here, instead of Batn. Butm is shown by Robinson (Bib. Res., III., 15, first edition) to have been the terebinth.

By a comparison of the authorities here quoted, it will be seen that this oasis of Nakhl has been variously understood as meaning the Castle of Palms, the Valley of Palms, the Castle of the Wady, and the Terebinth-Vale ; yet without any purpose, on the part of any traveler, of identifying its site with the Palm Grove, or Terebinth Plantation of Paran. Any looking for traces of the ancient name in the later one is, however, quite apart from, or the geographical probabilities in favor of the oasis of Xakhl being the site of the oasis which was upon the Wilderness of Paran, and which was the southwesternmost stretch of the march of Kedor-la omer.

5 Gen. 14 : 7. The Hebrew word used here indicates an abrupt turn in another direction; not necessarily a return. The word is treated in a note farther on. See Index, s. v. "Turn."

38 KADESH-BARNEA.

Hazezon-tamar," " which is En-gedi," l near the west shore of the Dead Sea. All this was prior to a severe battle in the Yale of Siddim, or the Plain of the Dead Sea, 2 with the five kings of the Cities of the Plain. 3 What was their route from the Wilderness of Paran to the Plain of the Dead Sea ? The settlement of this question is an important step toward the locating of Kadesh.

The choice of routes in that country was, and is, but limited. " We must bear in mind," says Palmer, 4 " that roads in such re gions as this are determined by certain physical conditions." It is practically certain, therefore, that the invading army either turned directly up the Arabah, or swept across the desert at the south of the Azazimeh mountain tract, and, at Xakhl, turned northward westerly of Jebel Araeef cn-Naqah. Robinson says 5 emphatically on this point : " The whole district adjacent to the Arabah, north of Jebel Araif and el-Mukrah, . . is mountainous ; and is composed ... of steep ridges running mostly from east to west, and present ing almost insuperable obstacles to the passage of a road parallel to the Arabah. In consequence, no great route now leads, or ever has led, through this district ; but the roads from Akabah, which ascend from Wady el- Arabah and in any degree touch the high plateau of the desert south of el-Mukrah, must necessarily curve to the west, and passing around the base of Jebel Araif el-Nakah, continue along the western side of this mountainous tract."

To have entered Canaan by way of any of the mountain passes at the west of the upper Arabah, would have been next to impos sible for such an army as Kedor-la omer s ; 6 especially if, as we

i 2 Chron. 20 : 2. 2 Gen. 14 : 3. 3 Gen. 14 : 8-12.

*Des. ofExod., II., 511. * Bib. Res., I., ISO/.

6 For the difficulties of these passes, see the testimony of Seetzen, Schubert, Robin son, and Williams, and the added historical facts, collated by Tuch, in Jour, of Sac. Lit., July, 1848, p 93. See, also, Lord Lindsay s Letters on Holy Land, IT., 4t> ; Olin s Travels, II., 60; Durbin s Observ. in East, I., 200; Wilson s Lands of Ilibls, I., 340 ; Stanley s Sinai and Pal., p. 99.

KEDOR-LA OMERS ROUTE. 39

may fairly suppose, that army came with the war chariots which, according to Egyptian, Chaldean, and Assyrian records, played so important a part in the early military movements of Africa and Asia. 1 Those passes were certainly not to be compared, for ease of travel, with the great highway of commerce at the south and west of the Azazimeh mountains.

The probability of an ancient road running diagonally across the Azazimeh moun tains from the Arabah, was suggested by Wilton (The Negeb, p. 175 ff.); and the remains of a Roman road in that direction were discovered by Palmer (see Des. of Exod., II., 421 ff.} ; but as this road runs into the other at Abdeh (Eboda) near the western side of the mountain plateau, and is thenceforward identical with it north ward, its discussion is not essential to the settlement of this question. (For the line of this diagonal road, see Zimmermann s Karte von Syr. u. Pal., Sect. X.)

l See Gen. 41 : 43 ; 46 : 29 ; 50 : 9 ; Exod. 14: 7 ff.; Josh. 11: 4, C, 9; 17: 1C; Judges 4:3. " And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen," says the prophet, in foreseeing another visit of the people of that land to the land of Palestine (Isa. 22 : C).

Egyptian inscriptions antedate those of Chaldea and Assyria; but, as is indicated in the enterprise of Kedor-la omer, the East was clearly in advance of Egypt in the art and equipments of warfare. The earliest mention, on the monuments, of the horse in Egypt, is in the Inscription of Aahmes (Ecc. of Past, IV., 5-8), which tells of the capture of "a horse and a chariot" in Ethiopia, in the days of Thot- mes I. of the Eighteenth Dynasty, who himself employed horses and chariots in Mesopotamia. But the horse is here designated by its Semitic name "soos" (Ebers s Pict. Egypt, II., 249 ; and Philip Smith s note in Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 288). The chariot-driver is also known by the Semitic name " kazan" (Brugsch, as above, I., 342) ; and the inference is legitimate, that the horse and chariot were originally brought from the East. Indeed, it is generally agreed by Egyptologists that "the horse had been introduced into Egypt by the Hykshos " some time before its first appearance on the monuments. (See Ebers and Brugsch, as above ; Wilkinson s Anc. Egyptians, I., 236 /., and Birch s note ; Yilliers Stuart s 3"ile Gleanings, p. 296; Wilson s Egypt of the Past, p. 38; also, Philip Smith s Anc. Hist, of East, pp. 84-89 ; and Iloughton s Natural Hist, of Ancients, pp. 84-89.) Ebers even notes the Thir teenth Dynasty as the period of the introduction of the horse, although he proffers no direct proof of this fact (Pict. Egypt, II., 99). Canon Cook (Speaker s Com., Append, to Exod.) says : " It is very probable that horses were first introduced under the Twelfth Dynasty, after the reign of Osirtasin." If, then, the Ilykshos introduced horses and chariots into Egypt from Asia, doubtless there were horses and chariots ia use in Asia before the Ilykshos went to Egypt; and that carries us back to as early a

40 KADESH-BARNEA.

Moreover, if Kedor-la omer had reached the shores of the Dead Sea from the south and east, he would have conic to the Vale of Siddim, " which is [or, is at] the Salt Sea," l and would there have given battle to the kings of the Pentapolis, without passing through the country or the field of the Amalekites, and the region of the Amorites, as the sacred narrative assures us was the case. - This "field" of the Amalekites was, probably, the country after wards possessed by the Amalekites, 3 on the southern border of the

date as Kedor-la omer s. The conclusion is therefore well-nigh inevitable, that such an expedition as Kedor-la omer s into Canaan was not undertaken without this agency of warfare. M. Pietrenient (Oriyines du Chcval Domestique p. 455,) affirms that the horse was introduced into western Europe, from the East, as early as 9,600 years before the Christian era. That certainly was prior to Kedor-la omer s day.

It is worthy of note, that the Septuagint renders EO~1 rekhush, in Gen. 14: 11, 16, 21, by T>,V l-rrov, ten hippon, " the horse," or "the cavalry."

1 Gen. 14 : 3.

"Whether the Vale of Siddim and the Cities of the Plain were at the southern end or at the northern end of the Dead Sea, is a disputed question. The strongest argu ments in favor of the northerly site are presented by Grove in Smith s Bible Dic tionary, under the various heads "Siddim, the Vale of," "Sea, the Salt," and " Sodom," and by Tristram, in his Land of Israel (pp. 361-367). In favor of the former generally accepted site at the southern end of the Sea, the best presentation is made by Robinson, in his Biblical Researches (II., p. 187-192), and by Wolcott, in the Bibliotheca Sacra for January, 1868 (Article, " The Site of Sodom"), and again in the latter s notes on Grove s articles, in the American edition of Smith s Bible Dictionary. But whichever view of this question be accepted, the argument con cerning Kedor-la omer s route remains the same. As Wolcott says on that point : " The northern invaders, after making the distant circuit of the valley on the east and south, came up on the west, and smote Engedi and secured that pass. The cities and their kings were in the deep valley below, whether north or south or opposite is wholly immaterial, as far as we can discover, in relation either to the previous route of conquest, or to the subsequent topographical sequence of the story."

2 Gen. 14 : 7, 8.

S pS^n rnfcr 1 ?^ (Msedheh ha -Amnleqee), "all thefield of the Amalekites." It is not said here that the Amalekites were smitten, but that their field the region which subsequently became theirs was now swept over. As Amalek was a grand son of Esau (Gen. 36 : 10-12), and there is no mention in the Bible of Amalekites as

KEDOR-LA OMERS ROUTE. 41

mountains of Judah; l and the Araorites of En-gedi 2 were between that and the Dead Sea plains. The indications of the Scripture narrative, therefore, are, that Kedor-la omer s northward route from the Wilderness of Paran toward the Dead Sea included the great caravan route which passes up from the mid-desert by way of Beer-sheba ; the route which is spoken of as " the Way of Shur " or the road through Canaan to Egypt known as the Shur Road; ;! and it follows that " En-mishpat, which is Kadesh," is to be loca ted on that road or convenient to it, at some point between the Wilderness of Paran and the southern border of Canaan where was the field of the Amalekites. 4

an existing people before his day, we may take this reference to them as by anticipa tion. Tremellius and Junius, in their Genevan Bible, render this passage : " Incolas agri, qui nunc est Hamalekitorum ; " " Inhabitants of the field which now is of the Amalekites." This view of the passage is taken by elarius, and Miinster, as cited in Crit. Sac. ; and by Lyra, Malvenda, Menochius, and Fischer, as cited in Pool s Synops. Crit. in loco; also by Bush (Notes on Gen. in loco) ; Keil and Delitzsch (Bib. Com. in loco); Hengstenberg (Auth. of Pent., II., 279 ff.) ; De Sola, Lidenthal, and Raphall s Translation, in loco; Schaff-Lange Com., and Speaker s Com., at Gen. 36: 12; Murphy s Com. on Gen. (at 14: 7 and 36: 12) ; Kurtz in Hist, of Old Cor., Ill , 42 ff.; Fairbairn s Imp. Bib. Die., and Alexander s Kitto s. v. "Amalekites; " Sayce, in The Queen s Printers Aids to Student of Bible, p. 62 ; and others.

Arabic historians elaim that there was an Amalek in the fifth generation from Noah, in the line of Ham ; and that his descendants were the early people of Canaan. For references to this tradition, see Abulfeda s Hist. Anteislam., pp. 16, 178; Re- land e Palaestina, Book I., Cap. 14; Winer s Bibl. Realwbrterb., s.v. "Amalekiter;" Lenormant and Chevallier s Anc. Hist, of East, II., 145, 288-291, etc. Winer, and Len- ormant and Chevallier (as above), Bevan (Smith-Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. "Amale kites,") Ewald (Hist, of Israel, I., 108 /., 248-254; II., 43/.), Von Gerlach (Com. on Pent., at Gen. 14 : 7), and others, have followed the Arabic tradition in counting the Amalekites named in Genesis 14 : 7 as of an older stock than Esau. But the Arabic traditions have little or no value for the days of the Old Testament, save as they con form to that source of history. (See a reference to Noldeke on this point in Speaker s Com., at Gen. 36 : 12.)

i Num. 13 : 29. J 2 Chron. 20 : 2.

3 Gen. 16 : 7 ; 46 : 5-7 ; 1 Sam. 27 : 8. See Fries s " Ueber die Lage von Kades," in Stud. u. Krit., 1854, p. 6.

42 KADESH-BARNEA.

3. A STRATEGIC HALTING-PLACE.

Indeed, what more probable halting-place would there be in this entire region for an invading army which came to take pos session of the great highways of travel, than the spot where all the roads from east, west, north, and south come together into a common trunk if such a place there be ? That there is a place answering to this description was first pointed out by Robinson, as already referred to, and his impressions have been verified by subsequent travelers. Coming from Sinai to Palestine by the east ern route ("the Way of Mount Seir;" 1 or, the Mount Seir Road) Robinson was enabled, after rounding Jebel Araeef en-Naqah, from the Wilderness of Paran, " to perceive the reason why all the roads leading across it [the desert] from Akabah, and from the convent [at Mount Sinai] to Hebron and Gaza, should meet together in one main trunk in the middle of the desert." 2 The reason is, that the whole face of the region, which is the same now as in the days of Kedor-la omer, renders this inevitable. 3 Proceeding along this inevitable highway to a plain above Wady Aboo Retemat, called Wady es-Seram, eastward of Jebel el-Helfd, and not far from Jebel Muwaylih, Robinson found that here "comes in the great western road from the convent of Sinai to Gaza," joining those already combined ; and that, therefore, at this point " all the roads across the desert [including, of course, the midland road from Egypt] were now combined into one main trunk." 4 A military chieftain as enterprising as Kedor-la omer would not be likely to overlook such a strategic point as that, when conducting a cam paign for the purpose of road-seizing. He would naturally halt there, and guard himself against surprises from flank or rear, and also reconnoitre in advance before moving forward to his main

1 Deut. 1:2. 2 Bib. Res., I., 1S6.

3 See page 38, supra. * Bib. Res. I., 189-191.

A STRATEGIC HAL TING -PL ACE. 43

attack in Canaan. In this immediate vicinity, therefore, " En- mishpat, which is Kadesh," l should be looked for, so far as we can judge from the Bible story of Kedor-la omer.

This first mention of Kadesh refers to a period four centuries prior to the exodus. It is probable that the name " Kadesh " is here used by the writer of Genesis as the name by which the place was known after its occupancy by the tabernacle. An earlier name of this place might seem, from this text, to have been En- mishpat the Fountain of Judgment; 2 but even that name may have attached to it after formal judgment had been there passed on rebellious Israel, and on both Israel s leader and Israel s high- priest. 3 It is thought by some, 4 that long before the days of JMoses, this place " was a sanctuary upon an oasis in the desert, in whose still solitude an oracle had its seat ; " and that " as from Egypt pilgrimages were made to the near oracle of Ammon in the desert, so from Edom and other adjacent districts many oracle seekers, in the most ancient times . . . came to Kadesh/ " in order to know the decisions of the gods." But of this there is no proof. It is, at the best, only an inference from the name given it in its first Bible mention. 5

1 Gen. 14: 7.

2 This view is taken by Grotius, and Fagius, as cited in Crit. Sac. ; by the Speaker s Com.; Kalisch s Com.; all in loco; also by Ewald (Hist, of Israel, II., 193); Ritter (Geog. of Pal., I., 428); Stanley (Hist, of Jewish Ch., I., 202) ; and others.

3 So think : Jerome (Com. on Genesis) ; " Rashi" ( al ha-Torah) ; Tremellius and Junius (Genevan Bi lie) ; Patrick (Crit. Com.); Meiiochius, Fischer, a Lapide, and Bonfrerius, as cited in Pool s Synops. Crit. ; Bush (Notes on Geh.); all in loco; and many others.

" Rashi " is wrongly cited by Grotius, as deeming the name En-mishpat the earlier one; and this misquotation is perpetuated through the Critici Sacri, the Synopsis Criticorum, and later works, after the common mistake of failing to verify quotations by a reference to the original.

4 See Ewald, Ritter, and Stanley, as above.

5 In theTargum of Oukelos (in loco), En-mishpat is paraphrased, maishar pelug deena NJ I JlSp "Itf .?, " Plain of Division of Judgment." This paraphrase is

44 KADESH-BARNEA,

4. THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL.

Kadesh next appears in the Bible text as an apparently well- known landmark eastward, or possibly northward, as over against "Bered" and "Slmr" on the west, or south. Hagar had fled from the Hebron home of Abraham, down along the caravan road toward Egypt. She had rested by a prominent watering-place of that route " the fountain in the Way of Slmr." l The location of that fountain is described as " between Kadesh and Bered." 2 Again, Abraham moved down from Hebron through the Xegeb, desertward ; and he sojourned at a point " between Kadesh and Slmr ; " 3 also " at Gerar," which, again, may have been the point indicated as " between Kadesh and Slmr."

Slmr is subsequently referred to in the text as " before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria ; " 4 and again as " over against Egypt ; " 5 and as " even unto the land of Egypt." 6 " Before Egypt," here, clearly means " in the face of" Egypt, east of Egypt. 7 " As thou goest to Assyria " means one of two things :

understood by " Rashi " as indicating the opinion of Onkelos that here was a scat of judgment for the surrounding peoples. Rashi s elaboration of the simple statement by Onkelos, with which Rashi disagrees, is cited by Grotius, and farther elaborated by the fanciful Ewald; to be adopted and re-elaborated by Stanley and others.

1 Gen. 16: 7.

The spot by which the angel of the Lord found Hagar was not merely a foun tain of water, as we read in our version, but a well-known spot, the spring of water in the wilderness the spring in the way of Shur. " (Stanley s Sinai and Pal., p. 477.)

Gen. 16:14. 3 Gen. 20:1. * Gen. 25:18. 5 1 Sam. 15 : 7. 1 Sam. 27 : 8.

7 " The points of the compass were marked by the Jews after the following man ner: With the face turned to the rising of the sun, before is east; behind [or " back side " (Exod. 3: 1), see Gesenius s Ileb. Lex. s. v. " Achor "] is west; the right- hand is the south; the left-hand the north Theinan and Jamin [Yemen],

denoting the south, means lying on the right hand." (Von Raumer s Palastina, p. 20.)

On this subject of orientation see Michaelis s Disscrtatio de Locorum Differentia. Egyptian and Assyrian orientation differed, however, from the Hebrew.

THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 45

either, in the direction of Assyria ; that is, northeastward ; or, more probably, on the highway to Assyria ; that is, by way of Damascus. The only feasible highway from Egypt to Assyria, was and is, northward through Syria, and thence southeasterly through Mesopotamia ; never across the trackless Arabian desert. 1 " Shur " means " a wall ; " and from its meaning, as well as from the various references to it in the text, it would seem clear that Shur was a wall, or barrier, of some kind, across the great north eastern highways out of Egypt, and this at a point on or near the eastern boundary line of Egypt.

A favorite identification of Shur has been in a range of moun tains a little to the eastward from the Gulf of Suez, having the appearance of a wall, and bearing the name Jcbcl er-llahah, being in fact the northwestern end, or extension, of Jebel et-Teeh. 2 " As

1 See page 35, supra.

There seems bardly room for doubt on this point. The physical structure of the region, and all history, biblical and extra-biblical, tends to its proof. Yet Mr. J. Baker Greene, in bis nondescript work, The Hebrew Migration from Egypt (p. 168, note), says of this reference to Shur in Genesis 25: 18: "This passage is , somewhat ambiguous. It means, as is most probable, that a traveler from Judea to Assyria would descend the Araba [ ! ! ], and thus have on his right hand, between him and Egypt, the plateau of Et Til), known as the midbhar of Shur. If the trav eler cross the Jordan on his way to Assyria, this reference to Shur and Egypt is iin- intclligible." And this remarkable statement is a fair illustration of the confused jumbling of that entire work, in its dealings with geography, history, and philology.

2 " Some twelve or fourteen miles from the coast, and parallel to it, runs Jebel er- Eahah, appearing in the distance as a long, flat-headed range of white eliffs, which forms, as it were, a wall inclosing the desert on the north. Hence probably arose the name of the "Wilderness of Shur (Exod. 15: 22); for the meaning of the name Shur is a wall. " (F. "W. Holland, in TJie Recovery of Jerusalem, p. 527.)

This view is accepted by Porter, in Alexander s Kitto, Art. "Wandering, Wilder ness of;" Bartlett, in his From Egypt to Palestine, p. 186; by the Editor of the Queen s Printers Aids to the Student of the Holy Bible, p. 28; and others.

Rowlands reports the name "Jebel es-Sur" as still given by the Arabs to this mountain range (see Williams s Holy City, p. 489, and Imp. Bib. Die., s. v. " Shur"). He is followed in this by Wilton ( The Negcb, p. 6) ; Tuch (Jour, of Sac. Lit. for

46 KADESH-BARNEA.

we stand at Ayiin Miisa," says Palmer, 1 " and glance over the desert at the Jebels er-llahah and et-Tili, which border the gleam ing plain, we at once appreciate the fact that these long wall-like escarpments are the chief, if not the only, prominent characteristics of this portion of the wilderness, and we need not wonder that the Israelites should have named this memorable spot after its most salient feature, the wilderness of Shur, or the wall." But a prime objection to this identification is, that Jebel er-Riihah does not stand " before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria." It is too far south for that. A " wall," better meeting the requirements of the text than this mountain range, is to be looked for ; nor will a search for it be in vain. 2

Inasmuch as there was a great defensive Wall built across the eastern frontier of Egypt, " as thou goest toward Assyria ; " a Wall that was hardly less prominent in the history of ancient Egypt than has been the Great Wall of China in the history of the " Middle Kingdom ;" it would seem the most natural thing in the world, to suppose that the biblical mentions of the Wall "that is before Egypt/ had reference to the Wall that was before Egypt.

The earliest discovered mention of this Wall is in an ancient papyrus of the Twelfth Dynasty (of the old 3 Egyptian empire,

July, 1S4S, p. 80) ; Stewart ( Tent and Khan, p. 54) ; Faussett (Bib. C jc., s. v. "Shur") ; Burton (Gold Jfines of Mid., p. 101); and others. Yet this mountain may take its name from the wilderness, instead of giving a name to it, if in fact the name is to be found there. Laborde, indeed, applies the name " Djebel Soar" to a mountain peak still eastward of the Rahah range (see Map in his Voyage de V Arabic Pi-tree.)

1 Des. of Exod., I., 38 /.

2 Others, again, have counted Shur as the name of a town on the Egyptian bor ders, toward Arabia. So, e. <j., E \val-l (Hi ft. of Israel, II., 194, note) ; Kurtz (Hist, of Old Cov., III., 13) ; R. S. Pool (Smith- Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. " Shur ") ; and others.

3 The terms Old Empire, and Middle Empire, and New Empire are employed dif ferently by different writers. Lepsius, Bunsen, Ebers, Chabas and others speak of all the dynasties which preceded the Ilykshos kings, as the Old Empire. Wilkinson,

THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 47

prior to the days of the Hykshos invasion), which was obtained by Lepsius for the Museum of Berlin. This papyru-s gives the story of Sineh, or Saneha, an Egyptian traveler into the lands eastward from Egypt. As he journeyed, he came to the frontier AVall " which the king had made to keep off the Sakti," or eastern for eigners. It was a elosely guarded barrier. There were " watchers upon the Wall in daily rotation." Eluding the sentries in the darkness of the night, he wandered beyond in a dry and thirsty land, like that which the Hebrews found in that same Wilderness of the Wall several centuries after him, when their cry was, " What shall we drink ?" l His story was :

"Thirst overtook me in my journey; My throat was parched, I said, This is the taste of death. 1 2

Chabas 3 understands the term "Anbu," which is here rendered the Wall, and which is of frequent recurrence in the Egyptian records, to refer to a defensive Wall 4 built across the eastern front of Lower Egypt by the first king of the Twelfth Dynasty Amenemhat I. And Ebers 5 coincides fully with Chabas in this understanding.

Again in one of the Anastasi Papyri, of the Nineteenth Dynasty, preserved in the British Museum, this Wall is mentioned in the report from a scribe of an effort to re-capture two fugitive slaves who had fled towards the eastern desert ; and who, before he could

Birch, Brugsch, Rawlinson, Marietta, and others, put the beginning of the Middle Empire at an earlier period than the Ilykshos domination. Hence the Twelfth Dynasty would by some be counted in the Old Empire ; by others, in the Middle Empire.

i Exod. 15 : 22-24.

1 Goodwin s translation in Sec. of Past, VI., 136. See also Brugseh s Hist, of Egypt, I., 147. The papyrus itself is given in fac-simile in Lepsius s Denkmillcr, Abth. VI., Bl. 104.

8 Etudes sur V Antique Jfittoire, p. 99 ff. * "La muraille defensive."

t. u. d. Biich. Hose s, pp. 78-85.

48 KADESH-BARNEA.

overtake them, had already "got beyond the region of the Wall to the north of the migdol of king Seti Mineptah."

In explanation of the terra Wall as found in this papyrus, Brngsch says that there was at that time " at the entrance of the road leading to Palestine, near the Lake Sirbonis, a small fortifi cation, to which, as early as the time of the Nineteenth Dynasty, the Egyptians gave the name Anbn, that is the wall, or fence/ a name which the Greeks translated according to their custom, calling it Gerrhon (TO Fe/fyW), or in the plural Gerrha (TO. Ysftfia). The Hebrews likewise rendered the meaning of the Egyptian name by a translation, designating the military post on the Egyp tian frontier by the name of Shur, which in their language signifies exactly the same as the word Anbn in Egyptian, and the word Gerrhon in Greek, namely the Wall. "

That the "Wall" of the Egyptian frontier was not limited to a single small fortress near the Lake Serbonis, as would seem to be intimated in this explanation by Brugsch, is apparent from his own History, while it is also abundantly evidenced from various other sources. 3 In speaking of Aahmes, or Amasis, the first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Brugsch says that, having driven out the eastern foreigners from Egypt, the king sufficiently protected the eastern frontier of the Low Country against new invasions by a line of fortresses. 4 And again, Brugsch refers to the Wall as barring the road out of Egypt dcsertward, in the days of Amen-

1 Brunch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 138, 389. -Jbi<l. II., 375.

3 Indeed, the very term "Anbu," which Brugsch gives as the designation of the Wall-fortress, is the plural form ; its singular being "Anb." (See Kenouf s Egyptian Grammar, pp. 5, 11; also Bunsen s "Dictionary" in Egypt s Place in Uuir. Hist., Vol. V., p. 345.) And Brugsch finds also the plural form "Gerrha," in the Greek. A reference to Brugsch s Dictionnaire Geograpltique (p. 52) shows that the ideo gram for Anb (" Wall ") is accompanied with the determinatives of the plural ; and his translation of it there (where it does not affect his theory of the exodus) is in the plural, "Ics muraillcs."

4 Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, !> 320-

THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 49

emhat I., of the Twelfth Dynasty. 1 One fort could not fairly bo called a Wall ; nor could it be " a line of fortresses."

As to the period of the original building of this frontier "Wall, and as to its precise limits, there has been much confusion among historians; far more than as to the existence of the "Wall itself. Diodorus Siculus, writing, nineteen centuries ago, of the wonderful exploits of Scsoosis, or Sesostris (who seems to have been a com position-hero, made up of the facts and legends of the greater Egyptian sovereigns from the earlier to the later days), records that that king "walled the side of Egypt that inclines eastward against Syria and Arabia, from Pelusium to Heliopolis, the length being about fifteen hundred stadia;" 2 say one hundred and eighty- four English miles. Abulfeda, 3 early in the fourteenth century, gave the Arabic traditions of the building of the Great "Wall of Egypt. His Arabic designations of the Pharaohs mentioned (Delukah, Darken, Ibn-Bekthus, Todas, etc.), do not help to the identifying of the dynasties ; but his narrative evidently has to do with the time of the expulsion of the Hykshos kings, or the "Amalekites " as he calls them, and the domination of their suc cessors. Of the king Delukah, "who is called El- Ajoos," or " The Old Woman," Abulfeda says : "And he built before the land of Egypt, from one of its regions at the edge of Aswan, to the other, a Wall contiguous to this end," the eastern or Arabian side. It is noteworthy that the Arabic word here used for Wall is " Sura," 4 an equivalent of the Hebrew " Shur."

From the statement of Diodorus, the Wall would seem to have run from Pelusium to Heliopolis; and this statement has been accepted by most of the modern historians of Egypt. Birch, in

1 Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 147 ; also in his Diet. Geog., p. 52. 2 Ere/jicre <? /cat Trjv Trpof avaro^a^ vevovaav Trfevpav rf/f Ar/inrrov rrpbg rag O.TTO rf/i; 2t p/af KOI rfj^ Apa/3/af efifio^df, a~b Rijtovaiov fifxpio H/./oir/rdAewf, did Tijq kpfjuov,

TO UTJKOS CTTl OTaS lOV^ ^/P./OVf KOL TTElTaKOffWDf . (Bibl. IHst., I., 57.)

3 In his Ilistoria Anteislamica, p. 102 /. )

4

50 KADESH-BARNEA.

adopting it, would identify the " Sesoosis " of Diodoms with Rameses II., of whom he says : " On the eastern side of Egypt he finished a great Wall, commenced by his father Seti, from Pelu- sium to Heliopolis, as a bulwark against the Asiatics." l

Graetz 2 and Rawlinson 3 also accept the Wall limits as given by Diodorus. But Abnlfeda extends the line of Wall very greatly, and Wilkinson seems inclined to a similar view, which he would sustain out of the facts of his own observing. He says explicitly : " That such a Wall was actually made by one of the Egyptian monarchs, we have positive proof from the vestiges which remain in different parts of the valley. It was not confined to Lower Egypt, or to the east of the Delta from Pelusium to Heliopolis, but continued to the Ethiopian frontier at Syene ; and though the increase of the alluvial deposit has almost concealed it in the low lands overflowed during the inundation of the waters of the Xile, it is traced in many of the higher parts, especially when founded upon the rocky eminences bordering the river. The modern Egyptians have several idle legends respecting this Wail, some of which ascribe it to a king, or rather to a queen, anxious to prevent an obnoxious stranger from intruding on the retirement of her beautiful daughter : and the name applied to it is Gisr el Agoos, or the Old Woman s Dyke. 4 It is of crude brick : the principal portion that remains may be seen at Gebel e Tayr, a little below Minyeh ; and I have even traced small fragments of the same kind of building on the western side of the valley, particularly in the Fyoom." 5

Sharpe, 6 on the other hand, referring to Procopius, tells of the remains " of the Roman Watt" built in the days of Diocletian as

1 Egypt, p. 125. *Gesch. der Juden, I., 37S-390. 3 Hist, of Anc. Egypt, IT., 325 /. * Gisr commonly means "bridge," or "causeway," or "threshold," rather than "dyke, "as is shown farther on in this work. See Index, s. v. "Gisr." 5 Wilkinson s Anc. Egyptians, I., 71. See also his Eyypt and Tlicbcs, p. 368. 6 Hist, of Egypt, Chap. XVII., 39.

THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 51

a protection against the inroads of troublesome neighbors from the south of Egypt ; remains which are still to be seen at the east of the Nile, north of the first cataract. And it is certainly not un fair to suppose that different portions of the Egyptian border were walled at different times against different enemies, and that the remains of any and all of these different walls are liable to be con nected in the minds of the Arabs, and even in the minds of intelligent discoverers, with the traditions and history of the Great Wall which was " before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria." l

Certainly if one were to judge of the natural probabilities of the case, a AVall of this kind built for the protection of Egypt against Eastern invaders would run from the Mediterranean (say at Pelusium, or east of it) to what we now call the Gulf of Suez, rather than directly to a point as far westward as Heliopolis. But the distance named by Diodorus as the length of the Wall is great enough to admit of a wall from Pelusium to the Gulf of Suez (across the Isthmus), and thence onward to Heliopolis ; in other words, from Pelusium to Heliopolis, by way of the Gulf. Such a line would doubly fortify the Egyptian frontier. Inasmuch as the Great Canal, 2 built, like the Great Wall, by the ambiguous Sesostris, 3 had its eastern entrance into the Gulf of Suez, with a

1 Gen. 25: 18.

2 For facts as to the Great Canal, its route and its building, see " Memoire sur le Canal des deux Mers," in the Napoleonic Description de I Egypte, Vol. I., pp. 21- 186; Wilkinson s Anc. Egyptians, I., 47-49, 110, with references to Strabo, Pliny, and Aristotle ; Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 310-323 ; Ebers s JEgijpt. u. die Buck. Mote s, p. 80 ; Glynu s paper "On the Isthmus of Suez and the Canals of Egypt," with the discussion following it, in Proceedings of List, of Civil Engineers of Great Britain, Vol. X. (1851), pp. 369-375 ; Ritt s Hist, de I lsthm. de Suez, pp. 14-11 ; etc.

3 The Great Canal was certainly cut as early as the days of Setee I., of the Nine teenth Dynasty; Bunsen (Egypt s Place in Univ. Hist., Vol. II., p. 299) elaims that the canal-building was begun as early as the Twelfth Dynasty, by the kings who contributed to the "Sesostris" composition; and Ebers (Pict. Egypt, II., 19) says: " From the appearance of fortresses and the Great Wall of Egypt, it is supposed that au old canal existed as early as the Fifth Dynasty."

52 EADESH-BARNEA.

branch running northerly toward Pelusium, it would be a most unreasonable supposition that the Great Wall was diagonally across the Great Canal, midway of its course ; or that the Wall built for the protection of Egypt should leave the Canal, Avith all its importance as a means of communication and transportation, unprotected, and at the mercy of the enemy against whom the Wall was upreared. Such a reflection on the engineering ability and the military foresight of a people like the ancient Egyptians, is not to be seriously thought of. The Great Wall must have touched the head of the Heroopolitan Gulf at the eastward of the Great Canal, in whatsoever direction it may have run after that.

As to the confusion concerning the period of the original build ing of the Wall, a plausible explanation at once suggests itself. At least as early as the Twelfth Dynasty prior to the Hykshos domination this Wall was erected to guard against incursions from the East. But, during the Hykshos supremacy it was prob ably leveled to the ground, or suffered to fall into disuse and decay ; because it was in the direction of the friends rather than the foes of the ruling power of Egypt. 1 On the expulsion of the Hykshos, however, this Wall would hardly fail to be rebuilt at once, and its defenses strengthened, in order to keep out the dreaded enemies from the East. The rebuilding of the Wall would, as a matter of course, be elaimed as its original building. That was the way of Egyptian kings. 2

Another element of confusion, which is also an added explana tion of the twofold origin of the Wall, is found in the ambiguity

1 Yet Manetho, as quoted in Josephus s Against Apion, Book I., $ 14, tells of a line of defenses erected by a Hykshos king along his eastern border "for fear of an invasion from the Assyrians." This, however, may have been a temporary rebuild ing of the before neglected Great Wall.

2 Thus, for example, the temple of Osiris at Abydos, built by King Usertesen I., of the Twelfth Dynasty, was rebuilt by Setee I. and Barneses II. of the Nineteenth Dynasty, and their names are recorded with much boastfulness as its real builders. (See Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 162 /., and II., 27-29.)

THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 53

attaching to the identity of the king mentioned by Diodorus as its builder. Mauetho gives the name of " Sesostris," as a king in the Twelfth Dynasty ; l yet the Sesostris referred to by Diodorus, and by Greek historians before and after him, has been commonly understood to be Rameses II., with more or less of the added glory of his immediate predecessors. Birch 2 and Brugsch 3 would identify Rameses II. with Sesostris. Yilliers Stuart 4 prefers an identification with Rameses III. Lenormant 5 thinks that the story of Sesostris was a growth rather than a history, a traditional composition rather than an individual character ; that " a legend gradually formed in the course of ages, attributing to one person all the exploits of the conquerors and warlike princes of Egypt, both of Thothmes and Seti, as well as of the various Rameses, and magnifying these exploits by extending them to every known country, as legends always do." Wilkinson 6 is more specific in a plausible explanation of the confusion over Sesostris. "I .... suppose," he says, " that Sesostris was an ancient king famed for his exploits, and the hero of early Egyptian history ; but that after Rameses had surpassed them and become the favorite of his country, the renown and name of the former monarch were trans ferred to the more conspicuous hero of a later age." Btinsen 7 even attempts to show who were the former monarchs whose exploits gave the start to the story of " Sesostris." He would find them in

1 See " Dynasties of Manctho," quoted in Cory s Ancient Fragments, p. 117.

2 " Sesostris is Rameses II. of the Nineteenth Dynasty." (Birch in Wilkinson s Anc. Egyptians, I., 71, note.)

3 In his History of Egypt (II., 35) Brugsch says of Rameses II. : " This is ... the Sethosis who is also called Ramesses of the Manethonian record, and the renowned legendary conqueror Sesotris of the Greek historians."

4 " Rameses the Third was also a mighty conqueror, and as he lived nearer the commencement of Greek history, he was better known to the Greeks, and was in fact their Sesostris." (Nile Gleanings, p. 243.)

6 Anc. Hist, of East, I., 246. 6 Anc. Egyptians, I., 44.

T Egypt s Place in Univ. Hist., Vol. II., pp. 282-304.

54 KADESH-BARNEA.

" two great kings of the Old Empire : " Amenemhat II. and Usertesen II. ; called by Manetho, Sesortosis II. and Sesortosis III. Of the first named of these two kings, Bunsen says : " In Manetho s lists there is this remarkable notice annexed to the second Sesortosis, that he is the real Sesostris/ the great con queror ; the lists, indeed, never mention him by any other name." But Bunsen adds, that it is the third Sesortosis whom the monu ments represent as the great hero, and to whom succeeding genera tions paid divine honors as next to Osiris. Moreover, Bunsen refers to a still earlier Egyptian hero, of the Third Dynasty, called Sesostris, by Aristotle. In view of all this confusion over the per sonality and the period of the hero Sesostris, it cannot be deemed strange that such undertakings as the Great Wall and the Great Canal should be credited to Setce I. and Rameses II., who clearly had something to do with them, when in reality the work on them had been begun by some of the far earlier component elements of the Sesostrian character which these later kings would fain monopolize. But apart from all seeming or real discrepancies concerning the date of its building, or the precise direction and extent of its line, the Great Wall itself is an indisputable, positive fact. And that its northern terminus was at or near Pelusium seems equally clear. 1 It is therefore fair to suppose that this frontier fortifying Wall was known to various peoples by their own word for such a Wall (" Anbu," " Shur," Gerrha," " Sura "), rather than by one proper name accepted alike in all languages. Xor is it unlikely that the northernmost flank-fortress of this Wall was known as the Wall-fortress, by pre-eminence in that direc tion. Thus Ptolemy 2 makes mention of " Gerrhon horion " 3

1 Ebers (^fjypt. u. die Such. Hose s, pp. 82-84) quotes from Lcpsius (Monatsber.

der k. Akademie der Wisscnschaftcn zu Berlin, Mai, 1SGG) to show that the latter

found unmistakable ruins of this Wall below Pelusium ; and he also shows that

traces were found along the line of the Suez Canal, during the cutting of that work.

2 Geog., Lib. IV., Cap. 5. 3 Tt p pov bpiov.

THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 55

the Boundary-Wall locating it at a short distance eastward of Pelusium.

Josephus seems to have the stretch of the Great Wall in mind when he repeats the story of Saul s triumph over the Amalekites, as given in 1 Samuel 15 : 7 : " And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur [the Wall] that is over against Egypt." Josephus, paraphrasing this narration, tells of the time when " Saul had conquered all these Amalekites [up to Shur, or the Wall] that reached from Pelusium of Egypt to the Red Sea." l Here Josephus indicates the line of the Wall [called Shur in the Hebrew text] just as the fullest light of the present shows it to have been. Yet, singularly enough, many careful scholars, missing the true meaning of " Shur," have supposed that Josephus would identify Pelusium with Shur, and have accepted this identification accordingly, or have argued against it. 2 There is no more reason, however, for elaiming that Josephus identified Pelusium with Shur, than that he identified the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Suez, with Shur. Shur, or the Wall, ran from Pelusium to the Gulf of Suez ; and that fact seems to have been recognized by Josephus. 3 It had not been forgotten in his day.

1 Antiq., Bk. VI., Chap. 7, g 3.

2 See Michaelis, on Abulfeda s Tabula ^Egypti, note 141 ; Gesenius s Thesaur., s. v. " Shur ; " Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., III., 13 ; Sharpe s Revision, at Gen. 25: 18 ; Speaker s Com., and Schaff-Lange Com., at Gen. 16 : 7.

3 A disputed and at the best an obscure reading of the Septuagint, at a similar reference to " Shur," in 1 Sam. 27 : 8, possibly has some light thrown on it by this view of the Great Wall of Egypt. As we have it in our English version, the Amalekites and others " were of old the inhabitants of the land as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt." The critical reading of the Septuagint (as indicated by Tischendorf and others) just here is : a-rcb avTjudvTuv q cnrb Te^a/nipoip rereixiofdvuv; apo anekonton he apo Gelampsour teteichismenon ; which gives no clear meaning. But the common reading of the Septuagint is : ij a~b TeJ.ajj.aovp OTTO av^KovTw Tereixiauevuv; he apo Gelamsour apo anekonton teteichismenon ; "the [land] from Gelamsour, from the fortifications belonging [or, possibly, reaching] thereto." It would look as if the LXX. had added a gloss, to indicate that the

56 KADESH-BARNEA.

It would even seem that the very name of ancient Egypt, as given to it by the eastern nations beyond it, may have had a refer ence to the Great Wall which shut it in from the eastward. Ebers, and Brugsch, and Birch, and Fiirst, have shown l that the name by which Egypt is called in the language of the Assyrians and the Persians, as well as of the ancient Hebrews and the modern Arabs (all of their records dating later than the building of the Great Wall), is in various shapings of " an original form which consisted of the three letters M-z-r ;" a form which appears in the Hebrew as in the singular Mazor (iii o), 2 and as, in the dual, Mizraim (o^yp) 3 the Two Egypts, Upper and Lower. The idea common to the various designations is an " enclosure," a " fortress," a " defense," a " wall," a < limit," or a " boundary." i This desig nation " was originally applied only to a certain definite part of Egypt in the east of the Delta;" the very portion which was

bounds were up to the old fortified line of Egypt. Nor is it improbable that the Gelamsour was a compound, through an error in transcribing, of olam and Shur, of the Hebrew text.

1 See Ebers s JEgypt. u. die Buck. Hose s (with references to Spiegel, Rawlinson, Lerch, etc.), pp. 85-90; Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 18, 231, II., 237-383; Birch s Eyypt, Introduction, p. 7 ; Fiirst s Heb. Lex., s. v. " Mitsraim " (with references to Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Istaehri, Bochart, and Champollion). Fiirst even sug gests that the name " Egypt," or " ^Egyptos" [AtyiiTrrof], may have a connection with the Sanskrit " aguptas," " fortified." This suggestion gives a new force to the state ment of Manetho (see Josephus Against Apion, Book I.) that yEgyptus was another name of Sethosis, or Sesostris, and that from him the name was given to the country. Thus, Sesostris, the Fortifier, or the Waller, of JEgypt, gave the name the Fortified Land, or the Walled Land, to the Land of Egypt ; or, rather, the Land he had Walled gave its name to him as the Waller.

2 2 Kings 19: 24, and Isa. 37 : 25, translated in A. V. "besieged places; " Isa. 19 : 6, translated " defense ; " in all these places probably meaning Lower Egypt. (See Gesenius s ITcb. Lex., s. v. " Matsor.")

3 Old Testament, pasxim.

4 See Gesenius, Fiirst, Ebers, and Brugsch, as above. See also Speaker s Com. at Gen. 10 : C. Sayce, in a note to Tomkins s Times of Abraham, p. 213, says : " Matsor, fortified place, or fortification; hence Mitsraim the two defenses, Upper and Lower Egypt."

THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 57

shut in, fortified, limited, bounded, by the Great Wall from the Mediterranean Sea to the Heroopolitan Gulf. Nor is it strange that the Assyrians called by the name " JIuzur" or the Walled or Fortified Land, that region which was immediately behind the Great Wall that was " before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assy ria." * Sayce is positive on this point. He says : 2 " Egypt was considered to belong to Asia rather than to Africa. From its division into Upper and Lower came the name Mizraim, the Two Matsors, Matsor being properly the Fortification which defended the country on the Asiatic side."

With the Great Wall standing there across the entrance of Low r er Egypt, as a barrier and a landmark between the Delta and the Desert, it follows almost as a matter of course that the region on either side of the Wall should bear the name of the Wall : on the western side was the Land of Mazor, the Land Walled in ; on the eastern side was the Wilderness of Shur, the Wilderness Walled out. Hence, it comes to pass, that the desert country eastward of Lower Egypt is known in the Bible as the Wilderness of Shur. 3 And this understanding of the term corresponds with the references to this wilderness in the Chaldaic Paraphrase,* and in the Talmud, 5 as also with the

1 Gen. 25 : 18.

2 " The Ethnology of the Bible," and " The Bible and the Monuments," in The Queen s Printers Aids to Student of Bible, pp. 64, 66.

3 Exod. 15 : 22.

The Targum of Onkelos, at Exodus 15: 22, reads: "Wilderness of Khagra" (tO jnV Khagra is a Chaldaic noun derived from the same root as the Hebrew verb Khaghar PJ1"1Y " to bind firmly," " to enclose," " to gird about." Compare the Hebrew Khaghor p unY " a girdle," and Khaghor pljtl \, " begirt."

5 " In the Talmud, the word Shur is translated by Coub [2O Koobli], and also by Haloucah ; the Targum of the Pseudo-Jonathan has also this last name. The Coub of the Talmud is without doubt identical with the country of the same name men tioned by Ezekiel (30 : 5) [Chub], and consequently it is situated between Egypt and Palestine, toward the southwest [from Palestine]. The Talmud gives to this desert nine hundred square parsa. The modern interpreters of the Bible say, that

58 KADESH-EARNEA.

modern Arabic identification of the Desert of Shur as the Desert el-Jifar. 1

This recognizing of the Great Wall which was before Egypt as the Shur of the Hebrew Scriptures, throws a new light on the story of the exodus. Indeed the elue which is hereby given to the main facts of the route of that exodus is too important to be over looked, or to be passed by with a hasty examination ; yet it in volves quite too much to be fittingly considered in the course of this study of the location of Kadesh. It is, therefore, relegated to a supplemental place in this volume, in order to its fuller and separate treatment in all its varied bearings. 2

5. A TYPICAL TRAINING PLACE.

To find that Shur was the great Boundary Wall of Egypt, desertward, and that Kadesh was a sanctuary-stronghold on the desert-border of the Land of Canaan, is to find a deeper and a pregnant meaning in the inspired record, that " Abraham

to traverse the desert of Shur a journey of seven days is required. Ilaloi^ah is prob ably the village of Elusa [or, Khalusa], in Palestina Tertia. Ptolemy counts it as an Idumean city. We have seen that the desert of Shur extends from Egypt to the southwest of Palestine; one can then render Shur by Halousah in speaking of the side [of the desert] from the town where one would reach it in going out from Hebron as did Hagar." (Neubauer, Geog. du Talmud, p. 409 /.)

1 Kurtz ( Hist, of Old Cov., III., 13) says " that the desert of Shur was the entire tract of desert by which Egypt was bounded on the east. . . . Saadias renders Shur el Jifar. But by the desert of el Jifar the modern Arabians understand the tract which lies between Egypt and the more elevated desert of Et-Tih, and stretches from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Suez." On this point, see a quotation from Tuch, farther on in this work. For reference to it see Index, s. v. " Paran." Niebuhr (Beschr. von Arabien, p. 400) suggests that the name Toor, " the well-known haven on the western arm of the Gulf" of Suez, is a reminiscence of " Shur." The possibility of this would seem to be in the Egyptian name "Tar," a "fortress," being con founded in the lapse of time with the Arabic "Toor," a "mountain." This would show vestiges of the Wilderness of the Wall from Elusa to Toor.

2 It will be found from page 325 to page 431.

A TYPICAL TRAINING-PLACE. 59

dwelled [or tarried *] between Kadesh and Shur." 2 That state ment no longer stands as a casual mention of a stopping-place in the patriarch s journeyings between two ancient cities, as so many have understood it ; but it is uplifted as a typical, or illustrative, lesson out of his divinely directed experience, for the instruction and the cheer of all his descendants by generation or by grace. 3

In the sacred story there are three great typical lands : Egypt, Arabia, Canaan. Egypt is the Land of Bondage ; * Arabia is the Land of Training ; 5 Canaan is the Land of Rest. 6 He who would pass from Egypt to Canaan must needs go through Arabia. Shur is the Wall that separates Egypt from Arabia on the one side. Kadesh is the sanctuary-stronghold that marks the boundary-line between Canaan and Arabia on the other side. To tarry " between Kadesh and Shur," is to wait in Arabia between Egypt and Canaan ; is to remain in the Land of Training, between the Land of Bondage and the Land of Rest.

If, as we may well suppose, the story of Abraham was recorded by Moses during the long years of the Israelites tarry in the wilderness, 7 there was a peculiar fitness and force in this reference to the tarry of Abraham in that same region, in the application of its lessons to the Israelites in their experience and needs. They had been brought out of Egypt, the Walled Land of Bondage, in

1 Comp. Gen. 20 : 1 ; Gen. 27: 44; Judges 6 : 18 ; 2 Sam. 15 : 29 ; 2 Kings 2 : 2, 4, 6.

2 Geu. 20 : 1. 3 Gal. 3:7-9; Rom. 11 : 1-6.

* Exod. 13 : 14 ; 20 : 2 ; Deut. 5 : 6 ; 6 : 12 ; 8 : 14 ; 13 : 5 ; Josh. 24 : 7 ; Judges 6 : 8 ; 2 Kings 18 : 21 ; Isa. 19 : 1-18 ; Ezek. 29 : 6-12 ; Rev. 11:8; etc.

5 It was into Arabia that Moses was led, in his training for his work as leader and lawgiver, after his dwelling in Egypt (Exod. 2 : 11-22 ; 3 : 1-6). Elijah the prophet had his training lessons there (1 Kings 19 : 1-18). And thither was Paul sent in preparation for his work as the Apostle to the Gentiles (Gal. 1 : 17). See also Deut. 8 : 1-6, 15, 16 ; Gal. 4 : 22-26.

s Exod. 3 : 7, 8 ; Deut. 1 : 7, 8, 21 ; 3 : 24-28 ; 6 : 3-12 ; 8 : 7-10 ; 11 : 10-15 ; etc. AlsoIIeb. 3: 8-11,16-18; 4: 1-11; etc.

t Comp., e. g., Exod. 17 : 14 ; 24 : 4 ; 34 : 27 ; Num. 33 : 2 ; etc.

60 KADESH-BARNEA.

the hope of a speedy entrance into the Promised Land of Rest. 1 But on reaching Kadesh-barnea, the sanctuary-stronghold of the border of their expected inheritance, they had been turned back into the wilderness, 2 and were now wearily passing their lives in its desolateness, and under its privations. Their temptation was to see only the dark side of such a lot, and to repine at the divine direction which permitted it. Then it was that this story of Abraham brought its needed lessons for their instruction.

Abraham had been promised a possession in Canaan. He had given up everything in order to receive it. 3 But Abraham went down into Egypt, and there even he had wavered in his faith, and had so swerved from the truth, in order to his own protection, as to draw forth a rebuke from Pharaoh for his lack of fearless straightforwardness. 4 The baneful influence of the Land of Bond age had been felt even by him who could be called the " Father of the Faithful," 5 and the " Friend of God." 6 Abraham " went up out of Egypt," passed through the barriers of the Great Wall, and entered again the Promised Land. 7 But he was not yet fully fitted to possess that land. He was turned back from its southern borders, for a period of needed waiting and preparing in the Land of Training. 8 After actually having a foothold in the Promised Land of Rest, he did not at once establish himself there for a per manency. On the contrary, " Abraham journeyed from thence toward the South Country [the Negeb], and dwelled [tarried for a time] between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned [literally, was a stranger] in Gerar " which lay between those typical landmarks.

How this reminder must have come home to the Israelites to whom it was first spoken by Moses ! "What a light it threw on God s dealings with themselves! How it swept away all thought of

1 Exod. 3 : 13-17 ; 4 : 29-31. 2 Num. 14 : 2G-34 ; Deut. 1 : 19-40.

3 Gen. 12 : 1-7. 4 Gen. 12 : 10-19. 5 Gen. 12 : 13 ; Gal. 3 : 6-9.

6 Gen. 12 : 2, 3 ; 18 : 17 ; 2 Chrou. 20 : 7; Isa. 41 : 8 ; James 2 : 23. i Gen. 13 : 1-4, 14-18. 8 Gen. 20 : 1.

GERAR AND BERED. 61

his harshness or severity toward them ! They could not doubt God s love for Abraham. They knew that Abraham never doubted that love. Yet Abraham, their great progenitor, to whom, and through whom, had come all the promises which gave them hope of a goodly inheritance, 1 even he had been compelled to pass a period in the Land of Training before he finally had a permanent home in the Land of Rest. Pie had been a patient tarrier " be tween Kadesh and Shur," where they were compelled to tarry. And as they were called to follow in the steps, and to wait in the training-place, of their great forerunner, the call to them was to let the same mind be in them which was also in him ; for in the darkest day of his pilgrimage, as in the brightest, " he believed in the Lord ; and he counted it to him for righteousness." 2

In this light of the inspired statement, it would seem that whatever uncertainty there is concerning the geographical position of Kadesh, there need be no doubt as to its typical, or illustrative, signification. And, indeed, this understanding of the case makes it clear that Kadesh is somewhere along the southern boundary of the Land of Canaan, on or near the great highway from Canaan, TCgyptward. And this gives another hint toward the fixing of its site.

6. GERAR AND BERED.

Although the precise location of Abraham s dwelling-place, as he moved downward along the great caravan route toward Egypt, and tarried between Hebron and the desert, 3 is not shown in the text, there are helps to its indicating. At a later day, Isaac seems to have followed in his father s tracks over this same route, 4 and to have made similar stops in his journeying; for, as he passed between Gerar and Beersheba (two points reached by father and son

1 Gen. 17 : 1-8 ; Exod. 3 : 15-17. * Gen. 15 : 6.

J Gen. 13: 18; 18: 1; 20: 1. 4 Gen. 26: 1,6.

62 KADESH-BARNEA.

alike, in their dealings with the king of the Philistines), 1 Isaac reopened the wells of water which his father had digged; "and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them." 2 These wells were obviously not in the city of Gerar then the chief city of the Philistines ; 3 but in the valley, or wady, of Gerar, 4 and thence along upward, or northerly, toward Beer- sheba. 5

That the land of the Philistines in the days of Abraham corre sponded with the limits of their possessions in the days of Samson and of David, we have no reason to suppose. 6 The route of neither Abraham nor Isaac would seem to have been, at any time, in the direction of Gaza ; nor would a move have been likely to be called upward, or northward, 7 from Gerar to Beershcba, if Gerar had been near Gaza as it has been the modern fashion to look for it. 8 It is probable that the range of the Philistines in the

i Gen. 21 : 22-33 ; 26 : 26-33. 2 Gen. 26 : 6, 16-18. 3 Gen. 10 : 19 ; 20 : 1, 2 ; 26 : 6-8. * Gen. 26 : 17. 5 Gen. 26 : 18-23.

6 See Rittcr s Geog. of Pal., I., 30, 374, 430; Stewart s Tent and Khan, p. 207 /.

" There are no grounds whatever for believing that the country along the Mediter ranean in the Shephelah or Lowland, which we know to have been inhabited by the Philistines from the age of Joshua downwards, was occupied by them in the times of the patriarchs. On the contrary, we are distinctly informed that not only on Abra ham s first arrival at Sichem, and after his return from Egypt, the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land (Gen. 12: 6 ; 13 : 7), but that this continued to be the case even two hundred years later, in the days of Jacob (Gen. 34 : 30)." (Wilton s The Ncycb, p. 245 /.)

" It [Gerar] was of olde a distinct kingdome from the Philistim satrapies." (Raleigh s History of the World, Part I., Book II., Chap. 10, ? 2.)

7 Gen. 26 : 23. The Hebrew word r?jT \ ya al, would seem to indicate a northerly, certainly an upward direction. See Tristram s Bible Places, p. 1 /.

8 See Robinson s Bib. Itcs., L, 189; II., 43/.; Rowlands letter in Williams s Holy City, p. 488 ; Van de Velde s Syrien u. Pt.tld.it ina, II., 182 ; his Map of the Holy Lund, Sec. VII.; Conder s Reports, in " Pal. Expl. Quart State.," July, 1875, pp. 162-165; Thomson s South. Pal. (Land and Book), pp. 196-198; Kalisch s Com. on 0. T. ; and Alford s Genesis, at Gen. 20: 1.

There are probable references to Gerar in the Geographical Lists of the Temple of

OERAR AND BERED. 63

days of Abraham was along the southwestern borders of Canaan, desertward ; including the stretch westerly of the great caravan route between Egypt and Assyria already mentioned, from Beer- sheba l on the north, to "VVady Jeroor, 2 or the Valley of Gerar, on the south. These two latter points are fairly identified ; as is also Rehoboth, 3 between them.

Karnak (see Sum. of West. Pal., "Special Papers," pp. 189, 193; and Brugsch s Hist, of E jypt, I., 392 /). Gerar is also referred to in several of the early Christian writings (see Robinson, Stewart, Wilton, Hitter, as above ; and " List of Metropoli tan, Archiepiscopal, and Episcopal towns in the See of Jerusalem," in Appendix to Palmer s Desert of the Exodus, II., 550 ff.). But none of these references fix the location of Gerar, although some of them clearly seem to put it in the desert, south of Judah. (See also Stark s Gaza u. d. Philist. Kilste.)

Roland (Palcestina, p. 805) quotes Cyril in favor of the identification of Gerar at Beersheba; and calls attention to the fact that the Arabic Version (at Gen. 20 : 1; 26 : 1) gives El-Chalutz (El-Khulasah, or Elusa) for Gerar. Hasius (Regni David, et Sal., p. 290) and Cellarius (Gcog. Antiq., Lib. III., Cap. 13, p. 498) locate Gerar near Beersheba.

Of all the more recent suggested identifications of the name Gerar near Gaza, there appears to be nothing more than the natural designation of great heaps of pot tery, as Umm el-Jerrar, the Place of Water Pots. Conder s attempt to show that this is not the meaning in this case is met by Professor Palmer in his editing of the " Name Lists " (p. 420) of the Sitrv. of West. Pal. Yet " Umm Jerar " appears in Baedeker s Palestine and Syria (p. 315) as " the ancient Gerar ; " and Porter (Giant Cities of Bashan, etc., p. 209) even elaims to have seen " the Valley of Gerar" as he looked out toward the south of Gaza from " Samson s Hill."

!See Roland s Palcestina, pp.61, 187, 215, 484, 620; Grove, in Smith -Hacketts Bib. Die., s. v. " Beersheba;" Robinson s Sib. Res., I., 204 /. ; Tristram s Land of Israel, pp. 376-380; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 386-390; Bartlett s Egypt to Pal., p. 402 /.; Conder s Tent Work in Pal., II., 92-96; Thomson s South. Pal. (Land and Book), pp. 297-299.

2 Stewart s Tent and Khan, pp. 207-212 ; Wilton s The Negeb, Appendix, pp. 237- 250; Thomson s South. Pal. (Land and Book), p. 198.

3 See Robinson s Bib. Res., I., 196-198, for important facts tending to this identifi cation, although he was hindered from accepting it by his theories as to the location of Gerar and Zephath. For reasons and opinions in its favor, see Williams s Holy City, p. 489 ; Stewart s Tent and Khan, p. 200 /.; Bonar s Des. of Sinai, pp. 313- 315; Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., I., 290 /.; Wilton s The Negeb, p. 242 /.; Strauss s Sinai u. Golg.,p. 122; Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., I., 272; Palmer s D$s. of

G4 KADESH-BARNEA.

Berccl is not identified. 1 And, indeed, it may fairly be questioned whether it was a particular centre of habitation, rather than some more general region. It is thought by some to be another name for Shur, or for Gcrar. 2 However this may be, its mention over against Kadesh, in the locating of Hagar s "Well, 3 would seem to place it in the same general direction as Shur. 4

Whatever doubts are yet unsolved concerning the precise loca tion of Shur, and Gcrar, and Bcred, enough is made clear to show that both the \Vcll of Hagar and the dwelling-place of Abraham at Gcrar, or on his way to it, were on the great caravan route between Egypt and Syria, somewhere between Becrsheba, on the north, and Wady Jeroor on the south; and that the site of Kadesh must be sought eastward from their neighborhood, as thus indi-

Exo<1.,n., 3S2-3S4; Tristram s Bille Places, p. 13; Thomson s South. Pal. (Land and Book), p. 198.

1 Yet " Bered " is one of the places to be found noted on well-nigh all the popular maps of the Holy Land without an interrogation point !

2 See Fries, in Stud. u. Krit., for 1854, p. 62 ; and Grove, in Smith-IIackett s Bib. Die., s. v. " Bered."

3 For a proposed identification of Hagar s Well Beer-lahai-roi at Moilahi, see Rowlands s statement, in the Appendix to Williams s Holy City, p. 4S9ff. This identification is referred to approvingly by Eitter, in Geog. of PuL, I., 432 ; Tuch, in Jour, of Sac. Lit., July, 1848, p. 94; Keil and Delitzsch, in Bib. Com., I., 222; Wilton, in TheNegeb,p. 178; Thomson, in South. Pal. (Land and Book), p. 199. The fact that Moihlhi, or Mmvaylih, is a prominent watering-station on the caravan route from Egypt to Syria (as Beer-lahai-roi is declared to have been, Gen. 16 : 7), is confirmed by Robinson (Bib. Res., I., 190, 600).

4 Philo Judanis (Liber de Profugis, I., 577, Mangey s paging), speaking of the place of ITa^ar s Well, in its figurative or symbolic aspects, says : " And most suit able indeed is the place of this well, between Kadesh and Barad ; for Barad on the one hand is interpreted among the profane [or, the common] ; but Kadesh, holy. For he is on the boundary of the holy and profane who is fleeing from the evil, but not yet fit to consort with the perfectly good. This would seem to indicate the tra ditional site of Beral as toward Egypt ; for Egypt was the type of the profane world, as over against Palestine, or the Holy Land.

THE MOUNTAIN OF THE AMORITES. 65

cated. This corresponds elosely with the indications in the record of Kedor-la omer s march and halting-place.

7. THE MOUNTAIN OF THE AMORITES.

Not until the days of the exodus does Kadesh again come into sight. But the review-narrative of the journeyiugs of the Israel ites, in the opening chapter of Deuteronomy, already referred to, 1 would seem to indicate that Kadesh was the objective point after leaving Sinai, or Horeb, as preparatory to the final move into Canaan. " When we departed from Horeb," says Moses, " we went through all that great and terrible wilderness which ye saw [became acquainted with] by the Way of [in the Road of] the mountain [the hill country] of the Amorites; and we came to Kadesh- barnea. And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain [the hill-country] of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee : go up and possess it." 2

The Amorites, or " Highlanders," of the Promised Land, were often spoken of as its representative people. 3 They occupied the hill-country (afterwards that of Judah and Ephraim), between the Canaanites proper or the " Lowlanders " * of the plains of Phi- listia and Sharon and Phoenicia on the west, and of the valley of

1 See page 1, supra. * Deut. 1 : 19-21.

3 Gen. 15: 16; comp. Num. 14: 45 and Deut. 1: 44; Josh. 10: 5; 24: 15; Judges 6: 10; Amos 2: 0, 10. See Grove in Smith-Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. "Amorite;" also Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., I., 216; III., 86, 284.

4 The word "Canaan" is from a Hebrew root Kan a (J J3) meaning, "to bend the knee," or "to be low." It would seem to be employed in this primitive sense in the Bible almost without exception. (See Winer s Bibl. Realworterb. and Smith- Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. " Canaan.") But there is a secondary meaning of the word, as "merchants," or "traffickers." (See Isa. 23: 8; Hos. 12: 7.) This may have prown out of the fact that the Lowlanders of Phoenicia became known as the fore- 5

66 KADESH-BARNEA.

the Jordan on the east. 1 This hill-country of the Amorites would loom up prominently before the eyes of those who approached Canaan from the south. Traces of its lower limits are even yet found in the names Dhaygat el- Amureen (the Ravine of the Amo rites) and Ras Amir (the Highland Peak, or Spur); the latter just above Jebel Muwaylih ; 2 and the former a few miles to the north and cast of it.

If then, Kadesh-barnea was (as would appear from this) just at the southern base of the Amorite hill-country, another indication of its site is secured, in addition to the hints obtained from Gene sis. It must have been under one of the east and west ranges running across the desert; not lower down than Jebel Muwaylih (which is westward of Ras Amir); for at Kadesh the Israelites

most traders and traffickers of the world ; as we now use the term " Jew," or " Yan kee," to indicate the trading faculty.

"The population was broadly distinguished into Canaanites, the inhabitants of the Canaan, or lowlands, and Amorites, or Highlanders. Canaan was originally the name of the coast on which the great trading cities of the Phoenicians stood ; but long before the time of the Israelitish invasion, the name had been extended to denote the dwellers in the plain, wherever they might be. Indeed, passages like Judges 1 : 9 show that it had been extended even farther, and had come to signify tribes which were properly Amorites. Hence it is that the language, spoken alike by the Hebrews and the older inhabitants of the country, is called the language of Canaan (Isa. 19: IS). But the earlier use of the name also survived. Thus, in Isaiah 23 : 11, it is said of Tyre that the Lord hath given a commandment against Canaan, to destroy the strongholds thereof, where the Authorized Version has mistranslated merchant-city instead of Canaan. . . . The same wide extension that had been given to the name of Canaanite was given also to that of Amorite. It is possible that the title by which the kingdom of Damascus was known to the Assyrians, Gar- imirisv, originally meant simply " the country of the Amorite." But the Amorites, of whom we chiefly hear in, the Bible, lived for away in the south, at Hebron and Jerusalem (Josh. 10: 5, 6); at Hazezon-tamar (Gen. 14: 7) and Shechem (Gen. 48 : 22 ; 2 Sam. 21 : 2), and even in Bashan on the eastern side of the Jordan (Deut. 3: 8). (Prof. A. H. Sayce in "The Sunday School Times" for June 23, 1883.)

1 Num. 13 : 29 ; Josh. 5 : 1 ; 10 : C. 2 Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 380.

PAR AN AND ZIN. 67

had not yet entered the hill-country of the Amorites ; they had only come to it. And again it was evidently north of the Jebel Araecf range, 1 around the Avestern end of which Kedor-la omer swept northward from the Wilderness of Paran 2 before he came to "En-mish pat, which is Kadesh." ; But how far west or east, on that hill boundary-line, Kadesh was located, demands farther examination.

8. PARAN AND ZIN.

In the story of the wanderings it would appear, at one time, that Kadesh was in the Wilderness of Paran ; 4 and again that it was in the Wilderness of Zin; 5 that it was an eleven days jour ney [or distance] from Horeb by the Way of Mount Seir [or by the Mount Seir Road] to Kadesh-barnea ; 6 and that Kadesh was near the outer edge of the possessions of Edom. 7 What help, or what difficulty, toward fixing the site of Kadesh, is to be found in these indications?

The term " Wilderness of Parau " seems to be used, in its stricter sense, as including the central and northern portion of the desert region between the mountains of Sinai and the Negeb; the district now known as the " Badiyat et-Teeh Beny Israel " or the " Desert of the Wanderings of the Children of Israel." 8 In a larger sense

1 See Robinson s statement quoted on page 38, supra. 2 See page 22, supra.

a Gen. 14: 7. * Num. 13: 26. 5 Num. 20: 1; 27: 14; Deut. 32: 15.

6 Deut. 1:2. * Num. 20: 14-16.

8 This designation runs back in the Arabian historians as far as we have any track of their name for this desert. Abulfeda (who wrote about the year 1300) gives it in his Tabula JEgypti (p. 1). In comment on this, Michaelis says in his notes: "Deser- tum, in quo errarunt Israelitx, JEgypto proximum, ita vocant Arabes. Si quis sonos Arabicos latine expresses cupiat, hi stint: Tih Beni Israel." "The Arabs so call the desert near Egypt, in which the Israelites wandered. If any one wishes the Arabic sounds expressed in Latin letters, here they are: Teeh Beny Israel. "

Seetzen, journeying over this desert in 1807, wrote: " Et-Teeh, according to

68 KADESH-BARNEA,

the term may have applied to the entire wilderness region of which this Paran proper was the centre; including the various surrounding districts bearing local designations, such as the Wilderness of Sinai/ the Wilderness of Zin, the Wilderness of Beer- sheba, 2 the Wilderness of Ziph, 8 the Wilderness of Maon/ etc.

Yakoot, the renowned geographer of Ilamiih, is the name of the desert which is bounded by the Red Sea, Palestine, and Egypt. It is said to be forty parasangs long and broad, and to be the place where the Israelites lived just so many years [ . c. as forty] ; for which reason it is also commonly called Et-Tceh Beny Israel." (Seet- zeu s Reisen durch Sy-rien, etc., III., 47 /.) Seetzen adds that the traditional name doubtless came through Arabic sources, as the Bed ween have no knowledge of the story of the Israelites.

Burton, through the necessity laid on him by his advocacy of another region than the Peninsula of Sinai for the place of the Law-giving, has urged that the reference to "wandering" in this designation is not to the wanderings of the Israelites. At first he said, inquiringly, in his Unexplored Syrin (I., 28, note): " May I suggest that this term, universally translated Desert of the Wanderings, may mean with more probability the Desert of the (general) Wandering, that is to say, where men wander and may lose their way?" But from this starting-point of honest inquiry he seems to wander and lose his way in that desert (see his Gold-Mines of Jliditm, p. 98, note), until at last, in a public reference to the death of Prof. Palmer (see "The Academy," for May 5, 1883), he could speak sneeringly of him, as one who " insisted upon translating, with the vulgar, Tih by Wilderness of the Wanderings, when it simply means a wilderness where men may wander." This is noteworthy merely as an illustration of "subjective criticism" on the part of those who would conform the facts to their own theories. There is no evidence that the desert in question was ever called " Et-Tceh" at an earlier date than we know it to have been called " Et-Teeh Beny Israel." If we are to reject the latter half of the record, what right have we to retain the former half ? Indeed, it is every way probable that the earlier designation was the Wilderness of Paran; not the Wilderness et-Teeh either with or without the Beny Israel.

See Rittcr s Geoy. of PuL, I., 300, 370-376 ; Burckhardt s Trav. in Syria, p. 448^.; Palmer s DCS. of Exod., II., 2S4-2S!" ; Tuch in Jour, of Sac. Lit., April, 1848, p. SO /. ; Kalisch s Com. on. O. T., at Gen. 14 : 5, C.

i Num. 10: 12. 2 Comp. Gen. 21 : 14, 21. 3 Comp. 1 Sam. 23: 14, 24; 25: 1, 2. * " It would not be inconsistent with the rules of Scripture nomenclature, if we suppose these accessory wilds to be sometimes included under the general name of Wilderness of Paran." (Ilayman in Smith-IIackctt Bib. Die., s. v. Paran.") See a discussion, with the same conclusion, in Wilson s Lands of the Bible, I., 201 /.

PARAN AND ZIN. 69

This would account for the vestige of the name in "VVady Fayran l in the lower peninsula, if it be recognized there; and for the reference to it as in the hill-country of Judah in the days of David. 2 In this view of the sweep of the term " Paran," it is by no means strange to find Ivadesh spoken of at one time as in the general Wilderness of Paran, and again as in, or at, the smaller district of the Wilderness of Zin.

And now where was the Wilderness of Zin ? It is repeatedly referred to as on the southern border of Canaan, and along the eastern portion of that border. 3 It cannot have been the extensive depression between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqabah known as the Arabah, and which is a continuation of the basin of the Jordan, known above the Dead Sea as the Ghor ; for that is

" The wilderness of Paran seems to have been a name taken, in a larger and [in a] stricter sense. In the larger sense it seems to have denoted all the desert and moun tainous tract lying between the wilderness of Shur westward or toward Egypt, and Mount Seir or the land of Edom eastward ; between the land of Canaan northwards, and the Red Sea southwards. . . . In its stricter acceptation ... it is taken to denote more peculiarly that part of the desert of Stony Arabia which lies between Mount Sinai and Hazeroth to the west, and Mount Seir to the east." (Wells s Hist. Geog. of Old and New Test., I., 272.) "Winer (Bibl. Realworterb., II., 193) adopts this view, in substance ; also Kalisch, as above. Comp. Gen. 21 : 20, 21 ; Num. 10 : 12, 33 ; 12: 16.

1 " In Wady Feiran, . . . there is an evident reminiscence of the ancient name Paran. The Bedawin are unable to pronounce the letter p, and the word becoming Faran would soon degenerate with them into Feiran." (Palmer s Des. of Exod., I., 20.) " Paran (Num. 10 : 12) is no doubt the Wadi Phiran [Fayran] where formerly the town of Pharan stood." (Schwarz s Descript. Georj. of Pal., p. 212). Eusebius and Jerome (Onomasticon, s. v. "Pharan") seem to have this place in mind, although, by mistake, they locate it east instead of west of Aila. See, also, Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., III., 191 /.

*1 Sam. 25: 1, 2. Bishop Harold Browne, in The Speaker s Commentary, thinks that Paran should here read Maon ; but Schwarz (s. v. " Paran ") understands from Josephus ( Wars of the Jews, Book IV., Chap. IX.) that in the latter s day "the Desert of Paran extended to the neighborhood of the Dead Sea," which would include the region of David s retreat.

s Num. 34 : 3, 4 ; Josh. 15 : 1, 3.

70 KADESH-BARNEA.

always spoken of by its own distinctive name, which is also its description. Robinson has made this clear. He says: 1 "The Hebrew word Arabah, signifying in general a desert plain, steppe/ is applied with the article (the Arabah) directly as the proper name of the great valley in question in its whole length ; and has come down to us at the present day in the same form in Arabic, el- Arabah. We find the Hebrew Arabah distinctly connected with the Red Sea and Elath ; the Dead Sea itself is called the sea of the Arabah. It extended also toward the north to the Lake of Tiberias ; and the Arboth (plains) of Jericho and Moab were parts of it. 2 The Arabah of the Hebrews, therefore, like the Ghor of Abulfeda, was the great valley in its whole ex tent." If, therefore, the Arabah had been intended, where the Wilderness of Zin is mentioned, it would surely have been spoken of as the Arabah.

Directly west of the Arabah is a wild mountain region, rising in successive slopes or terraces from the Arabah in one direc tion, and from the Desert ct-Teeh in another. It now bears the name of the Arabs who inhabit it, and is commonly known as the Azazimeh mountains, or the Azazimat. 3 This is a dis tinct and well-defined local wilderness, fully meeting the con ditions of the various references to the Wilderness of Zin in the

1 Bib. Res., II., 186.

2 " Heb. n3~U?n ha- Arabah. in connection with the Red Sea and Elath, Deut. 1 :

TT -: T

1 ; 2 : 8. As extending to the Lake of Tiberias, Josh. 12 : 3 ; 2 Sam. 4 : 7 ; 2 Kings 25 : 4. Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, Josh. 3: 10; 12: 3; Deut. 4: 49. Plains /r>i:njr\ of Jericho, Josh. 5, 10; 2 Kings 25: 5. Plains of Moab, i. e., opposite Jericho, probably pastured by Moab though not within its proper territory, Deut. 34: 1. 8; Num. 22: 1. Compare Gesenius Lex. Heb., Art. m~\y."

See also Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., III., 277 f. ; and Keil s Handbuch der Biblischen Archaologie, pp. 28-30.

3 See Palmer s Des. of Exod., " The Mountains of the Azazimeh," Vol. II., Chap. VII.; Robinson s Bib. Kes., II., 176-179; Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., III., 193 /.

AN ELEVEN DAYS COURSE. 71

Bible. 1 It may fairly be identified as that wilderness, and again as a portion of the Wilderness of Paran in its larger sense. 2 Yet its northeastern portion was probably in Edom, and it is possible that only the remainder was known as Zin.

This identification of the Wilderness of Zin would locate Kadesh somewhere in the Azazirueh mountains ; and this corre sponds with all previous indications of its site in the Bible text.

9. AN ELEVEN DAYS COURSE.

The fact that Kadesh-barnea was "eleven days " 3 from Horeb, or Sinai, does not materially aid in its eloser locating ; for that distance might be calculated to a point farther east or west, and similarly farther north or south, within a considerable range, ac cording to the particular route followed.

Distances in the East are calculated, almost universally, by time. In illustration of this, when the Arabs saw me use a mili tary field-glass on the desert, they asked me " how many hours ahead " I could see through the glass. And an Arabic geographer even speaks of the river Nile as extending " one month in the

Palmer also calls this entire mountain district " Jebel el Magrah," describing it as a plateau, " seventy miles in length, and from forty to fifty miles broad, commencing at Jebel Araif, and extending northward by a series of steps or terraces to within a short distance of Beersheba, from which it is separated by Wady er Eakhnieh." (Des. ofExod,, II., 288 /.)

1 Num. 20 : 1 ; 33 : 36 ; 34 : 3, 4 ; Josh. 15 : 1, 3.

2 " Zin must have been a part of this wilderness [Paran], namely, the northern part; the district stretching out from the Ghor southwesterly in high rock masses, and gradually lowering itself near Jebel el-Helal." (Winer s Bib. Realworterb., s. v. "Zin.")

See, also, Ilayman, in Smith- Rackett Bib. Die., s. v. " Zin ; " Tuch, in Kitto s Jour, of Sac. Lit., July, 1848, p. 90 /. ; Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., III., 87 ; Kalisch s Bib. Com. on 0. T., at Gen. 14 : 6 ; Palfrey s Lect. on Jewish Script, and Antiq., I., 417, note.

s Deut. 1 : 2.

72 KADESH-BARNEA.

country of the Mussulmans ; " that is, its course is equal to a month s journeying. They have no thought of miles as a standard of measurement ; but rather of the time needed to pass the dis tance at ordinary rates of travel. It is the caravan speed which is the standard. On regular routes, there are certain conventional day s distances, fixed by convenience of water and camp-grounds. These may be " long-days " or " short-days," but long or short, each counts for one. If a man should post on a dromedary over two of those intervals, or five of them, between sun and sun, he would have made not one day s journey, but two or five days, as it would be reckoned in the East. Thus, for example, jt is said that Muhammad Alee once rode a dromedary from Suez to Cairo in eleven hours ; making, say, five days journey in one day. The fair thing for a day s caravan journey, as an Oriental looks at it, remains unchanged, whether a traveler hurries or lags in /HS jour neying. Whether the Israelites were a week, or t\vo years, in making the distance between Iloreb and Ivadcsh, the distance by the Mount Seir Road was still " eleven days." That could not be changed on their account, or by their action.

Almost every traveler in the East has had illustrations of the fixedness of the day s-journey idea in the minds of Orientals. When I was going north from Jerusalem I was particularly de sirous of hastening towards Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee, for special reasons ; and my Egyptian dragoman promised to arrange accordingly. I was willing to start early and to ride late for a few days, and yet to pay the full price for the time thus cut out of the usual course. But when it came to planning for the camping- places for each night, it actually seemed impossible for dragoman and muleteers to get it into their heads that it was practicable to stop anywhere else than at the traditionally accepted sites. They were willing to start at any hour I would name, but when they

1 "Abd-er-Kashid El-Bakouy," as cited in Memoirs Relative to Egypt, p. 43(J.

AN ELEVEN DAYS COURSE. 73

came to the old-time camp-ground they must camp. At last my dragoman entreated me to abandon the effort at the impossible. In my own country I could do as I pleased, lie said ; but in their country each day s journey on the roads they traveled had been fixed by their fathers ; and neither they nor I could change it. So I actually yielded the point because of its seeming impracti cability, as they looked at it.

Had I wished to make a hurried run, day and night, with a single attendant, they could have understood that; but for a cara van to attempt to change the division of the road into day s jour neys that was out of the question. And as it is now, so it has been, and so it is likely to be, in the East. "When Moses named " eleven days " as the stretch between Horeb and Kadesh-barnea by the route they had come, every Israelite knew exactly what he meant, whether we understand it or not.

Inasmuch as "a day s journey" is a conventional term, with its enforced adaptation to particular routes, it is not easy to reduce it to miles as a help to its fixing ; although it would be a very simple thing to calculate its measurement were it once fixed. The average of a day s journey in the desert region is, say, seven hours travel, at the rate of perhaps two and a third miles an hour. 1 This would practically be from fifteen to eighteen miles a day.

It would therefore appear that Kadesh-barnea was from, say, one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles from Mount Sinai, by the route here indicated " the Way of Mount Seir," or " the Mount Seir Road ; " 2 although, of course, on this particular route, the then well-known daily stretches because of the suitable stations may have been exceptionally " short-day s " journeyings. The

1 For estimates of the length of an average day s travel in the East, see Rosen- miiller s Bib. Geog., p. 161 /. ; Robinson s Sib. fies., I., 593 /. ; Von Raumer s Pdldstina, p. 21 ; Lane s Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I., p. 116, note.

2 The Hebrew word translated Way \sderekh C\^\ meaning a " road," a " beaten track," a "trodden course."

74 KADESH-BAENEA.

correspondence of this measurement with the facts in the case can only be tested when we have fixed the site of Kadesh, and settled the course of the Mount Seir Road.

10. THE WAY OF MOUNT SEIR.

The natural roads of a country are God s great landmarks. They were fixed in the processes of creation; and they remain comparatively unchanged through all the changes of the centuries. The courses of empire and the advances of civilization are indi cated beforehand, or they can lie tracked in history, by the natural highways along which alone it would be possible for them to move. Hence, when we find in the earliest book of the Bible a reference to an extended military campaign from Elam to Canaan, we can see the route which the ambitious chieftain must have taken; and again, when we are tracking the course of the Israelites in their exodus or their wanderings, the specific references to the various roads which they followed, or which they avoided, are the best possible helps to a fixing of their route beyond a peradven- ture.

This important aid to the elucidation of many of the biblical- geographical problems has been generally overlooked by commen tators and other scholars who have led in the investigations of this field of knowledge. It would seem as if our English translation of the Hebrew word for " road," or " beaten track," or " trodden course," by the indefinite word " way," had unconsciously swayed even those who are familiar with the Hebrew. We use the term " way " l as meaning, variously, " direction," " progression," " dis tance," " means," and " method," even while we do not rule out from its meanings its original signification of " path " or " road." Hence when the Bible speaks of the " Way of Shur," or the

1 See Webster s, Worcester s, and the Imperial Dictionaries, s. v., " Way."

THE WAT OF MOUXT SEIR. 75

" Way of Mount Seir," it suggests to most readers the idea of a general direction given, or of a diversion from the directest route, rather than the indication of a well-known natural highway, a landmark for all time, under its specific proper name of the time of the Bible s writing. 1

In the Bible record of the exodus and wanderings of the Israel ites there are at least nine roads thus indicated, as supplying a skeleton itinerary of the Israelites course. As we may fairly translate, or paraphrase the names of these roads, they are : The Wall Road, 2 the Philistia Road, 3 the Red Sea Road, 4 the Mount Seir Road, 5 the Amorite Hill-country Road, 6 the Arabah Road, 7 the Edom Royal Road, 8 the Moab Wilderness Road, 9 and the Bashan Road. 10 Again there is the Road of the Spies, or the Road of the Athareem u which may be the same as one of the roads already named, but more probably is a road which was known to the Israelites only by this designation.

In his review of the course of the Israelites, at the elose of their forty years wandering, 12 Moses reminds them that, in their original passing from Sinai to Kadesh, they came along two well-known roads of the mountain and desert, which he designates by the specific, and the sufficiently descriptive names, the " Way of Mount Seir," 13 or the " Mount Seir Road," and the " Way of the Mountain of the Amorites," u or the " Amorite Hill-country Road." Ob-

1 Even Grove (in Smilh-Hackett Bib. Die., s. v., "Way"), while recognizing the fact that derekh "in the majority of cases signifies .... an actual road," is still in elined to see an indication of direction in its use, and to read " the road to the Red Sea," rather than " the Red Sea Road."

* Comp. Gen. 16 : 7 and Exod. 15 : 22. This road, and the two roads immediately following it in the above list, receive full attention in their relations to the exodus, in the Study on the Route of the Exodus," at the elose of this volume 8 Exod. 13 : 18. * Exod. 13 : 18 ; Deut. 1 : 40 ; 2 : 1.

5 Deut. 1:2. 6 Deut. 1 : 19. 7 Deut. 2:8. 8 Num. 20 : 17.

9 Deut. 2:8. 10 Num. 21 : 33. Num. 21 : 1.

18 See Deut. 1 : 1-19. 13 Deut. 1:2. Deut. 1 : 19.

76 KADESH-BARNEA.

viously these two roads were not parallel, but the one was supple mental to the other in the journeying of the Israelites ; for, as the text itself indicates, the Mount Seir Road was out from Horeb, and the Amorite Hill-country Road was over the wilderness up to Kadesh-barnea. Mount Seir lay northeasterly from Mount Sinai, while the Amorite Hill-country lay northerly. The one road, therefore, would carry them in a northeasterly direction ; and the other, when they turned toward it, would incline them more or less northwesterly. To identify these two roads is to do much to ward defining the route of the Israelites, and the more precise location of Kadesh-barnea.

At the present time (as doubtless in the time of Moses), three distinct roads, and only three, open out from Mount Sinai north ward toward Palestine, across the wedge-shaped mountain range that forms the southern boundary of the Desert et-Teeh. These roads are spoken of popularly as the western road, the middle road, and the eastern road. Robinson noted them carefully in his day, 1 as other scholars have noted them since. He said : " From the Convent of Sinai .... three roads cross by the three great passes of Jebel et-Tih. . . . The easternmost is the road passing by el- Ain, and also by the well eth-Themed, west of the mountain Turf er-Rukn. The middle road crosses the Till by the pass el- Mureikhy, and the western one by er-Rakineh ; " and he adds to his description of them : " The above are all the roads we heard of across the desert, from south to north." It is obvious that only the easternmost of these three roads could have been fairly called the " Mount Seir Road ; " for that alone went in the direction of Mount Seir ; and it would seem hardly less certain that that road would have been so called.

A noteworthy fact in connection with the effort at identifying the Mount Seir Road, as taken by the Israelites, is the latest cou-

1 See Bib. fits., I., 196; also Note XXIV., p. 601 /.

THE WAY OF MOUNT SEIR. 77

elusion of the most experienced competent explorer in that desert region, as to the probable route of the Israelites northward from Sinai. The Rev. F. "W. Holland, of England, (who has died since this work was begun, 1 ) had no peer in familiarity with the Penin sula of Sinai, as a whole. He made five visits to that region, including the one when he went as the skilled guide of the Sinai Survey Expedition, of which Professor Palmer s book (" The Desert of the Exodus " 2 ) tells the story so attractively ; and he journeyed on foot, 3 over the peninsula, some five thousand miles in all. Being wedded to no theory of a particular route for the Israelites, he sought, on the occasion of his fifth journey, to study carefully the probabilities of the case in the light of all his obser vations of then and before of " available roads and passes " in every district traversed by him. His conclusion was, that the Israelites moved at first northward from Jebel Moosa (Horeb, or Sinai) ; then turned toward Wady ez-Zulaqah, 4 which heads di rectly toward Mount Seir, and which is on the easternmost of the

1 It was in consequence of the enthusiastic description of a journey in the desert with Mr. Holland, by a companion of his with whom I crossed the Atlantic in the winter of 1881, that I was tempted to make the journey of which this book is a result. On my finding the wells of which Mr. Holland had been in pursuit, I desired and hoped to communicate with him concerning them; but I was hardly at my home again before I learned of his death, in Switzerland, whither he had gone just before my reaching England on my way back.

* See Palmer s Des. of Exod., I., 3/.

3 Palmer (Des. of Exod., I., 195) tells of a messenger coming from Suez to the party at Wady Mukatteb, bringing " a letter calling Holland home." The latter " at once proposed to obey the summons, and starting off on foot, with no other pro vision than a little bag of flour, reached Suez, a distance of some 110 miles, early in the afternoon of the third day [making "six days" in "three"], having walked the last forty miles without a rest; thus performing a pedestrian feat which has been rarely equalled, and the memory of which still lives in that country."

4 Holland calls this, the Wady Zelleger (see Journal of Victoria Institute, Vol. XIV., p. 10). It appears as Wady ez-Zulakah in Robinson s itinerary of the " East Route " (Sib. Kes., I., 602).

78 KADESH-BARNEA.

three roads described by Robinson (which, in fact, might well be called, from its direction, the " Mount Seir lload"). After pass ing El- Ayn, 1 they turned northward again, as Holland thinks, into Wady el- Ateeyeh, and along that wady to the Desert et- Teeh.

This road is not the one commonly marked out for the Israelites, as running by Ayn el-Hudhera to the Gulf of Aqabah. That is not in the line of any one of the roads from Sinai to Canaan, but is eastward of them all, and has no trend toward Canaan. It has, in fact, been tracked out for the purpose of taking in certain sup posed identifications of stations named in the route of the Israel ites, rather than because of its correspondence with any feasible course likely to have been taken by them Canaanward. Holland raises a new barrier against its acceptance when he says : 2 " The wadies along that route are confined and winding, aud impassable for wagons, six of which, we are told, had been presented by the princes of Mount Sinai, for the service of the tabernacle." 3 In deed, he " finally came to the conclusion that the only available route for the Children of Israel to have taken was that by Wadies Zeleiger [Zulaqah] and el-Atiyeh ; " for " these valleys afford the most direct, the best watered, and by far the most easy course from Jebcl Miisa northward ; and by this [route] one ascends to the plateau of the Desert of Et-Tih without any difficult pass." 4 " Having once mounted to the level of the Till desert, a gradual descent across a succession of large open plains, with abundance of pasturage, would lie before them, and they would reach Jebel Mugrah [Muqrah, at the southern or southeastern border of the Azazimeh mountain tract the " Wilderness of Zin "] without

1 There is a Wady el- Ayn at the western side of the desert, quite distinct from this one at the eastern side.

2 Jour, of Viet. Inst., Vol. XIV., p. 10. 3 Num. 7 : 3-8.

* See Holland s report of his latest journey, in Report of the British Association, for 1X78, p. (522 jf.

THE WAY OF MOUNT SEIR. 79

any trouble." 1 Somewhere within that mountain tract, Hol land would look for Kadesh-barnea ; although he was not biased in favor of any site yet suggested, and he had not himself explored the region in which he would expect to find signs of it.

This independent conclusion of so competent an explorer as Holland, as to the route of the Israelites northward from Mount Sinai, is in full accord with all that the Bible narrative has yet indicated to us in our search for the site of Kadesh-barnea ; and it goes to show that the Mount Seir Road, by which the Israelites moved out from the Mount Sinai group, was the easternmost of the three roads which went from that group Canaanward ; a road which headed directly toward the Mount Seir range, 2 and which might indeed have been followed to that range by a caravan with out wagons, and which was not bound for Canaan. In the days of Moses, as now, it was not always necessary to follow a road to its terminus ; nor was it customary to keep on in a road beyond a point where one must turn from it in order to reach the place for which he had set out. If a man should say, at Hebron, that he had come from Cairo and Suez by the Mekkeh Road (or even if he omitted mention of Suez), it would not be supposed that he had followed the Hajj route across the Sinaitic desert ; nor that he had been to Mekkeh. And w r hen Moses referred to the coming to Kadesh-barnea from Sinai by the Mount Seir Road, he clearly did not mean that the Israelites took in Mount Seir on their. way; for that range was not on any route between Sinai and the southern border of Canaan ; but it was a region that they were particularly forbidden to enter. 3

1 Jour., of Viet. Inst., Vol. XIV., p. 11.

1 "There are now three routes from Sinai to Hebron or Gaza : that by the Rakineh Pass ; [that] by the Mareikhy Pass ; [and that] by the Zaraneh or Zulakeh Pass and El- Ain. Of these three the Hebrews took the most easterly by El- Ain, which was called the Way of Mount Seir, to distinguish it from the others." (Rowlands, in Imp. Bib. Pic., s. v., " Eithmah.")

8 " Meddle not with them," said the Lord to Israel, concerning the dwellers in

80 KADESIT-BARNEA.

If Holland is correct, as there seems no good reason for doubt ing, and the route he has indicated is " the only available route for the children of Israel to have taken," with their tabernacle wagons, tlion we can see clearly just how far they followed the Mount Seir Road, and at what portion of its course they turned northerly or northwesterly into " that great and terrible wilder ness" with which they became acquainted as they moved across it, to take the Amorite Hill-country Road up to the very borders of Canaan.

11. THE AMORITE HILL-COUXTRY ROAD.

To identify the Amorite Hill-country Road 1 is not so easy as to identify the Mount Seir Road ; yet it must be one of two roads across the desert toward Canaan : and whichever of these it may prove to be, its bearing on the location of Kadesh-barnea is prac tically the same.

Coming out on to the desert Et-Teeh from the Mount Seir Road, as described by Holland, the Israelites moving Canaanward would still be limited in their choice of routes by the natural characteristics of the country before them. 2 They were on a roll ing plateau some fifteen hundred feet above the level of the Ara- bah. 3 The same conditions which decided the course of Kedor-

Mount Seir ; "for I will not give you of their land, no not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession." (Deut. 2: 5.)

1 " We went through all that great and terrible wilderness which ye saw by the

Way [the Iload] of the Mountain [the Hill-country] of the Amorites and we

came to Kadesh-barnea." (Deut. 1 : 19.)

2 Although the movements of the Israelites were guided by the pillar of fire and eloud, they had the skilled guide Ilobab to be as " eyes " to them in picking out the best desert trails (com)). Num. 9: 15-23, and Num. 10: 29-31.) Thus the wise men from the East guided by the star toward Bethlehem, had the choice before them between any two roads which ran in the direction of their pursuit.

3 Sec llobiusou s Bib. lies., I., 17C, with references to Russeger, etc., in a note.

THE AMORITE HILL- CO UXTR Y R OAD. 8 1

la omer s march into southern Canaan l would combine to influence their movements. The main road across the Wilderness of Parun (a " great and terrible wilderness/ 2 as they considered it) up to the " Hill-country of the Amorites " (which began at the centre of the southern boundary of Canaan ^ swept from the Red Sea Road 4 (the modern Hajj route from Aqabah to Siiez), along around the southern base of the Azuzimeh mountain tract until it joined the Wall Road (the " Way of Shur " 5 ) near Jebel Muwaylih, 6 or until it diverged northeasterly, near that point, and passed into the Aznzimeh tract to the strategic stronghold of Kadesh-barnea, at the very base of "the Mountain of the Amorites." 7

Until recently it seemed as if there were no alternative to this route Canaanward, for a caravan that was moving across the Desert et-Teeh from the eastward, or from southeastward. Robin son emphasized this fact after his first journey over the desert northward. He saw, from the structure of the entire region, that roads from the east or southeast which " in any degree touch the high plateau of the desert south of El-Mukrah, must necessarily curve to the west, and passing around the base of Jebel Araif el- Nakah, continue along the western side of this mountainous tract." 8 He saw, also, that this would have seemed to be the natural course for the Israelites, were it not that he had fixed, in his own mind, on a site for Kadesh-barnea which was not to be reached by this great natural highway over the desert from Sinai to Canaan. " In respect to the route of the Israelites in approach ing Palestine," he said, 9 concerning this otherwise inevitable high way, " we here obtained only the conviction that they could not have passed to the westward of Jebel Araif [as other travelers " must necessarily " do] ; since such a course would have brought

1 See page 38, supra. 2 Deut. 1 : 10. 3 See page 75/., supra ; also Judges 1 : 36. Num. 14 : 25 ; Deut. 1 : 40 ; 2 : 1. 5 Geu. 16:7. 6 See page 42, supra.

1 See page 65 ff., supra; also Deut. 1 : 20. 8 Bib. Res., I., 186 /. ll>id., p. 187.

82 KADESH-BARNEA.

them directly to Beersheba, and not to Kadesh, which latter city lay near to the border of Edoni." *

On the face of it, therefore, the Amoritc Hill-country Road would seem to have been that one road which presents itself for a desert-crossing to a northward-bound traveler coining out of the Mount Sinai group by the easternmost or Mount Seir Road. Tliat is the road which leads to the Amorite Hill-country. It is the road, also, which Robinson followed, and which Kedor-la omer had taken before him. It is obviously the road which the Israel ites would have taken unless, indeed, they were compelled to go elsewhere for reasons not yet indicated. And as we have seen no reason for doubting that this road would be as likely to lead the Israelites to Kadesh-barnea as it was to lead Kedor-la omer there, we must accept all these indications of its identity unless we find some specific reason for supposing that the borders of Edom, as well as Kadesh-barnea, did not lie within the Azazimeh mountain tract.

Of late, a possibility of an alternative road through the Azaz imeh mountain tract, running diagonally northwestward from the southeastern corner of that tract, has been su^trcsted : and

f OO /

this ought not to pass unnoticed here. Mention has already been made 2 of a road in this general direction running out of the Arabah, as suggested by AVilton, and as tracked in a portion of its course by Palmer. But it was reserved for the experienced Holland to note the possibility of such a road out from the Desert et-Teeh. It was on his last visit to the Peninsula that he first

1 This is a marked illustration of unconSeirms reasoning in a circle. Robinson first decides that Kadesh-barnea is at a certain point in the Arabah because that point lies in the road \vhich was taken by the Israelites. Afterwards he decides that the Israelites did not take the road which would have seemed to be their inevitable route because, forsooth, that road would not lead them to his fore-determined site of Kadesh-barnea! (Comp. Bib. Res., I., 187 ; II., 17-1 /., 192-195.) 2 See page 39, note, supra.

THE BORDER OF EDO M. 83

ascertained that Jebel Muqruh was separated from Jebel Jerufeh, at the southeastern corner of that mass of mountains, instead of the two mountains being in a connected and unbroken range, as was before supposed. 1 Between these two mountains there is a road way, which Holland thinks finds its course up to the borders of Canaan to the Amorite Hill-country. He would recognize in this the " Way of the Spies ; " but whether he be correct or not, it will be seen that there is a possibility of the Amorite Hill-country Road being yet identified in this route. But, as was said at the start, whichever of the two alternative routes be fixed upon, its bearing on the probable site of Kadesh-barnea is practically the same. Kadesh-barnea being somewhere within the Azazimeh mountain block, lying at the base of the southern boundary of the Amorite Hill -country, it would be practicable to reach it from the southeast by such a road as that now suggested by Holland, or from the west by the route which we understand Kedor-la omer to have taken, and which has hitherto seemed the more natural, and indeed the only, route to its secluded fastnesses.

12. THE BORDER OF EDOM.

When " Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom," asking permission for the Israelites to pass through his territory on their final move toward Canaan, he said of their loca tion, " Behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border ; " 2 and this raises the question, Where was the western border of Edom ?

It ought to be noted just here, that the Hebrew word translated "city" 3 does not of necessity involve the idea of a walled town, or even of a town of any sort. Its " signification is of wide ex-

1 See Holland s reports of his journey, in Jour, of Viet. List., Vol. XIV., pp. 2-11, and Report of Brit. Assoc., for 1878, p. 622 ff.

* Num. 20 : 16. eer Vjn.

84 KADESH-BARNEA.

tent, embracing . . . the idea of an encampment," 1 as well as of a watched and guarded stronghold ; " a surrounded place," " a forti fied camp." 2

It is not within the range of probability that the vast host of Israel should have been in a single city, least of all in any city which could have existed in that day on the desert border of Canaan. It is a mistake which scholars have made all the way along in their searching for the route of the Israelites from Egypt to the banks of the Jordan, to look for an identification of any station in the record of the exodus and wanderings in the site of an ancient city. 3 In connection with the visits of the Israelites to Kadesh, there is no indication of any capture of a hostile city there, or of any intercourse with the people of a friendly city. But from the prominence given to Kadesh in the military move ments of both Kedor-la omer and the Israelites, it would appear that that place Avas a natural stronghold, a strategic watching- place on the southern border of Canaan ; and it would, therefore, be a most natural way of stating the case, for the Israelites to say to the king of Edom, " We are in Kadesh, a fortified encampment [a hill-surrounded fastness] in the uttermost of thy border." The language recorded is quite consistent with that interpretation.

It is not difficult to locate Edom as a whole, nor is it difficult to say where was its centre, its kernel, its core. The difficulty lies in fixing the western stretch and boundary, at a given time, of a land which clearly had different boundaries at different periods, and which is nowhere described in its precise limitations, either in the Bible, or prior to the Christian era in outside history. Yet the difficulty which docs exist is not so great as it has been made to appear.

" Edom " and " Seir " are terms which are often used inter changeably as the designation of a region occupied by Esau and

1 Gesenius, in Heb. Lex., s. v. 2 Fiirst, Ilcb and Chald. Lex. s. v.

8 This point is treated more fully in the Route of the Exodus, infra.

THE BORDER OF EDOM. 35

his descendants. 1 " Mount Seir/ the range of mountains running southward from the Dead Sea, on the east of the Arabah, was a main feature of " Edom"; 2 but " Seir/ 3 and " the land of Seir," 4 and " the country [or field] of Edom," 5 are terms which are clearly not limited to, nor indeed are commonly, if ever, identical with, " Mount Seir" in the Bible text. The practical question for solution is, therefore, What portion of the country at the westward of the Arabah was included in " Seir," and in " the country of Edom," in the days of the Israelites wanderings ?

Not only is there no suggestion in the Bible that " Seir " and " the country of Edom " were limited to the " Mount Seir " on the east of the Arabah, but the idea of such a limitation, at any period of the history of Edom, does not seem to have entered a human mind until more than thirty centuries after the days of Moses, when it was given shape in an incidental mention by the great geographer Roland, 6 while he was pointing a caution against counting the boundaries of Edom as alike at all periods of history. At the same time, however, Roland recognized the fact that in some way " the region occupied by Edom and his posterity [which is], called in Holy Scripture the field of Edom and the land of Seir/ . . . was situated between Egypt and Canaan ; so that the southern boundaries of the land [of Canaan], in which was the portion of the tribe of Judah, touched the terminus of the region of Edom." The incidental suggestion of Roland as to the early limits of Edom would probably have had little influence in the field of Bible geography, if it had not been renewed, in another form, by Robinson, a century and more later, as an argument in support of a site which he had fixed upon as that of Kadesh- barnea which latter place was at the uttermost border of Edom.

1 See Gen. 32 : 3 ; 3G: 1, 8, 9, 19,21,43; Xum. 24 : 18; Dent. 2: 4, 5, 8, 29; Josh. 24 : 4.

2 Gen. 14 : 6 ; 36 : 8, 9 ; Deut. 2:8; Josh. 24 : 4. 3 Gen. 33 : 14 ; Deut. 1 : 44.

4 Gen. 32: 3. * Gen. 32 : 3. 6 Palxstina, p. 66.

86 KADESH-BARNEA.

Indeed, Robinson himself had held another view than Roland s prior to his fixing of the site of Kadesh-barnca ; and in an elaborate series of articles on Idumea, or Edom, 1 not long before his first visit to the Holy Land, he said of the Mount Seir ranging- field of " the children of Esau : " " It is only proper to add here, that it is not necessary to regard the Edomites as wholly confined to this region. It is not improbable that they also had possession, at least occasional, of the mountains and part of the desert west of the Ghor [the Arabah] ; as we know that at a later period they subdued the southern part of Palestine, as far as Hebron ; and also made excursions through or around the land of Moab, and became masters of Bozrah." 2 But when Robinson had decided in his own mind that Kadesh-barnea was in the Arabah, it became necessary to push back the western boundary of the Edomites to a line within which, he had before seen and said, it was "not necessary" to regard them as " wholly confined ; " for, " otherwise," he said, " the Israelites, in journeying three times between Kadesh and Ezion-geber, must have passed twice through Edom ; which we know was not permitted." 3

Here again, as in the case of the desert roads, so capable an explorer as Robinson seems unconsciously to be reasoning in a circle with reference to the location of Kadesh. 4 Having settled it in his own mind that the Israelites passed up the Arabah toward Canaan, he fixes on a site in the line of that road as the most prob able one for Kadesh. 5 When he sees, however, that their more natural course would have been in another direction, he decides that they could not have taken that, because it would not have led them by his Kadesh which he had selected because it was on the way that, in his opinion, they did take. 6 His Kadesh was the

1 In Bib. Repos. for April, July, and October, 1833. 2 Ibid., April, p. 250.

3 Robinson s " Notes on Biblical Geography," in Bib. Sac. for May, 184!), p. 3SO.

4 See page 82, note, supra. 5 Comp. Bib. Res., II., 173-175 ; 192-195.

6 See Bib. Res., L, 187.

THE BORDER OF EDOM. 87

Kadesh because it was on their road toward Canaan. Their road must have been this road ; because otherwise it would not have passed his Kadesh, which was the Kadesh (Q. E. D.). So about the boundary of Edom. Before he had fixed his Kadesh in the Arabah, it was " not necessary " to confine the Edomites to the eastward of the Arabah ; but when he had fixed his Kadesh in the Arabah it was necessary to confine the Edomites by that boundary ; for Kadesh was at the extremest westward stretch of Edom. Edom must have been limited to the east of the Arabah, because Edom was eastward of Kadesh, and his Kadesh, which was the Kadesh, was in the Arabah. His Kadesh must have been the Kadesh, because the Kadesh was at the western border of Edom where his Kadesh was located (Q. E. D., once more). At last Robinson actually reasoned himself to the conviction that the view which he once held himself, and which had never been generally abandoned by scholars, was no longer a factor in the problem ; and he declared, as if without a thought that his declaration would be questioned by anybody : "Now at that time [in the days of the exodus], as all agree, the territory of Edom was limited to the mountains on the east of the Arabah." 2

Because Robinson could safely be followed in so many of his important discoveries and identifications, he has not unnaturally been followed in solne of his unconscious errors of identification and reasoning. 3 But in a search for the identification of an unde-

1 Comp. Bib. Rep., April, 1833, p. 250, and Bib. Sac., May, 1849, p. 379 f.

* Bib. Sac. for May, 1849, p. 380.

3 It is not to be wondered at that Robinson (whose really great service in the cause of biblical geography has fairly entitled him to be called "the Roland of the Xine- teenth Century ) should have made more or less errors in his wide and varied identifications ; but it is a matter of surprise that some of those errors should still be blindly adhered to, after they have been shown as errors by proofs that Robinson would, if now living, recognize as indisputable. Take, for example, his locating of Eboda at El- Aujeh (Bib. Res., I., 191). His guides knew that place "only by the name of Aujeh," but an Arab who was with him said it " was also called "Abdeh."

88 KADESH-BARNEA.

termined site, we should, of course, put aside, for the time being, mere naked opinions, and look to the Bible text as it stands in its integrity, and to any outside helps to the elucidation of that text. So, now, in the matter of the ancient borders of Edom.

The earliest known mention of " Mount Seir " is in the Bible record of Kedor-la omer s campaign, in the days of Abraham. 1 This was long before the birth of Esau ; and it is said that the Horites, or cave-dwellers, were then its inhabitants. 2 These Horites are said to have been the descendants of Seir; 3 but it is

Afterwards that Arab admitted " that he knew this name only from M, Linnnt, who had visited the place a few years before " (Bib. Res., I., 600). That was shaky proof on which to fix an identification; yet it was the best that Robinson could obtain, ex cept that it was supplemented some weeks later by the assurance of " a very intelli gent owner of camels," whom Robinson met at Hebron. On the strength of this information, with the seeming correspondence of the ruins with such a place as the ancient Eboda must have been, Robinson declared, " We had no doubt at the time, nor have I now, that these were the ruins of the ancient Eboda, or Oboda " (Bib. Res., I., 194); and he even brushed away the suggestion of Seetzen and M. Callier that the real ruins of Abdeh were elsewhere, on the ground that " both these latter trav elers were [probably] misinformed by their Arab guides" (Bib. Res., I., 600) instead of taking the word of " a very intelligent owner of camels at three days distance from the ruins. After all this, Stewart (Tent and Khan, p. 198 /.) and Bonar (Des. of Sinai, p. 302 /.) gained information of the existence of an Abdeh as distinct from El- Aujeh ; and finally Palmer visited both places, obtained sketches of them, proved their separateness, established the identification of Abdeh as Eboda (Des. of Exod., II., 343, 386, 407-423) ; so that to-day there is hardly more reason for a question as to the identification of Eboda than of Hebron. Yet notwithstanding all these later discoveries, Murray s Handbook for Syria and Palestine (p. 100, and Map) continues to give El Aujeh as both Abdeh and Eboda, without so much as an intimation that the Robinson location has ever been brought into question. And this is but a single illustration of the, difficulty of correcting at popular sources an error in the statements of "the Roland of the Nineteenth Century."

1 Gen. 14: <3 ; Deut. 2: 12.

2 "The Horites, as the name signifies (Heb. "in from ~nn a hole, cave), were dwellers in caves ; a description of people who were afterwards called by the Greeks Troglodytes, Tpwy/loJiira/,, a word of the same signification as Ilorites, derived from Tf>>y~Ar], a cave." (Robinson, in Bib. Repos., April, 1833, p. 250, note.)

3 Gen. 36: 20, 21.

THE BORDER OF EDOM. 89

uot an uncommon thing for a man to have taken his name from the land in which he lived. 1 The earliest known mention of the land of Edom is in the Egyptian records, at about the same period as Abraham s. In the story of Saneha, in the Twelfth Dynasty, as already referred to, 2 there are several mentions of " Atuma," or " Aduma," in such a connection as to point to the identification of this land with ancient Edom ; and the subsequent references to " Atuma" and its people in the Egyptian records, all go to justify this identification. 3 This also was long prior to Esau s birth ; but it in no degree conflicts with the Bible records of Esau s relations to the names of the lands in which at one time and another he was a dweller.

" Seir " means " rough," " shaggy," " hairy." 4 " Esau " means the same. 5 " Edom " means " red." 6 Esau bore the name "Edom." 7 The mountains of Seir were rough and shaggy. The eliffs of Edom were red. 8 It is in perfect accord with Oriental methods of thought and speech to multiply meanings in a name, and to multiply also the applications of a name in its meaning. Esau was the hairy man ; 9 the land of his possession was of a rough and shaggy front. 10 Esau was called Edom, the Red Man ; he was the man of red hair, 11 the man of the red land, and the

1 See page 56, note, supra. 2 g ee pa{ , e 46> ^ supra.

3 See Rcc. of Past, VI., 135-150 ; also Lenormant and Chevallier s Anc. Hist, of East, II., 148, 290 ; and Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 146 ff. 4 iSa eer(T.yty), " hairy," " shaggy," " rough." (Gesenius and Fiirst, s. v.) 5 Esaw (1^>;}, " hirsute," " hairy." (Hid.) *Edhom. (0~iN), "red." (Ibid.) ^ Gen. 36 : 1, 8, 19.

8 The very name " Red Sea is supposed by many to have been taken from the bordering red eliffs of Edom.

9 " Esau my brother is a hairy man." (Gen. 27 : 11.)

10 "The name may either have been derived from Seir the Ilorite or, what is

perhaps more probable, from the rough aspect of the whole country." (Porter, in Smith-Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. "Seir.") See also any description of Mount Seir.

" Red, all over like an hairy garment ; and they called his name Esau." (Gen. 2.5 : 25.)

90 KADESH-BAENEA.

man of a red choice : l " Therefore was his name called Edom " three times over. And wherever Esau-Edom lived at any time, that land would naturally be called " the land of Seir," and " the field of Edom." And so it was, according to the Bible story.

"When Esau had foolishly surrendered his birthright interest in Canaan, 2 and had lost the blessing which by Oriental custom belonged to the first-born, 3 another possession was promised to him by his aged father, 4 and God confirmed that inheritance to Esau in Mount Seir of Edom. 5 But Esau did not remove to his new possession until after the death of his father/ Meantime Jacob was away from that region, 7 and Esau remained near his father, occupy ing the parental domain, which could not as yet pass into the hands of the son who had purchased the first-born s share in its entail.

Esau married and had children long before he permanently left his old home near Beersheba. 8 In the more than twenty years of Jacob s absence, Esau s families and flocks and herds were in creased to him; and in the enfeebled and helpless state of the father, the resident son must have come into larger prominence, according to Oriental usage, 9 so that it is not to be wondered at that the region

1 " Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage ; for I am faint ; therefore was his name called Edom." (Gen. 25 : 30.)

2 Gen. 25: 27-34; Heb. 12 : 16,17. 3 Gen. 27 : 1-33. * Gen. 27 : 34-40.

5 Deut. 2:5; Josh. 24 : 4. Comp, Gen. 35 : 27-29, and Gen. 36 : 1-8.

7 Gen. 27 : 41-45 ; 28 : 5 ; 32 : 3, 4. 8 Gen. 26 : 34, 35 ; 28 : 6-9.

9 An Oriental father gains reflected honor in the prominence and successes of his sons. lie even changes his own name in such a way as to include his eldest son s name, in order to swell the glory of the family of which he is the head. Even where a man is childless he sometimes receives, by courtesy, in the East, the name of father of a hypothetical son ; or in some way the fatherhood idea is attached to his name. (See e. g. Jessup s Syrian Home Life, p. 99, f., and Thomson s Land and Book, I., 475.) An illustration of this is given in the case of Abraham. While he was yet childless he was called " Ab-ram," " Father of Exaltation." He was uplifted in the minds of his fellows as one worthy to be a father. But God gave him a promise of real chil dren ; and as he did so he added (Gen. 17 : 5) : " Neither shall thy name any more be called Ab-ram, but thy name shall be Ab-raham, " Father of a Multitude," [" Aboo-ruhain," as the Arabs might write] ; for a father of many nations have I

THE BORDER OF EDOM. 91

over which Esau extended his patriarchal stretch came to be known as " the land of Seir " [or Esau], and " the country [or field] of Edom." l

There was where Esau was living when Jacob came back from Padan-aram ; for Isaac was not yet dead, and it was not until after his death that Esau removed to Mount Seir. 2 And the record shows, that as Jacob was returning toward Hebron, he " sent messengers before him to Esau his brother, unto the land of Seir, the field of Edom." If indeed Esau had been off in Mount Seir at that time, Jacob would hardly have anticipated a meeting with him on his way to Hebron. And when the brothers had met, Jacob spoke of himself as journeying by easy stages toward the home of Esau, in Seir Esau s present " Seir," not Esau s prospective " Mount Seir." " I will lead on softly," he said, " according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir." 4 This was obviously no deceitful subterfuge on Jacob s part. He did not be gin his new life as " Israel," after his night of eventful wrestling, 5 with a lie to his brother Esau. He meant what he said. He would move slowly toward Esau s home the land of Seir, as it was now called. It was Esau s land by possession ; it was Jacob s land by purchased birthright ; it was as yet their father Isaac s land in reality. Jacob might safely call it Isaac s by courtesy, as everybody now called it, in accordance with Oriental custom.

" So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir," 6 not unto Mount Seir, but unto his land of Seir ; and Jacob followed

made thee." And that new name made all the difference in the world in Abraham s position before the world in the East. Thus, according to Eastern customs, Isaac might well have called himself Aboo-Esau, " Father of Esau ; " hence it is not strange that the name of Esau was uplifted in the region where he dwelt with his father.

1 Gen. 32 : 3. The word here translated " country " is sadheh ("H^Y It means " field," rather than " province " or " kingdom."-

* See Gen. 35 : 27-29 ; 36 : 1-8. 3 Gen. 32 : 3.

* Gen. 33 : 14. Gen. 32 : 24-32. 6 Gen. 33 : 16.

92 KADESH-BARNEA.

by easy stages to Shechem, 1 and Bethel, 2 and southward until the brothers were once more near each other, at Hebron 3 and below, in the neighborhood of their childhood s home and of the outstretching domain of Esau s, there to remain in filial and fraternal accord until after their father s death and burial. 4

That the removal of Esau to his divinely assured possessions in Mount Seir was not during the absence of Jacob in Padau-aram, is apparent on the face of the text, and it is evidenced by a number of confirmatory proofs. The mention of Esau s removal follows immediately on the mention of Isaac s death and burial. 5 Not until then was there any reason for Esau s leaving his bartered birthright inheritance. Moreover, it is distinctly said, that Esau " went into the country [of Mount Seir, when he did go there] from the face of Ids brother Jacob." 6 If Jacob were then living in Padau-aram, his face would hardly have crowded Esau out of lower Canaan. And a reason for Esau s going " from the face of his brother Jacob" just then was, that "their riches were more than that they might dwell together ; and the land wherein they were strangers [sojourncrs] could not bear them because of their cattle." 7 But if there was not even one of Jacob s brown sheep, or ring-streaked or spotted goats, 8 within two hundred miles of Hebron and Beersheba, how could they fill up the possessions of Isaac so that Esau must look elsewhere for pasturage ? Yet then it was and even until the very day of Jacob s return that Esau was a dweller in " the land of Seir, the country of Edom;" 9 iiot the Mount Seir, or the Edom which was the equivalent of Mount Seir. This designation, of the land of Esau s occupancy in Southern Canaan, by the name of " Seir," which existed at the time of Jacob s return from Padan-aram, was never lost to it. It was

1 Gen. 33: 17-20. 2 Gen. 35 : 1-8. 3 Gen. 35 : 27.

* Gen. 35: 28, 29. 5 See Gen. 35 : 27-29; 36 : 1-8. Gen. 36:6.

i Gen. 36 : 7. 8 Gen. 30 : 25-43. 9 Gen. 32 : 1-3.

THE BORDER OF EDOM. 93

found there when the Israelites made their unauthorized raid northward from Kadesh-barnea. " And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain," said Moses, " came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir." l Josephus says that this dwelling-place of Esau at the time of Jacob s return was a region "which he had called Roughness, from his own hairiness." 2 And, as will be fully shown, the traces of that name " Seir " are to be found there to-day. This Seir, it is to be noted, was within the boundaries of Canaan proper. But south of Canaan, outside its boundary, the name of " Edom " seems to have extended along some distance westward of the Arabah from a very early period, certainly before the days of Israel s occupancy of Canaan. It must have included the northeastern portion of the Azazimeh mountain tract, where was the Wilderness of Zin as we have identi fied it; hence it is not to be wondered at that Kadesh-barnea, within that tract, is said to be an encircled stronghold on the western border of Edom.

To the present time there remain traces of the old name of "Seir" in the region southeastward from Beershcba, and yet northward of the natural southern boundary line of the Land of Canaan. The extensive plain " Es-Seer " is there, 3 corresponding with the name and location of the " Seir " 4 at which, or unto which, 5 the Israelites were chased by the Amoritcs when they went up in foolhardiness from their Kadesh-barnea stronghold. 6 An

1 Deut. 1 : 44. 2 Antiquities, Book I., Chap. 20, ? 3.

3 See Rowlands, in Williams s Holy City, p. 488 /. ; Palmer s DCS. of Exod., II., 404.

* Deut. 1 : 44.

5 The Septuagint, Peshitto Syriac, and Vulgate (at Deut. 1 : 44) read "from Seir," instead of " to Seir; " but this does not affect the location of the place itself; it only touches the question whether the Israelites went beyond that boundary, or only up to that line.

6 This identification of Es-Seer, as the place referred to in Deut. 1 : 44, is approved by Ritter (Geoy. of Pal., I., 431) ; Kurtz (Hist, of Old Cov., III., 209, 294) ; Keil and

94 KADESII-BARNEA.

old ruin iu the vicinity bears the name of Qasr cs-Seer, 1 and again there are seeming traces of the name " Seer," through Sa eed, in the "NVady Sa eedat not far from there, and in the name of the Arab tribe, Sa eediych, inhabiting the old land of Seir. 2

That this " Es-Seer " is the " Seir " of the days of Moses and Joshua, and hence also the Seir, as distinct from Mount Seir, of the days of Esau, is shown again by its agreement in location with the Seir of a notable boundary-line landmark in the description of Joshua s conquests in the Land of Promise. 3 " So Joshua took all that land," it is said ; " even from the Mount Halak * [the Smooth, or Bald Mountain] that goeth up to Seir " 5 in the south of Canaan, " even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon, under Mount Hcrmon," in the north. Here, plainly, Seir is within the limits of Canaan, northward of the southern landmark known as the Smooth Mountain ; and this agrees most accurately with the region as disclosed by modern research.

The plain Es-Seer, already referred to, is bounded on the south by "Wady Feqreh, 6 a wady which ascends southwesterly from the

Delitzsch (Bib. Com. on 0. T., III., 250 /., 281 /.) ; Kalisch (Com. on 0. T., at Gen. 14: 6); Alford (Genesis, etc., at 14: 6); Wordsworth (Bible with Notes, at Num. 34: 3} ; Schaff-Lange Com. (at Num. 34: 3 and Dent. 1 : 44) ; Speaker s Com. (at Num.14: 45); Wilton (The Netjcb, pp. 73 note, 198) ; etc.

1 See Wilson s Lands of Bible, I., 345 /. Robinson visited this site, but he seems to have run the two names together, and called it " el-kuseir " -" the little castle." (See Bib. Res., II., 198.) Wilson was an accurate Oriental scholar.

2 See Wilton s The Negeb, p. 198 /. 3 Josh. 11 : 15-17; 12 : 7, 8.

4 The Hebrew is KJialaq (p/nY "smooth," "bald," "bare," as opposed to "hairj*," "rough." (See Gesenius and Fiirst, s. v.) Thus Jacob was a khalaq man, and Esau was a sa ecr man (Gen. 27: 11). Our King James Version s margin, and most modern English translations, recognise this " Mount Halak " as the Smooth, or Bald, Mountain.

5 The Smooth Mountain goes up to the Rough Plain ; the Bald Slope to the Hairy Crown ; Khalaq to Sa ecr ; Jacob s boundary-wall to Esau s early domain.

6 See Robinson s Bib. Res., II., 178-182; Wilson s Lands of Bible, I., 340; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 415 ; etc.

THE BORDER OF EDOM. 95

Arabah, from a point not far south of the Dead Sea, and which separates Palestine proper from the Azazimeh mountain tract, or Jebel Muqrah group. 1 The northern wall of this wady is a bare and bald rampart of rock, forming a natural boundary as it " goeth up to Seir ; " a landmark both impressive and unique, and which corresponds with all the Bible mentions of the Mount Halak.

Canon Williams, accompanying his friend Rowlands, was first among modern travelers to visit and describe this peculiar range. He came toward it from Hebron along "the grand plain called Es-Seer." Of its appearance, as it first met his sight, he says : 2 " Having ascended a ridge, a scene of awful grandeur burst sud denly upon us with such startling effect as to strike us dumb for some moments. A^ 7 e found ourselves standing on a gigantic nat ural rampart of lofty mountains, which we could trace distinctly for many miles east and west of the spot on which we stood ; whose precipitous promontories of naked rock, forming as it were bastions of cyclopean architecture, jutted forth in irregular masses from the mountain barrier into a frightfully terrific wilderness, [the Wilderness of Zin,] stretching far before us towards the south, whose horrors language must fail to describe. It was a confused chaos of chalk, and had the appearance of an immense furnace glowing with white heat, illuminated as it now was by the fierce rays of the sun. There did not appear to be the least particle of vegetation in all the dreary waste : all was drought and barrenness and desolation. [The Bald Mountain.] Immediately below was a wide and well-defined valley, called Wady Murrch." This pic ture of the bare and desolate mountain that goeth up to Seir is the more marked in view of the fact that neither Canon Williams nor

1 Luther s Version of the Bible renders the references to Mount TTalak in Josh. 11: 17 and 12 : 7 as "the mountain which divides the land up to Seir." This in volves, however, a slightly different Hebrew text.

3 Holy City, p. 487 f.

96 KADESH-BAENEA.

his friend Rowlands identified it with the Mount ITaluk (they proposing another location for that 1 ) ; yet the former wrote : " We felt no doubt that we were standing on the mountain-barrier of the Promised Land."

Professor Palmer 2 says of this same region ; and this again without a suggestion that it was " the Bald Mountain " he was describing : " The view from the top is very impressive ; as well as the precipitous eliffs which everywhere meet the eye, huge jorfo* mountains in themselves, rise up on either side of the wady [Murrah] bed. The rocks being of limestone, and not relieved by any verdure, produce a glare that is most distressing to the eyes."

The very name "Mount Halak" 4 the Smooth, or Bald, Moun tain seems to be preserved, or re- indicated, in an Arabic synonym " Es-Sufah," 5 as the name of a principal pass into Palestine, going up this natural barrier from Wady Feqreh to the plain Es-Serr, or Seir, northward. 6 Freytag 7 defines " Es-Sufah " as meaning " the hard, dense rock which bears no vegetation" 8 smooth and bald.

* o

There is a remarkable unity in the reports of travelers as to the correspondence of this mountain-side pass with the Scriptural boundary mark of " the Mount Halak ; " a unity all the more remarkable in that not one of them has seemed to have in mind this seemingly self-evident identification.

Robinson 9 speaks of this "ascent to Seir " as "a formidable

1 See Holy City, p. 491. 2 DCS. of Exod., II., 406.

3 " A jorf, that is a steep bank formed by the torrent cutting through the soil of the wady-bed" (Ibid., p. 338). See Freytag s Lexicon Arabico-Lalinum, s. v. * Ileb. p^nn inn ; kahar he-khalaq.

I T T V T T

B HljUflJt The Speaker s Commentary (at Num. 34 : 3-5) renders this " Xakb es-Safuh," as the "Pass of the Bare Hock."

6 And the pass next to the east of it is "Es-Sufey," the diminutive of" Es-Sufah."

7 In Arab. Lat. Lex., s. v. 8 Pctra dura, crassa, plantas non produccns.

9 Bib. lies., II., 178-181.

THE BORDER OF EDOM. 97

barrier, a naked limestone ridge not less than a thousand feet in height and very steep ; " the path over Es-Sufuh being " upon the naked surface of the rock," ascending along " this bare rock," which is "in many places smooth and dangerous for animals," the camels making " their way with difficulty, being at every moment liable to slip." Von Schubert describes it as " a high, bald hill." 1 Lord Lindsay 2 calls it "a precipitous sheet of bare rock, alternately smooth and slippery, and covered with loose stones." Miss Mar- tineau 3 speaks of "the steep slope being bare shelvy limestone." Wilson 4 says : " Not a particle of vegetation was visible on its chalky eliffs, which appeared like a natural rampart to the land." Olin 5 refers to the slope as " tolerably smooth," but " so steep that it is barely possible for loaded camels to ascend." Durbin 6 is sure that this mountain formed " the southern boundary of Judea." " This mountain wall," is what " El-Mukattem " 7 calls it ; and the Pass Sufah he designates as " a steep, smooth rocky surface." " A slip pery ascent it proved," says Formby. 8 And Caroline Paiue s testimony 9 is : " The rocks were too smooth to present a very secure foothold for even the cautious camels, and nearly all of those [riders] who generally remained mounted when elimbing the rocky passes, preferred trusting to their own feet here."

Is it not clear that this bald and bare northern wall of Wady Feqreh, this natural rampart of Canaan, with its smooth rock passes, Es-Sufah and Es-Sufey, going up to the plain Es-Seer, is " the Smooth Mountain that goeth up to Seir " the western land of Seir, in southern Canaan ? 10

1 Reise in das Morgenland, II., 443. * Letters, II., 46.

3 Eastern Life, p. 369. 4 Lands of Bible, I., 342. 5 Travels, II., 62.

6 Observ. in Eastfl., 197. 1 Lands of Moslem, p. 234.

8 Vixit to East, p. 321. 9 Tent and Harem, p. 294.

10 Keil and Delitzsch (Bib. Com. on 0. T., VIII., 123), and Kurtz (Hist, of Old ( or., III.. 205), incline to this identification ; although neither of them has seemed to recognize the significance of the remaining name " Es-Sufah." 7

98 KADESH-BARNEA.

There is a reason which should not be lost sight of for the con tinuance of the old name of Seir in the south of Canaan after Esau had removed, with all his family, to his divinely assured possession in Mount Seir. Two of the wives of Esau were Ca- naanites; 1 another wife was of the daughters of Ishmael. 2 The descendants of these wives would naturally have affiliation with the people of their maternal ancestry. Even though Esau took with him all his family and all his substance when he went from Southern Canaan to the region of Mount Seir, 3 it is every way probable that more or less of his descendants of the Canaanitish stock would wander back before long to the fields of their fathers the fields which they themselves, in some cases, had occupied west of the Dead Sea and the Arabah ; and again that some of those who were of Ishmaclitish, hence of Egyptian, 4 stock, would spread themselves along the upper desert, in the Wilderness of Paran, where Ishmael had roamed Egyptward. 5 Indeed, that something like this was the case with the Amalekite posterity of Edom (if, as seems probable, the Amalekites were descended from both Esau and Seir 6 ) is evident from the Bible text. They were already down in the mountains of Sinai, 7 and up in the hills of southern Canaan 8 in the days of the exodus.

Two centuries and a half, it must be remembered, had passed, between the occupancy of Mount Seir by Esau and the appearance of the Israelites on the verge of Canaan. This gave time for great changes in the border lines of nomadic tribes. An Egyptian papyrus of the Nineteenth Dynasty the supposed dynasty of the

1 Compare Gen. 26 : 34 ; 27 : 46 ; 36 : 2.

Concerning the seeming confusion in the several mentions of these wives, see Smith- Hackctt Bib. Die., s. vv. " Adah," " Aholibamah," " Bashemath."

2 Gen. 28: 9; 36: 3. 3 Gen. 36 : 6. 4 Gen. 1C : 3, 15. 5 Gen. 21 : 21. 6 Gen. 36 : 12, 20, 22. See p. 40,/,, note, supra.

i Exod. 17 : 8. 8 Num. 14 : 45.

THE BORDER OF EDOM. 99

exodus refers to "the Shasoo of the country of Aduma" (the Bed ween of Edom or Seir) as already at the doors of Lower Egypt, and even as permitted to enter that land as settlers there. 1 And all the indications of the Egyptian records would show that the Edomite Bed ween roamed freely, at this time, from the Arabah to the Delta.

As already stated, the region assured to Esau and his descen dants by the divine promise was Mount Seir, the mountain range on the east of the Arabah, a region wholly outside of the limits of Canaan the birthright inheritance bartered to Jacob. The names "Seir," and "field of Edom," 2 applied, for the reasons noted, to the old ranging-field of Esau in southern Canaan, are not to be confounded with Esau s Mount Seir and the old region of Edom proper as it existed before the days of Esau. But Edom proper seems always to have included, in its westward stretch, the Arabah and more or less of the mountain region west of the Arabah and southward of the natural boundary line between these mountains and Canaan ; southward of Wady Feqreh, with its Azazimeh, or Muqrah, mountain-wall standing over against the wall of Mount Halak. This is fairly to be inferred from the Egyptian references to ancient Edom ; it is consistent with our earliest knowledge of the bounds of Edom ; it is an inevitable deduction from the early Bible mentions of Edom s westward reach.

1 See a translation from this papyrus in Brugsch s Diet. Geog., p. 642 ; also Hist, of Egypt, I., 247 /.

1 Wilton (The Negeb, p. 73, note) points out the fact that the word sadheh (7T\iy\ translated " field " or " country " (of Edom), refers rather to a cultivated plain than to a rugged mountain, hence it is inapplicable to " Mount Seir ; " also that it is the word applied proleptically to the domain of the Amalekites in the record of Kedor- la omer s march (Gen. 14 : 7) over this very region. In this light, the " field " of the Amalekite descendants of Edom in the earlier record is the same as the " field " of the ancestor of the Amalekites in the later story.

100 KADESH-BARNEA.

Various references to the boundary limits of Canaan, in the Bible text, go to show that the southern line of the Land of Promise ran along the western portion of Edom proper. In de scribing that line, as it passes southeasterly from the Dead Sea starting-point into the Wilderness of Zin, or the Azazimeh moun tain tract (running along the Wacly Feqreh, which marks the natural boundary of Palestine 1 ), the record is, that it shall be "from the Wilderness of Zin, along by the coast of Edom ; " 2 or " from the Wilderness of Zin, which resteth upon the side of Edom." 3 Again it is said that " the uttermost [or lower border] cities of the children of Judah toward the coast of Edom south ward [or Negebward]," 4 stretched along as far westward as Beer- shcba the old home of Esau-Edom. All this is utterly incom patible with the limitations of Edom to the region east of the Arabah, but quite consistent with every other indication of the westward reach of Edom into the Azazimeh, or Muqrah, mountain tract on the west of the Arabah, from the very earliest mention of that country until its final annihilation as a distinct power among the peoples of the world.

That the name Edom, in its Greek form " Idumea," extended over the upper desert south of Palestine in the later centuries

1 Observe the opinions of Williams, Rowlands, Palmer, and others on this point, at pages 95-97, supra.

2 See Num.34: 1; Josh. 15: 1.

3 Speaker s Commentary rendering. Fries (in Stud. u. Krit. for 1854, p. 77) has shown that al-yedhee pT~7J^ in Num. 34 : 3, rendered in the King James Version " along by the coast of," does not, like al-yadh (T~^ V as in Exod. 2:5; Josh. 15: 46; 2 Sam. 15: 2; Dan. 10: 14, signify contact at a single point, or along a short distance ; but means " along the land of," " on a long, yea, the whole stretch," as for instance in Judges 11 : 26. This fact in itself would seem sufficient to show that peath (J"iHpY " quarter of," in Num.34: 3, cannot in this instance (as some have elaimed) mean " corner of," if indeed it ever could have that meaning in a land boundary.

* Josh. 15 : 21-28.

THE BORDER OF EDOM. 101

before the Christian era, and subsequently, is abundantly shown by references to it in the Apocrypha, the Talmud, and the writings of Pliny, Josephus, Ptolemy, Jerome, and others. 1 Diodorus Siculus, indeed, speaks of the Dead Sea as in the centre of the satrapy of Idumea. 2 And, as has been already noted, all the geographers down to the days of Roland were at one on this point. So far there is no dispute. The only question raised by any scholar is, whether the westward stretch of Edom beyond the Arabah was prior to the period of Judah s captivity. 3 Yet not a particle of evidence is to be found in favor of the westward limitation of ancient Edom by the bounds of the Arabah, at any period whatsoever ; while both the Bible text and the Egyptian records give proof that there was no such limitation in the days of the conquest of Canaan.

As yet, the precise limits of ancient Edom, westward, cannot be designated with confidence. It is probable, judging from what we know of ancient boundaries generally, that these limits were con formed to some marked natural features of the country. When the Azazimeh, or Muqrah, mountain tract shall have been care fully explored, such natural features may be there shown for the marking of the western border of Edom, as have already been pointed out for the southern border of Canaan. Holland had this in his mind on the occasion of his latest visit to the desert ; but the same causes which prevented his following up the search for

1 See Kelaml s Pal., pp. 66-73; Robinson s "Sketches of Idumea," Bib. Repos. for April, 1833, p. 252 f. ; Conder s Art., " Idumea," in Encyc. Brit., ninth ed. ; Porter s Art., Edom," in Smith- Ilackett Bib. Die.

2 " Kelrni yap Kara /j.a?}v rf/v crarparre/av TJjg Idovuaia^." (Bk. 19, chap. 96.)

3 Dean Stanley says (Sinai and Pal., p. 04, note) : "To represent Edom as extend ing west of the Arabah in the time of Moses, is an anachronism, borrowed from the times after the Captivity, when the Edomites, driven from their ancient seats, occupied the South of Judea as far as Hebron; 1 Mace. 5: 65." Rut this charge of anachronism will hardly rest against Moses himself, and the scribes of Meneptah.

102 KADESH-BARNEA.

the site of Kadesh-barnea stood in the way of his exploring the region in question for the settlement of Edom s boundary line. Yet he made a suggestion which may yet prove a valuable one. Findino- the natural break in the southwestern corner of that great

O O

mountain tract, as already mentioned/ he was led to believe that the wady-roadway passing up northerly through the mountains toward the southern border of Palestine " formed the western boundary of Edom." 2 However this may prove to be in the light of future explorations, it is evident that the uttermost border of Edom in that direction lay somewhere within that mountain tract ; and that, therefore, Kadesh-barnea was abo there. 3 And this is in further confirmation of all that we have before learned of the probable site of Kadesh.

13. A SWEEP TO GAZA.

An incidental mention of Ivadesh-barnea as a landmark in Joshua s progress in the conquest of Canaan, will be seen to con form very well with the other indications of its location. Joshua had captured Lachish and Eglou in southwestern Canaan. 4 Then, pushing eastward, " Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron ; and they fought against it : and they took it." 5 And so the old home of their ancestors, with the craves of

o

Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, was fairly in the possession of the Israelites. There is certainly no doubt about the location of Hebron. That site is fixed beyond a peradveuture.

And from Hebron " Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir ; and fought against it ; and he took it, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof [all the enclosures, or strono--

1 See page 82 /, supra.

* See Holland s report of his journey, in Report of Brit. Assoc. for 1878, p. 622 ff. 3 Num. 20 : 16. * Josh. 10 : 31-35.

5 Josh. 10: 36, 37.

A SWEEP TO GAZA. 103

holds, 1 thereof] ; ... as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir." As Joshua had been moving eastward to Hebron, his return from Hebron could not have been by moving farther east ward or southeastward, it must have been by a westerly or a south westerly course ; hence Debir (or, Debeer) is to be sought in that direction from Hebron. And there Debir has been fairly identified.

Debir is a noteworthy place on many accounts. Its more ancient name is said to have been Kirjath-sepher, 2 or Book-town, or City of Books; 3 and again Kirjath-sanuah, 4 or City of Instruc tion; 5 indicating its prominence as a literary and religious centre. Its later name, Debir, 6 is a term sometimes applied to the inner sanctuary of a temple, or the seat of a sacred oracle. And the reference to its outlying strongholds [" cities "], and to its excep tionally secure fastnesses, would seem to show it as a military position of importance. After Joshua s first capture of it, it seems to have been retaken by the sons of Anak, or other formidable

1 The Hebrew word is eer (TT), an " enclosed place," as already shown (see page 83, supra). It is not to be supposed that there were separate " cities " connected with Debir ; but it is probable that there were outlying " enclosures."

2 Josh. 10 : 38, 39 ; 15 : 15 ; Judges 1 : 11.

3 As to this meaning there is no question. See Gesenius and Furst, s. w. " Qir- jath," "Sepher."

4 Josh. 15 :49.

8 Grove (Smith -Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. "Debir") and Thomson (South. Pal., Land and Book), and some others, render this " City of the Palm ; " but Schroder (Die Phunizische Sprache, p. 8, note) shows its most probable meaning as "City of the Law ; " as the Arabic sinnah, " the Law," would indicate. The Septuagint translates both names, Qirjath-sepher as well as Qirjath-sannah, by " City of Letters." Nor is Schroder alone in this rendering.

6 It is a word from a root of varied significations. See Gesenius and Furst, s. v. "Debeer." Its root meanings include "behind," "inner," "to speak," etc.; hence it is applied to the inner sanctuary of a temple (see 1 Kings 6 : 5, 19, 22 ; 8 : 6-8 ; 2 Chron. 3 : 16 ; 4 : 7-9) ; or again to the oracle speaking from the sanc tuary.

104 KADESH-BARNEA.

inhabitants of Canaan; 1 for it was then that Caleb deemed it a prize worthy of the best efforts of the most heroic, and said : " lie that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife." 2 And Otlmiel, who took the city and won its reward, was afterwards a judge of Israel, 3 while his city became a city of the priests. 4

Various sites have been suggested for ancient Dcbir ; nearly all of them, however, within a few miles range, and all of them westerly or southwesterly of Hebron. 5 Of late the identification at Dha- hareeyeh, a somewhat remarkable village on the road from Hebron to Beersheba has gained confidence, and now has general accept ance. Knobel 5 was perhaps the first to point to this identification, and Conder, 7 Tristram, 8 and Thomson, 9 strengthened its elaims to approval. Robinson, 10 Wilson, 11 Bitter, 12 and Palmer, 13 had, before this, emphasized the importance of the site of the ruins of Dhaha- reeyeh. It is at the junction of the two great roads ; that from Hebron to Gaza, and that from Hebron to the desert and to Egypt the "Way of Shur." "A castle or fortress apparently once stood here," says Robinson ; " the remains of a square tower are still to be seen, now used as a dwelling;: and the

" O /

.doorways of many hovels are of hewn stone with arches. It would seem to have been one of the line of small fortresses, which apparently once existed all along the southern border of Palestine."

It is a remarkable fact that to the present day Dhahareeyeh is counted the border town of Palestine. The Tecyahah Arabs who

1 Comp. Josh. 10: 38, 39, and Josh. 15: 13-15. 2 Josh. 15 : 16, 17. 3 Judges 3 : 9-11. * Josh. 21 : 9-15.

5 Smith- Uackctt Bib. Dic.,s.v., "Debir"; Schaff-Lange Com. at Josh. 10: 38. 6 As cited in Lange, as above. 7 Tent Work in Pal., II., 93.

8 Bible Placet, p. Gl. 9 South. Pal. (Land and Book), p. 299 /.

1 Bib. Res., I., 209-11. n Lands of Bible, I., .349-354.

Georj. oj Pal., III., 193, 288 /. 13 DCS of Exod., II., 391-396.

A SWEEP TO GAZA. 105

convoy the traveler from Castle Naklil toward Hebron are unable to carry him by Dhahareeyeh ; unless, indeed, a new agreement is made at that point, by the payment for Dhahareeyeh horses to Hebron, at an added cost beyond the hire of the Teeyahah camels. As Ritter states it 1 : " The first place of any importance in Pales tine is the village ed-Dhoheriyeh, five or six hours southwest of Hebron [Robinson called it four hours. I found it about four and a half]. It derives its interest from the fact that here converge the west road leading through Wadi es-Seba and Beersheba, the great highway to Gaza and Egypt, and the great eastern road from Petra and Sinai." Palmer 2 calls attention to the fact that " Mur ray s Handbook" 3 says of this important site: "There is nothing here either to interest or detain the traveler ; " and he adds : " But ... we found it, on the contrary, a very interesting place. The dwellings consist for the most part of caves cut in the natural rock, some of them having rude arches carved over the doorways, and all of them being of great antiquity. . . They are exactly like what the old Horite dwellings must have been, and have doubtless been inhabited by generation after generation, since the days of that now forgotten race."

Conder and Thomson would find a resemblance in the meanings of Dhahareeyeh and Debeer. The latter says : " The Arabic name, edh-Dhoheriyeh, may be translated ridge or i promontory/ and hence this signification corresponds with its position, and also with the meaning of the word." 4 Yet Robinson (or Eli Smith 5 ) ren ders the word as " noon." In fact the Arabic root of this word is as varied in its significations as its Hebrew correspondent, Debeer. It means "back," "behind," "backbone," "ridge," " road through the desert," " summer-noon," " to conquer," " to disclose," etc. 6

1 Geog. of Pal., III., 193. Des. of Exod., II., 39 /. 3 Syria and Pal., p. 99.

* South. Pal. (Land and Book), p. 300. 5 Bib. Res., III., 208, first ed.

6 See Freytag s Lex. Arab. Lrrt., s. v. a fa.

106 KADESH-BARNEA.

Hence, while the correspondence of name is not such as to be in itself conclusive, there is enough else to render it more than probable that the important site of Dhahareeyeh is also the site of the im portant ancient Debir ; and a similarity in the names can easily be found. Yet Dhahareeyeh as it is to-day, with its mud walls, and its wretched people, its multitude of dogs, and its many myriads of fleas, has little to suggest the military stronghold, the literary centre, the sacred metropolis, which once existed there. But herein is an illustrative contrast between the Land of Promise as it was, and as it is.

And from Hebron to Debir and beyond, Joshua swept on in his conquering march. " So Joshua smote all of the hills [the hill- country of Judah], and of the south [the Xegeb], and of the vale [the Shcphelah], and of the springs [ the upper springs and the .nether springs, which were added to Achsah s dowry (Josh. 15 : 17-19), near Debir]. . . . And Joshua smote them from Kadesh- barnca even unto Gaza." l The only consistent explanation of this statement is, that Joshua moved along southwesterly from Hebron to Debir and Kadesh-baruca ; from Hebron to the southernmost point of the southern boundary-line of Canaan, 2 and thence onward toward Gaza and the sea-coast. And this explanation coincides with all that has before been shown as to the location of Kadesh- barnea.

14. THE PROMISED LAND'S SOUTHERN BOUNDARY.

And now for the various mentions of Kadesh-barnea as a boun dary-line landmark in the Bible story. Both in the incidental refer ences to, and in the detailed descriptions of, the southern boundary of the Promised Land as a whole, and again of the possessions of the tribe of Judah (before the portion of Simeon was taken from them), the location of Kadesh-barnea conforms to the indica-

i Josh. 10 : 40, 41. a Num. 34 : 4.

THE PROMISED LAND S SO UTHERN BO UNDAR Y. 107

tions already noted, at the same time that it is fixed yet more definitely.

In Numbers 34 : 3-5, Moses declares, from Jehovah, to the Israelites : " Your south quarter [or, side] shall be [or, extend] from the Wilderness of Ziii along by the coast [or, boundary] of Edom [or, which resteth upon the side of Edom]." This general statement of the southern boundary line is followed by a eloser description of its salient points. " And your south border shall be [or, shall start from] the outmost coast [or, the extremity] of the Salt Sea [the Dead Sea] eastward [or, on the east] ; and your border shall turn from [or, on] the south to [or, of] the Ascent of Akrabbim, and [shall] pass on to Zin [or, Zinward] ; and the going forth thereof shall be from the south [or, the extent of its reach on the south shall be] to Kadesh-barnea [or, south of Kadesh-barnea], and shall go on [or, shall reach forth thence] to Hazar-addar [or, the village, or settlement, of Addar], and shall pass on to Azmon [or, Azmonward] ; and the border shall fetch a compass from Azmon unto [or, from Azmon the border shall turn to] the river of Egypt [or, Wady-of-Egypt-ward], and the goings out of it shall be at [or, its reach shall be to] the [Mediterranean] Sea [or, seaward]."

In Joshua 15 : 1-4, this southern boundary line 1 is re-described with more particularity : " To the border [or, boundary] of Edom, the wilderness of Zin southward was [or, as] the uttermost part of the south coast." Or, as some would read this : " On the south, to the border of Edom [their boundary was], the wilderness of Zin, from the extremity of Teman." 2 This general descrip tion is followed, as in Numbers, by a detailed one : " And their

1 The southern boundary of Judah was also the southern boundary of the Land of Promise as a whole.

1 So, the Arabic translator and Houbigant, as quoted and followed by Geddes, in his Revision, in loco ; also the Latin Revision of Sebastian Schmidt. This point will be fully considered farther on.

108 KADESH-BAENEA.

south border [or southern boundary] was from the shore [or, end] of the Salt Sea, from the bay [or, tongue] that looketh [or, turn- eth, or, bcndeth] southward [or, Negebward] ; and it went out to the south side to Maaleh-acrabbim [or, to the southern boundary of the Ascent of Acrabbim], and passed along to Zin [or, Zimvard], and aseended up on the south side unto [or, along the south of] Kadesh-barnea, and passed along [or, over] to Ilczron, and went up to Adar, and fetched a compass [or, turned itself] to Karkaa; from thence it passed toward Azmou [or, Azmonward], and went out unto the river [or wady] of Egypt ; and the goings out of that coast [or, the terminations of the boundary] were at the Sea [or, were seaward]." 1

Now let us follow out this boundary line description in the light of present knowledge of the region in question. It is to be borne in mind that this is the southern boundary, not the eastern one ; hence it must be understood as running, or inclining, wes terly from its very start. The eastern boundary of the Promised Land ends at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea ; 2 and there the southern boundary begins its westerly course.

The southern end of the Dead Sea is not a fixed point; for the ex tension of water in that direction varies greatly at different times ; 3

1 From the very nature of the Hebrew language, the original description of this boundary line is somewhat vague in its phrasing; but not so as seriously to becloud its meaning. The alternative readings given above are all justified by competent scholars; most of them, indeed, are quite generally agreed on; as maybe seen by re ferring to the Sepluagint, Critici Sacri, Pool s S /nop. of Grit., Speaker s Com., Schnff-Lange Com., Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com. Knobel s Exerjet. Handb., Horsley s Bib. Crit., Geddes , Sharpe s.Wellbeloved s and Leescr s Revisions, Bush s Notes on Num., Crosby s Notes on Josh., etc. 2 Num. 34 : 10-12 ; Josh. 15 : 5.

3 Lieut. Lynch (Expedition to Jordan and Dead Sea, p. 309) says : The southern end of the sea ... is ever varying, extending south from the increased flow of the Jordan, and the efflux of the torrents in winter, and receding with the rapid evapor ation, consequent upon the heat of summer."

See also Irby and Mangles s Travels, p. 353 /. ; Van de Velde s Syrien u. Pal., II., 136 /.; Tristram s Land of Israel, pp. 300, 331, 337.

THE PROMISED LAND S SOUTHERN BOUND AR Y. 109

but it is sufficiently definite for a starting point of an exten sive boundary line. 1 Leaving the southern end of the Dead Sea, the boundary line moves westerly. The first landmark noted in that direction is a hill range designated as the Ascent of Akrabbim ; or the Ascent, or the Pass, of Scorpions, as it is com monly understood. Looking westerly from the southern end of the Dead Sea, what range would seem to meet the requirement of this designation? South of the Dead Sea, at a distance of eight miles, more or less, is a " line of eliffs crossing the whole Ghor, and constituting merely the ascent to the higher plane of the Arabah;" 2 or, possibly forming a natural barrier to the encroaching waters of the Dead Sea, at their greatest height. 3 " In the absence of any better suggestion," Robinson was " inclined to regard " this eliff- range as the Ascent of Akrabbim ; and in this suggested identifi cation, as in many another, Robinson has been generally followed by subsequent writers. But this low line of eliffs, this mere basin-wall, 4 is directly south of the southern end of the Dead Sea, if, indeed, it is not itself the boundary of the tongue of that sea ; and it does not seem to be in the line of a southern

1 De Saulcy (Dead Sea, I., 250 /.) would identify the peninsula on the east shore of the Dead Sea, which is known as El-Lisan (the Tongue), with "the tongue that turn- eth southward " in this description. But although the name itself would seem to give weight to this suggestion, Grove has pointed out (in Smith-Hackctt Bib. Die., Art. "Salt Sea") the fact that the Hebrew word lashon (f 1 ^) here rendered " tongue," is in two other instances (Josh. 15 : 5 ; 18 : 19) applied to the upper end of the Dead Sea, and clearly means a tongue of water, not of land ; also that the term " Lisan " is probably given to only the southern portion of the peninsula which verges on the tongue of the sea southward. In Isaiah 11 : 15, lashon is applied to the " tongue " or arm of " the Egyptian sea." Thus we see that in the three places where the meaning of this word in the Bible text is obvious, it is applied to a tongue of water; and it is certainly fair to give it that meaning in the fourth instance.

2 Bib. Res-, II., 120. 3 See Irby and Mangles s Travels, p. 353.

* Indeed if the Dead Sea were at its greatest height, these "cliffs" would be at the water s edge; and then what would the "scorpions" do for a elimbing place ?

110 KADESH-BARNEA.

boundary. It would certainly be well to look for a " better sug gestion." 1

It has already been shown 2 that the apparent natural boundary of Canaan, or Palestine, on the south, is the mountain-range which forms the northern wall of Wady Fcqrch ; " the Bald Mountain that goetli up to Seir." 3 It is certainly reasonable to suppose that this natural boundary is designated in this instance, as in the other, 4 in the description of the southern coast of the Land of Promise ; especially when the description here accurately conforms to this prominent landmark.

To one looking from the southern end of the Dead Sea, 5 the open mouth of this Wady Feqrch shows itself prominently, in a southwesterly direction, between the southern end of Khashni Usdum (the Hill of Sodom, sometimes called the Salt Mountain,) on the right hand, and the northern or northwestern end of the low basin-wall to which Robinson has called attention, on the left hand. A southern boundary-line, which is to run westerly, and which is to pass south of, 6 rather than over, the designated Ascent of Akrabbim, would therefore properly be supposed to enter this great dividing wady, which runs south of the already recognized

1 A crowning illustration of Robinson s controlling influence over modern scholar ship in his field, is given in his ability to induce so many to accept his suggestion that a southern boundary runs north and south. The English-speaking world has been almost a unit on this point since he made the suggestion as his only way of adapting the Bible record to his site of Kadesh-barnea ; although he did not even proffer an argument in its support.

2 See pages 95-97, supra. 3 Josh. 11 : 17 ; 12 : 7.

4 The references to this mountain-wall, in Joshua, would seem to indicate it as the southern limit of " all that land, the hills, and all the South Country.

5 See the Map of Dead Sea, in Tristram s Land of Israel.

6 Keil and Delitzsch (Bib. Com., IV. 151) render Joshua 15 : 3, " To the southern boundary of the ascent of Akrabbim. 1 See, also Schaff-Lange Bib. Com., in loco. Horsley (Bib. Grit.) renders Num. 34: 4, " And your southern border shall go round by the Hills of Scorpions." Geddes (Revision) renders it, Winding about the south side of Akrabbim."

THE rE OMISED LAND S SO UTIIERN B UNDAR Y. l\\

southern coast-wall of the land to be bounded. In this case, the Ascent of Akrabbim might be looked for along the northern wall of "Wady Feqreh the Bald Mountain wall. The Pass es-Sufah, already named as a principal pass of that wall-rampart, has been suggested, 1 with some show of probability, as the Ascent of Akrabbim; 2 yet the more westerly Pass el- Yemen, up the same hillside, has, perhaps, superior elaims to this identification, both in its position and in its name as will be seen in its farther exami nation. It is possible that in the days of the exodus the range as a whole was known as the Mount Halak, and its westerly pass as the Ascent of Akrabbim.

Even the word " Akrabbim " may have had reference to the characteristics of the Ascent, or Pass, or Maaleh ; characteristics which are evident to-day as always. The word is commonly translated "Scorpions," and the suggestion is that scorpions abounded there. But while the Hebrew root is not entirely clear, it seems to have the idea of " wounding the heel," 3 which is the work of both the scorpion and the serpent ; 4 and from that point the Hebrew root and its Arabic correspondents run out into various meanings, including " scorpion," " scourge," " striking," " cutting off," " centre," " defile," " mountain pass." It was long ago suggested that the Ascent of Akrabbim was rather a descrip tive designation than a proper name ; that it indicated a serpentine or sinuous ascent ; a way that winds and twists scorpion-like. 5 It

1 See Rowlands, in Imp. Bib. Die., s. v., " Moserah " ; Knobel s Exegct. Handb., at Josh. 15 : 3 : and Speaker s Com., at Num. 34 : 4.

2 The reference to " Akrabattine," in Idumea, in 1 Mace. 5 : 3, would seem to cor respond with this view.

3 Gesenius, (Ileb. Lex., s. v. "Agrab") thinks that it is "compounded from aqar ppT) to wound, and aqeb pp.?) heel. "

4 "Thou shalt bruise his [man s] heel," is God s prophecy to the serpent in Eden (Gen. 3: 15.)

5 See citations in Pool s Synops. Crit., from Vatablus, Emanuel Si, and Mariana, of say three centuries ago. Fiirst (Reb. and Chald. Lex., s. v. " Aqrab ") finds the idea of a sinuous course in the word itself.

112 KADESII-BARNEA.

is a noteworthy fact that Robinson says 1 of a similar difficult ascent at another point : " The ascent is called simply en-Nukb, or el- Arkiib, both signifying the pass up a mountain; and our guides knew no other name. The road rises by zig-zags along the projecting point of a steep ridge, between two deep ravines." The word Arkub, or Arqoob, here used, is apparently from the same root as aqrab. Its meaning is given 2 not only as " a tortuous wady course," and "a mountain defile," 3 but as the proper name of an Amalekite "celebrated for breaking and eluding his promises" slipping and twisting from the straight way of veracity. 4

This Pass el-Yemen is the more commonly used pass, up the Bald Mountain border of Palestine. It was described first, in modern times, by Seetzcn, 5 in 1807. Robinson 6 says of it, in comparison with the two passes eastward of it: " Of the three passes, that of Es-Sufuh is the most direct ; but that of El- Yemen, though the way is longer, is more used on account of the water at the top ; " good water being there found in unfailing supply : and of course a water supply would always give the pre-eminence to a pass on the desert border. The location of the Pass el-Yemen is, northward, over against the supposed westerly stretch of the land of Edom," or the Dukedom of Toman, 8 and its Arabic name, El-

l Bi!>. Res., I., 175. 2 Frcytag s Lex. Arab. Lat., s.v.

3 There is apparently a root connection with this word Arqoob, in the name Aqaba, meaning "a descent or steep declivity," which is applied to "the long and difficult descent of the Haj route from the western mountain" toward the gulf which has received the name Aqabah from this reason. (See Robinson s Jlib. lies., I., 171 ; Stanley s Sinai and Pal., pp. 10, 84; Winer s Bib. Rwlivortcrb., s. v. " Elath.")

4 Pococke (Descrip. of East, II., 1, 123) refers to the "Acrabane or Serpentine River, which goes out of the Barrady in the field of Damascus." And this mention is noted by Koehler in his annotations to Ibn ol Wardi s "Do Terra Syria?/ (in Abnlfeda s Tab. Syr., p. 175.) The river referred to is Nahr el-Aqrabani (See Bae leker s Pal. and Syr., p. 48.)

tReiAc.n III., 7-14; also in Zach s monatl. Corr. XVII., pp. 133-13S, as cited by Robinson. *Jtib. Res. II., 182.

7 See pages, 100-1 02 ; supra. 8 See page 107, supra ; also Gen. 36 : 9-15.

THE PR OMISED LAND S SO UTHERN B UNDAR Y. 113

Yemen (" the right hand,") has a meaning correspondent with the Hebrew name Teman (" at the right hand.") Moreover, it is just southward of that Pass el- Yemen that a turn would naturally be made in a boundary line that had followed the border of Edom and was to hinge for a yet more southerly stretch in its onward sweep ; for standing out all by itself in the wady which is being followed as the boundary line, or rather at the confluence of two other wadies with that one, there is a notable mountain, Jebel Madurah, around the northwestern side of which the boundary line would turn to move on to its southernmost point, conformably to the directions already quoted from the Bible text. As it is the boundary line of Canaan which is being described, the turning point is naturally noted on the Canaan line rather than on the mountain below it ; but the one conforms to the other.

In addition to all this, there seems to be a trace of the old name Akrabbim still attached to the Pass el-Yemen. Wilson, 1 who went up the Pass el- Yemen understood from the Arabs that its name was " "Wadi er-Rakib," although he afterwards thought that they might have said "Arkub." But Robinson 2 had before this been told of a Pass er-Rakib in that direction, although he did not find it, or learn more about it. In either form of the word 3 there is an apparent trace of the name Akrabbim.

This Pass el- Yemen, or er-Rakib, or Arqoob, is described 4 as " a deep rent " in the western end of the lofty Bald Mountain, 5 a

1 Lands of Bible, L, 341. 2 Bib. Res. I., 208.

3 The transposition of consonants is very common in Semitic languages ; so that often an anagram fairly gives a trace of a word which can be formed of its conso nants. On this point, see Rodiger-Davidson s Gesenius s Heb. Gram., chap. II., $ 19 (5.) Nor is the substitution of a Kaf (as in Rakib) for a Qaf (as in Arqoob) at all uncommon.

* Robinson s Bib. Res. II., 178-182.

5 "Here [at this chasm, El-Yemen] the higher portion of the ridge [of the barrier wall of Palestine] may be said to terminate; for although it continues to run on far to the southwest, yet it is there lower and less steep." (Robinson s Bib. Res,, II., 178.)

114 KADESII-BARNEA.

"chasm" which "cleaves the mountain to its base." The "as cent " enters " the gorge of "SVady el-Yemen ; and following it up for a time, then elimbs the wall of rock by a steep and difficult path. Seetzen 1 describes this wady as a frightfully wild, deep, and desert valley, strewed with large rocks so thickly, that it is often difficult to find a way between them." And if that is not a description of a smitten, riven, tortuous, treacherous, heel-wound ing Maaleh Akrabbim, it would be difficult to frame one.

At the Ascent of Akrabbim, as has been already noted the boundary line is said to "turn," or hinge, 2 and pass on Zin- ward. 3 In other words, the line still running westerly, takes a more southerly 4 bearing from the part of this Ascent of Akrabbim, and passes onward into the Azazimeh mountain 5 tract until it reaches Kadesh-barnea, which is the extent of its southern reach "the southernmost point of the southern boundary." 6 At the southern most point there must be, of course, another turn north of west erly if the line be continued ; and we are told that from Kadesh-

1 In Zach s Monatl. Corr. XVII., p. 134 /. ; also Bertou, in Bull, de la Soc. Geog., June 1839, p. 323 ; both cited by Robinson as above.

2 The IIebrew word subhalh (330") in Numbers 34: 4, translated "turn," means to turn as on a hinge (See Gesenius s Jlcb. Lex. s. v.).

3 See page 107 /, supra.

The alternative rendering "from the extremity of Tcman," as the starting point of the Zimvard turn, referred to at page 107 /, supra, is more appropriately considered in connection with the restatement of the southern boundary in Ezekiel, as treated far ther on in this work.

4 Keil and Delitzsch (Bib. Com., III., 251 /,) argue that a point farther south than Wady Feqreh was the exit from the Arabah of this boundary line, on the ground that the "turn," or hinge, at the Ascent of Akrabbim must have been from a south erly direction to a more westerly one. But they, like so many others following Rob inson in this, have made the mistake of supposing that the southern boundary line of the Land of Promise began by running southward instead of westerly. The line, we may take it for granted, started westerly, and at the Ascent of Akrabbim made a turn southerly. A hinge is as truly a hinge when it turns from right to left as when it turns from left to right.

5 See page 70, /, supra. 6 Speaker s Com., at Num. 34: 4.

THE PROMISED LAND S SOUTHERN BOUNDARY. 115

barnea it reaches forth, or passes along, to Hazar-addar, and thence to Azmon, and on to the river (or torrent) of Egypt which it follows to its termination at the Mediterranean Sea ; the coast of that sea bounding the Land of Promise on the west.

The " River of Egypt," or the "Torrent of Egypt," here men tioned is not the Nile, but the extended water course now known as Wady el- Areesh, 1 which runs northward through the Desert of the Wanderings, dividing it into eastern and western halves, 2 or which, more properly, may be said to separate the Desert et-Teeh from the Desert el-Jefar 3 the Desert of the Wanderings on the east, from the Desert of Shur 4 on the west. Its outlet into the Mediterranean is at a point a short distance south of a line drawn due west from the southern end of the Dead Sea. The Nile was rather the centre of Egypt than its boundary; and Egypt was never a part of the Land of Promise. But the Wady el- Areesh is now and always has been a recognized northeasterly boundary line of Egypt, at the point of that wady s outgoing, into the Great Sea. The very name Areesh means "boundary," or "extremity." 5

."The Torrent of Egypt [D ^VO 7T1J Nakhal Mitsraim]; by which name is designated a certain brook, dried up in summer, which falls into the sea not far from [ancient] Rhinocorura, now \(J"~?. /-* / El Areesh, on the confines of Egypt and Palestine. [This stream is] not to be confounded with /"D^YO "1HJ I } Nehar Mitsraim, the River of Egypt; that is the Nile." (Rosenmiiller s Bib. Alterth., III., C5-77.)

2 " The desert is divided into two halves, an eastern and a western, by the Wady el- Arish (called in the Old Testament brook of Egypt, by the Greeks, Rhinokolura ) which runs completely from north to south." (Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., III., 193.)

3 " The Arabians . . . strictly distinguish the desert Jefar ( \Lfl.^.) from the desert of the Children of Israel ((J^-Ji /-* 15-*-? ^J/.The former still belongs to Egypt, and its boundaries run from Rafah (^ )\ the P0a of Ptolemy, V. 16. 6), along the bank of the Mediterranean Sea to the sea Tennis ((J**^- 5 ) from thence to the fruitful meadows of the Nile valley along to Kolzum, and by the Desert et-Teeh, back to the Mediterranean (Tuch, in Jour, of Sac. Lit., July, 1848, p. 88.)

* See page, 57 f, supra.

5 In Coptic, APH.X (Thebaic), or AYPHX (Memphitic), means extremity, end, tip, etc. The first of these forms may be translated Araj ; the second Auraj ; either of which might be Arabicized into Areesh.

116 KADESH-BARNEA.

The Septuagint translators, at their work in Egypt twenty centu ries ago, recognized in this wady the torrent which separated Egypt from the Land of Promise ; l and the latest secular writers on Egypt recognize this same boundary between the Egypt and the Palestine of to-day. 2 The Samaritans, as well as the Jews, held that Wady el- Areesh was the old-time boundary of the Land of Promise Egyptward; 3 and an ancient tradition eyen located the original division of the countries of the world by lot, among the sons of Noah at the site of El- Arecsh. 4 That the "Torrent of

Egypt," 5 named as the western portion of the southern boundary

1 In the Septuagint Nakhal Mitsraim is rendered : "Winter torrent of Egypt " (Xa/zdppow Aiyinrrov), in Num. 3-1: 5; "Ravine of Egypt" (4>dpa}f Alyv-rov), in Josh. 15: 4; "River of Egypt 1 (Uora/iog A.r/i-Tov j, in 1 Kings 8: 65; and " Rhinocoroura" ( Pivonnpo vpa), in Isa. 27 : 12.

Diodorus (Bib. Hist., Bk. I., Chap. 60), in describing the origin of Rhinocoroura (Dock-nose-town) by its settlement with criminals whose noses had been cut off, says distinctly : " That [town] is situated on the common boundary line of Egypt and Syria. 1 And Diodorus lived more than half-way back from our day to Joshua s.

2 McCoan, in his Egypt As It Is (p. 2), says : " Egypt proper is bounded definitely enough on the . . . east by a line drawn from El-Arish to Akabah ; " and again (p. 65), in describing the former place : " In size merely a fort and a village, El- Arish owes its rank as a mohafza [having a distinct city government] to its position as the frontier town between Syria and Palestine. The little river of the same name [He calls it a river, as our translators called it], which here forms the actual boun dary, is dry during the greater part of the year, but after the rains it empties into the Mediterranean a tolerably rapid, though narrow stream." And the Archduke Lud- wig Salvator (in his Caravan Route between Eyypt and Syria, p. 30) says: El- Harish is the town of the desert which forms the most advanced post of the Khedive in the direction of Turkish territory."

3 Wilson (Lands of Bible, II., 52) reports the Samaritan high priest as saying to him about Solomon : " Why, do you not know that his kingdom extended from El- Arish to Damascus; and from the Great Sea to the Euphrates?"

4 Sir Walter Raleigh says (Hist, of World, Pt. I., Bk. II., Chap. 10, ? 2) that " Epiphanius reports it as a tradition, that at this place [Rhinocorura, now El-Arish] the world was divided by lot betweene the three sonnes of Xoah."

5 Fiirst, in his Illustrated Bible, in a note on Ezekiel 47 : 19, calls attention to the fact that Epiphanius, the ecclesiastical apologist, speaks of the Wady el- Areesh as " Xakhal " simply : and this would seem a confirmation of the view of so many

THE PROMISED LAND S SO UTHERN B UNDAR Y. 117

of the Land of Promise is Wady el- Areesh, would indeed seem to be put beyond fair questioning.

The boundary-line landmarks named between Kadesh-barnea and the Torrent of Egypt have not yet been so identified as to find general acceptance ; but this is of minor importance except in con firmation of the other identifications. The eastern, central, and western points of the southern boundary line being fixed, the intermediary points can easily be located. I think I shall be able to make them clear by a report, farther on, of my researches in that region; but that is not essential just here. "Azmon" is apparently identified in the Jewish Targums 1 with the modern Qasaymeh, a group of springs, or pools, a little to the northeast of Jebel Muwuylih, near the great caravan route the Way of Shur between Egypt and Syria, already several times referred to. And enough is shown in the identifications which are conclusive, to prove that Kadesh-barnea is in the heart of the Azazimeh moun tain tract, at some point south of a line drawn from the southern end of the Dead Sea to the mouth of Wady el- Areesh ; and this agrees with all that has before appeared concerning its probable location.

A point which ought to receive attention in the boundary-line description in Joshua, is the reference to Teman as the portion of Edom lying next to the Wilderness of Zin. As has already been mentioned, 2 the phrase translated (Joshua 15 : 1), " The Wilder ness of Zin southward was the uttermost part of the south coast,"

scholars, that the simple word "Na.kh.al, in this passage of Ezekiel, means the Torrent [of Egypt]. Professor Palmer (as above) inclines to the opinion that the name " is still perpetuated in the fort of Nakhl," in mid-desert; although that fort has been commonly understood to be the Fortress of the Palms, from the Arabic (Nakhl, (J.-icvj "palm-trees"), rather than from the Hebrew (Nakhal, ;HJ "torrent").

1 Both the Jerusalem and the Pseudo-Jonathan Targums render " Azmon," at Num. 34 : 5, as Qesam (DD p).

* See page 107, supra.

118 KADESH-BARNEA.

might more properly be rendered, " The Wilderness of Zin south ward, from the extremity of Tcmau." 1 This is the view taken by the Arabic translator, by Houbigant, Geddcs, Masius, 2 Sebastian Schmidt, and others. Indeed a restatement of the boundary line in Ezekiel makes this quite clear, in the light of the Septuagint explanatory addition just there. As Crosby 3 says concerning the phrase in Joshua : " Teman means south, it is true, but as the writer has just used negeb for south/ and uses it immediately again in verse 2, it is almost certain that he here means Teman for the country of Teman."

" Teman " 4 is a Hebrew term meaning literally " what is on the right hand," 5 or "the right hand place;" hence "the southern quarter." As a proper name, it is applied to a region or district of Edom, 6 and also to the progenitor of the people of that region. 7 As in the case of the word " Xegeb," which designated the arid land southward of Canaan, receiving its meaning of southward from its position Canaanward ; so in the case of Teman, it was probably the portion of Edom which lay directly south, or Teman- ward, of Canaan. 8 This being so, it is to be understood that the

1 The Hebrew word Taimau (p rtt, or Teman, like the word Negeb, although a proper name, is frequently used in the Old Testament as an indication of a point of the compass southward.

2 Cited in Pool s Synops. Crit. 3 Notes on Joshua, in loco.

4 Taiman (j^V 5 See Geseuius, Heb. Lex., s. v.

6 See Gen. 36 : 34 ; Jer. 49 : 7, 20 ; Ezek. 25 : 13 ; Amos 1:12; Obad. 9 ; Hab. 3 : 3.

7 Gen. 36: 11, 15; 1 Chron. 1: 53.

8 Every passage in which a reference to Teman occurs, in the Bible, is consistent with this understanding of its location. In Ezek. 25: 13, it seems to be named as if it were the western side of Edom, as over against Dedan on the east; in Amos 1 : 12, it is put, as if in the southwest, over against Bozrah in the northeast ; in Obadiah 9, it is set over against Mount Seir ; and in Habakkuk it is used as a parallelism with Mount Paran. Moreover, there even seems to be a trace of the old name in the Pass el-Yemen (the Pass of the Right, or the Pass of the South, or the Pass which is over against Teman), which goes out from Wady Feqreh northward, up the Bald Moun tain, over against aucieut Teman as we find Teman referred to in this boundary line

THE PR OMISED LAND 1 S SO UTHERN B UNDAR Y. 1 1 9

southern boundary line of the Land of Promise ran along the border of Edom, or Teman, until it reached the western extremity of that border, whence it ran Zinward toward Kadesh.- barnea, " southwards from the extremity of Teman."

Once more is the southern boundary of the Promised Land accurately described, in Ezekiel s prophecy of its re-establishment, and that in such a way as to throw added light on the place of Kadesh-barnea, between the eastern and western limits of that boundary. Beginning at the north, the prophet describes the boundary lines, by way of the east around the whole compass. 1 Ending the eastern boundary at the Dead Sea, 2 he outlines the southern boundary with a few salient landmarks, instead of giving all the details supplied in Numbers and Joshua.

"And the south side southward [or, on the south Teman ward]; from Tamar [or, Thamar], even to [or, as far as] the waters of strife in Kadesh [or, the waters of Meribah-Kadesh], 3 the river [or, torrent ward] to the Great Sea [or, the inheritance (reaches) to the Great Sea]. And this is the south side southward 4 [or, the south side, Temauward]." 3

of southern Canaan. As to the Pass el-Yemen, see Robinson s Bib. Res., II., 178, 179, 182; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 291,416. As to Teman, see Wilton s The Negeb, pp. 123-126. See also page 107, supra. 1 Ezekiel 47 : 13-21. 2 Ezekiel 47 : 18. 3 Num. 20 : 13 ; 27 : 14 ; Deut. 32 : 51.

4 The use of the word Temanward has already been considered (see page 118, supra) in connection with the boundary line as recorded in Joshua. In the Septu- agint, the phrase pros Noton kal Liba (frpof Ndroi/ /cat A//3a), corresponding here with the Hebrew Neghebh Taimanah /rUTFj 3JJY rendered in our version * south side southward," is supplemented by apo Thaiman (O.TTO Qaifiav}, "from [or, along] Teman," the Teman (Taiman) of the Hebrew text being reduplicated in the Greek, thus indicating the opinion of the Seventy that in this instance, at least, the proper name Teman was intended as a boundary-line landmark. The Genevan Bible reads, "And the south side shalbe toward Teman." Van Dyck s Arabic Bible renders : " And this is the side of Temin southward.

5 See, also, Ezek. 48 : 28.

For various readings here suggested, and for their discussion, see Schaff-Lange

120 KADESH-BARNEA.

Apparently, three principal points arc here designated on the line of the southern boundary ; one at the eastern end, one in the centre, one at the western end, between the extreme bounds of the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean ; Tharaar at the east, Kadesh- barnea in the centre, the Torrent of Egypt at the west. This is what would scein to accord with the method of Ezekiel in his running anew of the entire boundary line of the Holy Land from the north by way of the east, around again to his starting point.

Thamar was probably a town at or near the southern end of the Dead Sea, which had come into existence, or into prominence, between the days of Joshua and Ezekiel, and therefore had men tion by the latter and not by the former. Ptolemy, 1 in an enu meration of the towns of Judea west of the Jordan, names as the most southerly town in his list, " Thamaro," which he locates by his somewhat indefinite latitude and longitude 2 corresponding very nearly with the lower end of the Dead Sea. Eusebius 3 refers to "a certain Thamara, a village distant a day s journey from Mapsis, 4 as you go from Hebron to Ailam, where [at Thamara] is now a

Com. ; Speaker s Cum. ; Ilengstenberg s Com. on Ezck. ; Hitzig s Der Prophet Ezekiel; Etc.

1 Gcofj. Bk. V., chap. 16, 8.

2 This is Ptolemy s note of it:

"Qauapu . . . , . f ^ 7.5,

Thamaro G6i 31

or G6 20 31 Roland, in his Palxstina in quoting this gives the latitude at 30ij.

3 In his Onomast. s. v. "Asason Thamar."

4 Jerome hero substitutes "Mempsis." Robinson (Bib. Res., II., 201 /.), thinks that the place meant was the "Malatha" of Josephus (Antiq. Bk. IS, chap. 6, ? 2) the "Moladah" of the Old Testament (Josh. 15: 20; 19: 2; 1 Chron. 4: 28: Neh. 11: 26.) The site of this place he would identify in the modern el-Milh or Tell Milh; and Wilton (The Negeb pp. 109-114,) sustains him in this identification. Wilson (Lands of Bible, I., 347) and Tristram (Bible Places, p. 19) also accept it.

THE PR OMISED LAND S SO UTHERN B UNDAR Y. 121

garrison of [Roman] soldiers." 1 Roland, 2 in mentioning " Tha- maro " of Ptolemy, says, " Possibly it is the same as Thamara " [of Eusebius] ; and lie adds that it is given as " Thamaro," at this place, in the Peutinger Tables. 3 Roland makes the mistake in which ho has boon followed by many of supposing that Eusebius locates Thamara at a " day s journey from Hebron as you go to Aila;" whereas the latter says it is a day s journey from Mapsis [or Malatha ; or, Moladah] ; " and Eusebius elsewhere shows that Malatha [Mapsis ?] is sixteen miles, or a short day s journey, from Hebron. 4 Thamara is a day s distance from this place. Menke, 5 in his map carefully plotted from the Onomasticon, locates " Mal atha " on the road from Hebron to Aila, and " Thamara " on the Dead Sea near its lower end, about a day s journey eastward. In his maps, from Ptolemy and the Peutinger Tables and later sources, he identifies " Thamaro " with " Thamara ; " and " Maps " and "Mapsis" with " Malatha." There would seem little reason

i The text of the Onomasticon is: Aaairw Qauap, evda KO.TUKOVV ol Auoppaloi, XoJopAo} d / uop, napaKSiTai rfj CPV//CJ KdJtf^f. teytrai 61 n<; Qapapa nup] i^ikpaq odov, airiovruv OTTO X/?pwv eif Al2.au, rjri.^ viiv <ppovpt6v ian ~uv crpanuruv.

Jerome renders this: Asason Thamar, in hac habitabant quondam Amorrhxi, quos interfecit Chodorlagomor ; inxta eremum Cades, est et aliud castellum Ttiamara; unites diet itinere a Mampsis oppido separatum, pergentibus Ailiam de Chelron, ubi nunc Romanum prxsidlum positum est.

*Palxstina, p. 1031.

s The Tabula Peutingcriana is a chart of the military roads of the Roman empire, with the distances noted between the towns. Its date is of the third or fourth centu ries of our era.

* Apafid, Tronic Afioppaiuv irapaKtipivT] ry ip7jfj.wKa7MVfj.ivri Kd<W)?f KOI kcnv f( f in vvv Kuur] arto Te-dprov cr/fitiov Ma/laai?/, rffq de X/?pa>v d~b eitioai, 0v/l^f lot Ja. (Onomast. s. v. "Arama.")

"Arama (Arad) : A city of the Amorites, lying near to the desert called Kaddes, and there is there even now a village at the fourth milestone from Malatha, but the twentieth from Hebron, in the tribe of Judah."

5 In his Bibdatlas.

122 KADESH-BARNEA.

for doubting that the Thamar of Ezckicl is the Thamaro of Ptolemy and the Tliaraara of Euscbius, a town located near the southern end of the Dead Sea, on its western shore ; l and that this was the newly named starting point of the southern boundary line of the Holy Land.

Robinson 2 has proposed to identify the ruins of Kurnub, on the hills above Es-Sufah, with the Thamar of Ezekiel ; but his ar^u-

/ O

meuts on that point have been more than met by later inves tigators. 3 De Saulcy 4 would find the remains of Thamar on the shore of the Dead Sea, at the mouth of AVady Mubugheek, (which he calls Ouad el-Maist Embarrheg,) and in this he is followed by Wilton ; but Tristram, 5 with more reason, would see these remains at the mouth of Wady Zuwayrah, nearer the lower end of the sea, where Bcrtou 6 and De Saulcy thought they found traces of ancient Zoar. In the line of Tristram s identification, is the mediaeval mention 7 of a place known as "Palmar," "Palmer," or "Paurn- ier " (nearly the equivalent of " Thamar " the Palm) in this im mediate region ; and, in Meuke s map of the Holy Land in the time of the Crusades, " Palmer " is laid down as at the lower end of the Dead Sea.

But, whichever of these elosely adjacent sites be accepted as the place of ancient Thamar, there can hardly be a question that Eze kiel takes that place near the Dead Sea, as the eastern 8 starting

1 See Hengstenberg s Com. on Ezek.; Schaff-Lanye Com.; Speaker s Com. in loco; also Imp. Bib. Die., s. v. "Kadesh."

*Bib. Res., II., 197-202.

3 See Keil s Com. on Ezck., Schaff-Lange Com. and Speaker s Com., all in loco; also Van de Velde s Syrien u. Pal., II., 146, and Wilton s The Neyeb, pp. 94-97.

* Dead Sea, I., 210-212. 5 Land of Israel, p. 322.

6 Referred to by Robinson, in Bib. Res., appendix to Vol. II., first edition, p. 661 /.

Von Raumer s Pal., p. 189.

8 Robinson having a theory to sustain, as to the site of Kadesh-barnca, and having fixed upon Kurnub as the site of Thamar, speaks (Bib. Res., IT., 202) of "the Tha mar of the prophet Ezekiel, from which the southern border of the land was to be

THE PROMISED LANDS SOUTHERN BOUNDARY. 123

point of the southern boundary line of the restored Holy Land ; Kadesh as the central and southernmost point of that line ; and the Torrent of Egypt, with its outlet into the Mediterranean, as its western point. This would seem to fix Kadesh- barnea as midway between the lower end of the Dead Sea and the mouth of Wady el- Areesh ; but at a place in the Azazimeh mountain tract further south than a line drawn directly between the two termini. This again corresponds with all that we have before learned of its probable site, and gives added data for its fixing.

The wedge shape of this southern boundary line, as here de scribed with Kadesh-barnea as its lower point conforms to all the southern boundary lines of the Peninsula of Sinai. 1 The peninsula itself is wedge shaped. " The desert of Et Tih is a limestone plateau of irregular surface, the southern portion of which projects wedge-wise into the Sinaitic Peninsula." 2 Again the southern line of the Azazimeh mountain plateau "projects [wedge-wise] into the Tih, much in the same way as the Tih pro jects into Sinai." 3 Finding these three natural boundary lines one above another, we are prepared, in looking for a fourth line, above

measured, on one side to Kadesh, and on the other to the western sea." But this suggestion of a start in the middle, and a working in both directions, Wilton ( The Negeb, p. 97) characterizes as a "most unnatural gloss." Ilengstenberg (Com. on Ezek., p. 479) says that it leads to an "unnatural assumption, . . . against which all analogy speaks."

1 " Rashi " ( al ha-Turah, at Num. 34: 3) speaks of Egypt and Edom as pressing on the southern boundary of Palestine ; as the wedge shape of that boundary would indicate.

2 Palmer s DCS. of Exod., II., 284.

Major II. E. Palmer, in his Sinai (p. 4 /.), after defining the area of the triangular peninsula " of Sinai, goes on to say : " The lufty desert table-land of the Tih, which occupies the whole space between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, projects boldly southward into this area in such a manner as to form, roughly speaking, a second triangle, interior to the first, and resting on the same base, with its apex at or near the centre of the large one."

3 Palmer s DCS. of Exod., II., 289.

124 KADESH-BARNEA.

these three, to recognize it in a natural outline parallel to them all, as made by Wady Feqreh on the east and Wady el- Areesh on the west, with Kadesh-barnea as its southernmost angle ; and as described so fully in Numbers, Joshua, and Ezekiel. A natural boundary line of this description is certainly more in accordance with all the boundary lines of Bible lands, than would be an abrupt horizontal line striking across mountain and wady, from sea to sea ; for " the natural boundaries of the geographer are rarely described by right lines."

15. SELA PETRA THE ROCK.

There is one more Bible reference to Kadesh-barnea as a boun dary-line landmark which may prove a help to its locating; and that is in Judges 1:36, where it appears under the name of The Rock a name which recalls one of its distinctive natural features, and also one of the most momentous incidents in its varied history as a locality. 1 " And the coast [or, border] of the Amorites," says the Hebrew historian, in telling of the struggle for that enemy s subjugation, " was from the going up to Akrabbim [or, from Maaleh- Akrabbim 2 ], from The Rock, and upward [or, north ward]."

The Hebrew word here translated Rock, is SeVa; z the same word as that which appears in the Bible for the first time, and there five times over, in the narrative of the murmuring for water, and of the miracle for its supply, at Kadesh-barnea. It is a dif ferent word from that translated "rock," in Exodus 17 : G, in the story of the miraculous supply of water at Horeb. TJiere the He brew word is tsoor.* Tsoor gives the idea of strength and sharp-

1 Num. 20 : 7-11. 2 See pages 107-114, supra.

3 Or, with the article, J 2^D (hassel a, or, as Anglicized, ha-SeVa).

SEL A PETRA THE ROCK. 125

ness, and is applied to rocks in general; while ScFa suggests height, and is applied to a eliff or crag." 1

At a later period iu Jewish history, another Sel a 2 than the Rock of Kadesh-barnca comes into prominence, as a stronghold of the Edomites possibly the place subsequently known as Petra, or the Rock-City; and this identity of name has been a cause of strange and manifold confusion in both ancient and modern mentions of Kadesh and Petra. 3 Sela was first used in the sacred narrative as a designation of the Rock at Kadesh-barnea. The most natural use of the same term, in a record of events happen ing within less than a century after the Israelites departure from the vicinity of that Rock, is its application to the same landmark ; especially as Sela does not appear as an obvious designation of the Edomite stronghold until nearly six centuries later. 4 Moreover, as Kadesh-barnca was already the well-known boundary landmark next west, or southwest, of Maaleh- Akrabbim, 5 its new mention here under the name of the Rock in conjunction with Maalch- Akrabbim, on a southern boundary line, would seem hardly open to question.

An added reason for designating Kadesh-barnea as Sela, in referring to it as a boundary limit of the Amorite domain, is pos sibly to be found in the fact that there was another Kadesh (probably Kadesh-Naphtali) already known as " Kadesh of the Amorites," 6 to which there are repeated references in the Egyptian

1 Gesenius s Heb. and Chald. Lex., s.vv. ; also Stanley s Sinai and Pal., Appendix, M 28, 29.

* 2 Kings 14 : 7.

3 This will be shown more clearly farther on in this work.

* 2 Kings 14 : 7 ; and 2 Chron. 25 : 11, 12.

5 Num. 34 : 4 ; Josh. 15 : 3. See, also, page 114, supra.

6 It has been common to confound Kadesh of the Hittites with Kadesh of the Amorites, but the distinction between the two places will be considered farther on in this work. This, however, does not affect the point above made, that there was a Kadesh of the Amorites which was not Kadesh-barnea.

126 KADESH-BARNEA.

records. It is as if the chronicler had said : The boundary limit of the Amoritcs is Kadesh the Rock, not Kadesh of the Amorites. If, indeed, the Rock in this case were to be understood as mean ing Petra, the described boundary line of the Amorites would either be meaningless, or be an absurdity. Petra is east of the Arabah. The Ascent of Akrabbim is but a short distance to the west of the Arabah; 1 unless indeed it be reckoned as in the Arabah, according to the elaim of Robinson and those who accept his tentative location of it. 2 In the one case, a southern boundary line from the Ascent of Akrabbim to Petra would start the Amorites "upward 77 into the Dead Sea; in the other case the line would run from north to south, and return on itself. 3 But, recce:-

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nizing Kadesh-barnea in the Rock, the reasonableness of the Amor- ite boundary line is evident. The Amorites, or Highlanders, 4 occupied the central hill-country of the Land of Promise, north and south, between the Shephelah, or maritime plain, on the west, and the Arabah, or Ghor, or the Jordan valley, on the east. The southern base line of this Hill-country of the Amorites would stretch from the Ascent of Akrabbim or the Pass el- Yemen on the northeast, to Kadesh-barnea or the Rock as already indi cated in the southern boundary of Judah, on the southwest. Or, as the text describes it: "The border of the Amorites was from Maaleh- Akrabbim, from the Rock, and northward."

1 See pacres 100-114, supra. - See page 109, supra.

3 So evident is this difficulty, that the attempt has been made to show that the Hebrew word ma elah (717^*73), in Judges 1: 3(5, should be translated "onward," instead of " upward," and so the landmarks named be taken as starting but not com pleting the boundary line description. But this elaim has been shown to be entirely untenable. See Schaff-Lanyc Coin., in loco.

4 See page G5, supra.

5 For the discussion of various points involved in this rendering, see, Kurtz s Hist. of Old rot ., III., 208; Keil and Delitzsch s PH>. Coin., in loco; Frics s " Ucber die Lage von Kades," in Stud. u. Krit., 1854, pp. 60-62; Schaff-Lange Com., Speaker s Com., and Barrett s Synops. of Crit., all in loco.

ANOTHER LANDMARK. 327

16. THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOR.

The only remaining references to Kadesh-barnea in the Bible text, which might be supposed to throw any light on its location, are its several mentions in connection with other stopping places in the narrative of the wanderings, and again in the formal list of the stations of encampment.

In Numbers 20 : 22, it is said : "And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh, and came unto Mount Hor." And again, in Numbers 33 : 37 : "And they removed from Kadesh, and pitched in Mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom." This at once raises the questions : Where is Mount Hor? at what point on the boundary line of the land of Edom? and, Is Kadesh to be understood as only a day s distance from Mount Hor? For if Mount Hor be identified, and Kadesh is to be looked for within a day s distance of that mountain, another important elue is obtained to the location of Kadesh.

"Mount Hor" is a descriptive title, indicating a mountain which is peculiar and distinctive. Its Hebrew form is Hor ha- Har, 1 literally "Mountain, the Mountain." The name does not necessarily imply a greater height than other mountains ; nor yet a place among other mountains ; but it does indicate a mountain that for some reason stands out as a mountain the mountain. Thus Mount Tabor, which rises prominently from a plain, is called by the Arabs, Jcbel et-Toor 2 the equivalent of Hor ha- Har. There was a northern Mount Hor, 3 (commonly supposed to be Mount Hermon 4 ) also named as a boundary landmark of the

2 Robinson s Bib. Res., II., 351. Surv. of West. Pal. I. p. 388. 8 Num. 34 : 7, 8.

*See Schaff-Lange Com.; Speaker s Com.; Von Gerlach s Com. on Pent. ; Pool s Synops. Crit. ; and Barrett s Synops. of Crit. ; all at Num. 34 : 7-9. Comp. also, Josh. 12 : 1.

128 KADESH-BARNEA .

Land of Promise ; hence it is evident that the name in itself is not a sufficient identification of the site.

The commonly accepted site of the southern Mount Hor is at the east of the Arabah, near the ruins of ancient Petra. 1 But there is absolutely nothing to justify the elaim of that site except tradition ; while there are difficulties in reconciling that site to the requirements of the Bible text, which seem insurmountable.

Mount Hor clearly could not have been within the limits of Edom, certainly not within the limits of Mount Seir; for the Lord said emphatically to the children of Israel, when they were to pass that territory of the children of Esau : " Meddle not with them ; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot-breadth ; because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession." : Now as Aaron was buried in Mount Hor, 3 Mount Hor must have been somewhere else than in Mount Seir; for Aaron's grave could not have been less than a foot s breadth of land. This is one point about which there seems no room for question.

Yet the traditional Mount Hor is clearly within the bounds not only of Edom but of Mount Seir. As the Speaker s Commentary 4 says of it, in an argument in its defense, against the admitted difficulties of reconciling it witli the Bible text : " Ilor [this Hor] unquestionably lay within the territory of Edom;" and it might fairly have added, that this fact " unquestionably " puts this Hor out of the question as a elaimant to the site of the Hor where Aaron died and was buried ; for as Robinson 5 has tersely declared,

1 For descriptions of this mountain, see "Bnrckhardt s Trav. in Syria, pp. 429-432 ; Irby and Manujles s Travels, pp. 432-433 ; Lcgh s "Excursion from Jerusalem to Wady Musa," in Bih. Repos., Oct. 18S3 ; Labonle s Voyage de I Arabic Pttrce,-p. 60 /. ; Robinson s Bib. Acs., II., 1.02; Miss Martineau s Eastern Life, pp. 364-366; Wilson s Lands of BUdc, I., 291-299; Stanley s Sinai and Pal., pp. 84-S7.

*Dcut. 2: r>. Com. Num. 20: 22-29; 33: 37-39; Dout. 10: 6.

4 At Num. 20: 22. 5 In Bib. Sac. for May, 1849, p. 380.

THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOR. 129

concerning any such journeying of the Israelites into the domain of Edom, that is something " which we know was not permitted."

Just look at the irreconcilableness of the traditional site with the requirements of the Bible narrative. From Kadesh-barnea the Israelites sent messengers to the king of Edom, asking per mission to pass through his territory. 1 That permission was re fused, and the king of Edom even came out against Israel " with much people and with a strong hand ; . . . wherefore Israel turned away from him." It was at this time that the death and burial of Aaron took place. The order of the Bible narrative gives a choice of two readings as to the order of events. The movement of the Israelites toward Mount Hor was made, either during the absence of the messengers, or directly after their return. In the one case, it would appear that while the Israelites would not attempt a peaceful passage along Edom's royal highway without the king of Edom s explicit consent, they felt at liberty to move into Edom's territory and start a cemetery on one of the most commanding summits of the nation s stronghold, without so much of ceremony as " by your leave." That would have been a very different course from the Oriental usages, as illustrated in the purchase of the double-cave from the sons of Heth by the patri arch Abraham, 2 when " he stood up from before his dead," saying, " I am a stranger and a sojourner with you : give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight ; " adding, concerning the field which he desired, " I will give the money for the field ; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there." The Israelites made a specific promise to pay Edom for all the water they or their cattle might use in passing through that land ; s but, according to the popular tradition, they were ready to seize real estate in Edom with a purpose of its occupancy for all time, without a proffer of payment, or the courtesy of a re-

1 Num. 20: 14-21. * Gen. 23 : 3-20. s Num. 20 : 19.

130 KADESH-BARNEA.

quest. If that was really their way of doing business, there was a good reason for Edom s coming out against them with much people and with a strong hand.

With the alternative reading of the Bible narrative (a reading which corresponds better with the surface order of record, but which has less probability than the other, in view of the Bible method of following out one incident to its completion, and then going back to take up and follow out another), if it was not until the messengers came back to Kadesh from the king of Edom, bringing his refusal, that the Israelites moved forward to Mount Hor, the unreasonableness of the traditional site is even greater than in the other case. According to this view, when the Israelites had been told that they could not pass through Edom, and while an Edomitish army was actually coming down against them, they deliberately moved out in full force from their encircled-strong- hold, and, in defiance of the Edomitish demonstration, pressed for ward to the very citadel, as it were, of the land which had been forbidden them, and, encamping before it, remained there threaten ingly, while Aaron, with Moses and Eleazer, went within the limits of the forbidden domain to take more than a foot of the soil which the Lord said they were not to possess. The mere statement of this case is its complctcst refutation.

The truth is, that revelation and reason are at one against the identification of the veritable Mount Hor in the traditional Mount Hor. All that can be said in favor of this site 1 is, that some fif teen centuries after the, death of Aaron, Joseplms, 2 and then Euse- bius, 3 and Jerome, 4 understood that the traditional tomb of Aaron was not far from the ancient Petra. Not a particle of evidence in favor of this identification is suggested by either of these writers ; and the cause of their error in the location is sufficiently accounted for by the confusion, which existed even in their day and earlier, as also long afterwards, between the Rock-Kadesh and the Rock- Petra. Mount Hor may indeed have been near the Rock-Kadesh ; it could not have been at the Rock-Petra, nor have held the relation to that Rock-City held by the mountain which is known to the Arabs as Jebel Neby Haroon, the Mountain of the Prophet Aaron. An Arab tradition of a tomb is the poorest possible basis for a geographical identification. Eusebius and Jerome could be so in error as to insist that the mountains Ebal and Gerizim were near Jericho, 1 and even when Josephus agrees with them as to an ancient tradition, there is small weight to be attached to the com bination, in the face of the manifold requirements of the Bible narrative to the contrary, especially when the cause of the tradi tional mistake is already ascertained.

1 For the arguments in its favor see "Wilson s Lands of Bible, I., 291-299 ; Speaker s Com., at Num. 20 : 22 ; Drew s Scripture Lands, p. 84, note.

2 Antiq., Bk. IV., Chap. 4, I 7. 3 Onomast., s. v., " Or " fflp).

* De Loc. Heb., s. \., Or."

THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOE. 131

The plain geographical indications of the Bible text are hardly less strong against the identification of Mount Hor in its tradi tional site at Jebel Neby Haroon, than are the rational indications. As has already been shown, there is commonly a distinction be tween " Mount Seir " and " the land of Edom," in the various Pentateuch references to the Edomitish territory east and west of the Arabah. While there are occasional uses of the term, " the land of Edom," as covering the possessions of Edom on both sides of the Arabah, 2 the ordinary distinction is kept, of Mount Seir as the region directly east of the Arabah, 3 and the land of Edom, or the region of Teman, w r est of the Arabah. 4 And Mount Hor is

1 Onomast., s. v., " Golgol."

2 So, e, g., at Gen. 36 : 21 ; 1 Kings 9: 26. So, similarly, the term "Israel " is ap plied at times to " Judah," even after the distinction was made between the king doms of "Israel" and" Judah." (See 2 Chron. 12: 1 ; 15: 17 ; 19 : 8 ; 21 : 2 ; Isa. 8 : 14 ; etc.)

3 So, e. g., at Gen. 14 : 6 ; 36 : 8, 21 ; Deut. 1 : 2 ; 2 : 1,5; Josh. 24 : 4; etc. So. at Gen. 32 : 3 ; Num. 21 : 4 ; 34 : 3 ; Josh. 15 : 1, 21 ; Judges 11 : 18.

132 KADESII-BARNEA.

said to be "by the coast [or, on the line] of the land of Edom"; 1 and again, " in the edge [or, at the extremity] of the land of Edom " ; 2 not, on the line, or in the extremity, of Mount Seir. Yet when the region of which Jebel Neby Haroon is a part had to be compassed, it is mentioned as Mount Seir, 3 as we should have reason to expect.

Moreover, the Bible record shows that when the Israelites moved from Kadesh-barnea to Mount Hor they alarmed the king of Arad, in the land of Canaan, as if they were advancing threat eningly northward ; and in consequence he came out against them in force. 4 It has been a puzzle of puzzles to the commentators to explain why that king should have supposed that the Israelites were coming toward him when they were really going from him, as they must have been doing if Jebel Neby Haroon was their destination. And this is only one trouble among many, growing out of the attempt to reconcile the geographical indications of the text with the elaims of the traditional site of Mount Hor. And in addition to all the other reasons for rejecting these elaims, it- should be considered that since the stretch of Edom was on both sides of the Arabah, the Arabah itself, northward of the lower extremity of Mount Seir, was within the territory of Edom : hence it could not have been entered by the Israelites.

Yet, all this while, there is a mountain which fully meets the requirements of the Bible text, and the rational demands of the narrative, as to the Mount Hor where Aaron died and was buried. That mountain is Jebel Madurah, 5 near the western extremity of "Wady Feqreh, a little to the southwest of the passes Es-Sufuh and El-Yemen. Its formation, its location, its name, go to identify it with the place of Aaron s burial, and there is even a smack of tradition in its favor, for the encouragement of those who value tradition more than revelation and reason.

1 Num. 20 : 23. 2 Num. 33 : 37. 3 Deut. 2 : 1-5.

* Num. 21 : 1 ; 33 : 40.

5 This identification -was suggested by Wilton (The Xcgcb, p. 127 jf.), but its proofs can be carried quite beyond his attempt. See also Rowlands in Imp. Bib. Die. s. v. " Moserah."

THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOR. 133

Jebel Madurah is peculiarly the "Mountain, the Mountain;" a mountain rising by itself alone from a plain, like Mount Tabor or Jebel et-Toor. "This Madurah," says Crosby, 1 "is detached from all other mountains, and rises from the plain as we may imagine the tower of Babel on the plain of Shiuar." Seetzen 2 describes it as a "steep-sided" hill, "quite naked," and "surrounded with a most unfruitful plain." Schubert 3 mentions it as " a high, bald mountain." Lord Lindsay 4 calls it "a large, singular-looking, isolated chalk hill." Robinson 5 refers to it as " remarkable in its appearance, . . . rising alone like a lofty citadel." Wilson desig nates it as " an isolated hill ; " 6 and Palmer 7 as " a round isolated hill." Xothing certainly is lacking in these descriptions to show it as Hor ha-IIar, a mountain that is a mountain, instead of being a mountain among mountains.

In its location, Jebel Madurah stands at a triangular site, where the boundaries of Edom, of Canaan, and of the Wilderness of Zin, or in a larger sense of the Wilderness of Paran, approach each other so as to pass along this mountain without touching it. It is at the cxtremest northwestern boundary of the land of Edom, yet it is not within that boundary line. It is on the very verge of the Land of Promise, yet it is not w r ithiu the outer limits of that land. The border wadies Feqreh, Madurah, Hurrah, and Ilan- joorat which separated Canaan from Edom, and both Canaan and Edom from the unclaimed wilderness, so run as to form the surrounding plain, above which is upreared this remarkable moun tain-tower, this lofty, solitary mountain-citadel.

1 " El-Mukattem " (Dr. Howard Crosby) in Lands of Moslem, p. 235.

2 Reisen, III., p. 14. * Reise, II., 443. 4 Letters, II., 46.

*J1ib. Res., II., 179. & Lands of Bible, I., 340. 7 DCS. of Exod., II., 416.

134 KADESH-BARNEA.

And Jebel Madurah lies in a northeasterly direction from the region of Kadesh-barnea, as all indications thus far have combined to locate that region. It is in the line from Kadesh-barnca of the route which the Israelites seem to have had in mind, when they proposed to pass along Edom s royal road from the east of the Arabah, and eastward of the Dead Sea ; possibly through the broad Wady el-Ghuwayr 1 which offers an easy passage. 2 The Israelites would not unnaturally move thitherward as they planned for that route 3 ; and such a move on their part w T ould not unnaturally be looked upon by the kings of Edom and Arad as a threatening move, to be met and resisted vigorously. Then it was, on the occasion of that refusal, and the hostile demonstration that accom panied it, that Israel " turned away " from Edom, 4 turned sharply from the northeast to the southwest, and "journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the lied Sea ; 5 went out into the " great and terrible wilderness " once more, 6 to strike the Red Sea Road, or the Hajj Route as it is called to-day ; and this in order " to compass the land of Edom," 7 the western possessions of Edom, included in the Azazimeh and Jebel Muqrfdi tract. Nor is there cause for wonder that in such a move as this, u the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the road ; " as would not have been

1 See Burckhardt s Travels in Syria, p. 421 ; Robinson s Bib. Res., II., 154 /.; etc.

2 " El-Ghuwayr" is the diminutive of El-Ghor." This \vady is, therefore, "The Little Arabah.

3 Palmer (Des. of Exod., II., 416) in describing the wady course in which Jebel Madurah stands, says: "The whole of the wady between the Nagb Ghariband Jebel Madcrah, being the route by which the hostile tribes from the cast invade the Aza zimeh [mountain tract, in which Kadesh-barnea is supposed to be located], is marked by stone heaps, each of which commemorates some incident of Arab warfare." And if that is the natural route of invasion from the East, why should it not be recog nized as the natural route of exit toward the East the natural route of the Israelites out of Kadesh-barnea toward the plains of Moab ?

4 Num. 20: 21. 5 Num. 21: 4.

6 Dcut. 1: 19. Num. 21 : 4.

THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOB. 135

the case had they merely moved down the Arabah from near Petra to the Gulf of Aqabah.

In the very name of Madurah there is a seeming trace of the name of the place of Aaron s death and burial, while it is not elaimed that there is any such trace at the traditional site near Petra. As has already been shown, the designation Hor ha-Har is a descriptive title rather than a proper name. The name of the mountain, and of the plain about the mountain (for in the East it is a common thing to find a wady, and a jebel rising from or ad joining that wady, bearing the same name), seems to have been " Mosera," or " Moseroth " ; for in one place it is said that Aaron died at Mount Hor, 1 and in another place it is said that he died at Mosera, 2 and yet again this place appears to be named in the list of stations (on the occasion of another visit) as Moseroth. 3 Xow Madurah is well iiigh an equivalent of Mosera, the consonants "d" and "s" having a constant tendency to interchange in Eastern speech. 4 If the Israelites were assembled in the Wady Madurah, or Moserah, when Moses and Aaron and Eleazer went up into Jebel Madurah, or Hor ha-Har, the solemn scene of dis robing the high priest on the mountain top would be literally " in the sight of all the congregation ; " 5 and the event might properly be said, at one time, to have taken place at Mount Hor, and at another time to have occurred at Moserah.

And now for the touch of tradition. Although small weight is to be attached to Arab traditions as an independent source of know ledge, this testimony has its incidental value when it is corrobo ratory of evidence that should have weight. In the case of Jebel Madurah, it is the uniform report of the more intelligent

1 Num. 20 : 22-28; Deut. 32 : 50. * Deut. 10 : 6.

3 Num. 33 : 30, 31. Comp. Deut. 10 : 6.

4 See Wilton s The Negeb, p. 127 /, with quotation from D Anville.

5 Num. 20 : 26, 27.

136 KADESII-BARNEA.

travelers that this mouutaiu is held in peculiar awe by the Arabs generally, as the reputed scene of an ancient manifestation of God s special judgment. The conflicting details of the reported tradi tions are not to be wondered at by those who know how confusedly the Arabs intermingle traditions* of Abraham, Moses, Aaron, Muhammad, and Sal eh. Sodom from the north, and Kadesh from the south, have been brought to the central site of Madurah, to furnish material for the traditions which linger about this mouu-

O

tain of judgment. But the fact that an exceptional prominence attaches to this mountain in the traditions of the Arabs has long been a point established by the clearest evidence.

It was Scetzcu 1 who first, in 1807, heard, at Hebron, of the remarkable traditions of Jebel Madurah, so that he was induced to make a journey to that mountain for the sake of investigating them. He was told that " the figure of a petrified man " 2 was to be seen there ; as if the remains of Aaron were still preserved at the place where he died in the sight of all the congregation of Israel. It need hardly be added that he did not find the promised remains. Thirty years after this, Von Schubert 3 was there. He does not clearly indicate what he heard from the Arabs, as distinct from what he fancied j but he reports that region as the Kadesh where the Israelites were judged after their murnuirings at the report of the spies. Then came Lord Lindsay, 4 who was told by the Arabs that God crushed a village for its vices under that mountain. This was the Sodom story adapted to the region ; the petrified man having perhaps suggested the feminine pillar of salt. Count Bertou, 5 again, found traditional traces of Kadesh there ; being even told by his Arabs that its name was " Kadessa." The story

1 Reisen, III., pp. 7-14. 2 "die Figur von einem versteincrten Jfenschen."

3 Reise, II., 443 /. * Letters, II., 46.

& Bulletin Soc. Geog., 1830, p. 321 ff., cited by Robinson (Bib. Res., II., 179), and Wilson (Lands of Bible, I., 340).

THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOR. 137

of the punishment of Korah and his company, at Kadesh, may linger in the Arab legends of that region. Robinson was given the tradition by Shaykh Hussau, much in the form that Lord Lindsay heard it. Wilson 1 , again, refers to this tradition ; and finally Palmer 2 repeats it, and while noting the fact that "the legend is evidently a transplanted reminiscence of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah," suggests a reason for this transfer in a similar name of the region near Sodom (Moasada), as given by Strabo. 3 Yet while this similarity of names may be one reason (if any reason is needed for confusion in an Arab tradition) for the details of the legend, it is evident that Jebel Madurah itself is a site where traditions of God s judgment have been elustered in various forms ; and, surely, the sending up of the high priest of Israel to die in very sight of the Promised Land he was forbidden to enter, was an evident judgment which could hardly fail to make an impression that should be transmitted from generation to gen eration among the people of the East.

In fact it would appear that there was actually nothing lacking to identify Jebel Madurah as the southern Mount Hor of the Bible narrative, unless, indeed, it were a Xabathean tomb where pilgrims could offer sacrifices, and for the exhibition of which the Bed ween could secure bakhsheesh. In every other particular, Jebel Madurah has an eminent advantage over Jebel Xeby Haroon.

Dean Stanley, with his wonted and charming enthusiasm over a poetic identification of a sacred site, says 4 of Jebel Xeby Haroon as the probable Mount Hor : " It is one of the very few spots con nected with the wanderings of the Israelites, which admit of no reasonable doubt." Yet it is by no means a fact that this site has been undisputed by intelligent travelers and critical scholars who

1 Lands of Bible, I., 340. Des. of Exod., II., 416.

3 Geog., XVI., 2, 44. * Sinai and Pal., p. 86.

138 KADESH-BARNEA.

have recognized its incompatibleness with the Bible narrative. Niebuhr, was disposed to find Mount Hor in the peninsula of Sinai, a long way from the Arabah. 1 In Poeokc s opinion, " It is probable that Jebel To [Jebcl et-Teeh] is Mount Hor." An English scholar of nearly a quarter of a century ago was very positive in his identification of Mount Hor in Jebel Araeef-cn-Naqah, at the southwestern angle of the Az&zimeli mountain tract. 3 And that mountain is certainly a very notable feature of the upper wilderness. Robinson 4 says of it : " At a distance it seems wholly isolated ; . . . a striking object ... in the middle of the mighty waste." But this mountain is clearly not on the border of Edom, nor does its position correspond with the requirements of the Bible text in other particulars. Wilton 5 has, with a good show of probability, elaimed its identification with Hor-hagidad, " the very conspicuous mountain," which appears in the list of stations 6 at two removes from Moseroth, or Mount Hor. Kuobel/ again, was positive that " Hor cannot be the Jebel Haroon of "VVady Moosa." Ewald declared that this elaimed identification " though sedulously propagated and widely spread in later times," is yet "a mere conjecture, and perfectly untenable." 3 Lange 9 also saw that " the text is plainly opposed to this " locating of Mount Hor ; and that Moserah is to be looked for " scarcely in the Edomitic Arabah, but upon its western side and in the desert." Wilton, 10 moreover, not only denied the possible identifi cation of Mount Hor in Jebcl Neby Haroon, but, as has been stated he even pointed out Jebel Madurah as the true Mount

i JRciseb. nach Arab., p. 238. 2 Descrip. of East, I., 157.

s " H. C.," in " A Critical Enquiry into the Route of the Exodus," in Jour. Sac. Lit., April, 1860, p. 57 /.

* Bib. Res., I., 185. 5 The Negeb, p. 132.

6 Num. 33 : 31, 32. 7 Exeget. Handb., at Num. 20 : 20-22.

8 Hist, of Isr., II., 201, note. 9 Schaff-Lange Com., at Num. 20 : 22-29 B.

10 The Negeb, pp. 126-130.

THE TIME BETWEEN STATIONS. 139

Hor ; and we have seen that he had reason for his conviction on this point.

So it seems that not all scholars have hitherto blindly followed tradition in the recognition of the site of Mount Hor at a point where the Bible text shows it could not have been. Yet if they had done so, that would be no reason for a denial of the truth when an examination of the Bible text makes that truth clear. " God forbid : yea, let God be found true, but every man a liar." l

17. THE TIME BETWEEN STATIONS.

Quite distinct from the question of the site of Mount Hor, is the question of the relative nearness to each other of the various stations named in the narrative of the movements of the Israelites, from Egypt to the plains of Moab. It has been common, very common, to count those stations as generally a day s distance apart; hence to suppose that the juxtaposition of Kadesh and Mount Hor in the list of stations, indicates that Kadesh and Mount Hor were but a day s journey from each other. But, in fact, this supposition has neither foundation nor countenance in the Bible text, however much support it gains in the commen taries. Revelation and reason are at one against it.

So far from it being true, that the stations always indicate day s marches, it may fairly be questioned whether any two on the list, after leaving Sinai, are only a day apart; while in some cases it is evident that the distance between them is greater than this.

On the way from Rameses to Sinai, there was, seemingly, no formal organization of the Israelitish host; certainly there was no tabernacle to be set up at each station. There was no such delay necessary for the breaking and pitching of a well ordered camp, and for the due formation of column and line at every new move,

i Rom. 3 : 4.

140 KADESH-BARNEA.

as was afterward inevitable. Yet even then, between quite a num ber of the consecutive stations, there must have boon more than a day s distance intervening. 1 It is distinctly shown that between the lied Sea crossing place and Marah was a "three days jour ney ; " 2 and it is only in a few instances that a fair inference would limit the time between stations to a single day. The narrative in Exodus (16: 1) would appear to indicate no stop between Elim and the Wilderness of Sin; and again, (17: 1) none between the Wilderness of Sin and Rephidim ; but the list of stations in Xum- bers (33: 10-14) names the Red Sea between the first two of these, and Dophkah and Alush between the last two. And even with this expansion of the list, the time between stations is only inferential. 3

But, however it may have been between Rameses and Sinai, from Sinai onward a very different order of things prevailed. The host was organized. 4 The elaborate details of a formal camp, tribe by tribe in due position with the tabernacle in the centre, were prescribed. Time was necessary for the divinely enjoined forms, in the removing and loading, and in the unloading and replacing of the vessels and furniture and curtains and hangings and cover ings and boards and pillars and sockets of the tabernacle; for the breaking and pitching of a camp for a mighty host ; for the bring-

1 On this point, see " Route of the Exodus," infra.

2 Exod. 15 : 22, 23.

3 It has been elaimed by some (e. g. Lepsius, in Discoveries in Egypt, p. 364, and Appendix, p. 435 /.; Von Gerlach, in Com. on Pent., at Exod. 19: 1, and Holland, in Recovery of Jerusalem, Appendix, p. 535), that Exodus, 19 : 1, 2, would indicate that Ilephidim was only a day s distance from the wilderness of Sinai; but an exam ination of the text will show, that the phrase " the same day," as there applied to the time of the arrival at Sinai, has no immediate reference to the days of departure from Ilephidim. " According to Jewish tradition, this means on the first day of the third month ; but grammatically it may be taken more indefinitely at this time. " (Schaff-Lange Com., in loco.)

* Exod. 40 : 34-38 ; Num. 1 : 1-54 ; 2 : 1-34.

THE TIME BETWEEN STATIONS. 141

ing of all the able bodied men into tribal column of march, and into camp again ; to say nothing of the delays occasioned by the women and children and other hindrances to a rapid movement.

"And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. . . . And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts." 1 These were the divine orders before leaving Sinai. "And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses: so they pitched by their standards, and so they set forward, every one after their families, according to the house of their fathers." 2 To one who is at all familiar with extensive army movements, and with desert life and ways in the East, the idea of taking down that tabernacle, and breaking up that camp, and getting such a mighty host as that into marching order, and making a reasonable journey, and getting that host into formal camp again, and setting up that tabernacle as before, all in one day, is hardly less than a bald absurdity. If it was done, day by day, in the journey ings, it was certainly quite as marked a miracle as the regular supply of manna; although it is not commonly included in the list of miracles.

But the Bible story makes it plain that all this was not done. The first move from Sinai is reported in lumbers 10: 33-36. "And they departed from the mount of the Lord three days jour ney: and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them in the three days journey, to search out a resting place for them." There is not much room for doubt, that it was a "three days jour ney" from Mount Sinai to their first resting place; not that they marched day and night without stopping to rest; but that the first two nights they bivouacked, and on the third day they formally encamped. This is what we should gather from the text itself;

1 Num. 1 : 51, 52. 2 Num. 2 : 34.

142 KADESH-BABNEA.

and all outside examination as to the probabilities tends to confirm this view of the facts.

The first station after Sinai in the list of stations is Ki broth - hattaavah. It is evident from the narrative that the tabernacle was set up at Kibroth-hattaavah/ and that the people remained there a month or more. 2 There were dug " the graves of lust " for those who died as a penalty of their gluttonous and faithless lusting ; and Taberah 3 (the Place of Burning) was the name given to the rear of that vast camping field. 4 Palmer 5 thinks that he has discovered the site of that encampment, at a place called by the Arabs " Envois el-Ebeirig," some thirty miles, more or less, northeasterly of the Plain er-Rahah the supposed Sinai starting- point of the Israelites. This identification has been accepted by some others ; 6 yet it cannot be called a settled point. " Erweis el- Ebeirig " is a little eastward of the route which Holland thinks

o

must have been taken by the Israelites from Sinai ; 7 although it is

V O

not so far from it that it cannot be admitted as a possible diverg ence, for particular reasons. If, indeed, this be accepted as the site of Kibroth-hattaavah, it is quite too flu- from the Sinai start ing-point to be within the range of a day s journey, and not too near to be recognized as a probable three days journey. If, on the other hand, another site for Kibroth-hattaavah must be looked for, that also will have to be recognized as a three days journey from Sinai; for so, as has been shown, the Bible narrative clearly indicates. 8 It should be borne in mind that a " three days journey " from

1 Xum. 33: 16. 2 Num. 11 : 18-23.

3 Xum. 11: 1-3; Dcut, 9 : 22. Taberah does not appear in the list of stations ; nor is there any mention of a move from it to Kibroth-hattaavah.

4 On this point, see Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., III., 64 /. ; Schaff-Lange Com. : and Speaker s Com., at Num. 11 : 1-3.

5 Des. of Exod., I., 257-260. 6 So, e. y., Bartlett, in Egypt to Pal., pp. 285-299. 7 See page 77 ff., supra; also Report of British Assoc. for 1878, p. 622^".

8 Num. 10 : 33.

THE TIME BETWEEN STATIONS. 143

the original starting point of a caravan, in the East, is by no means so great a distance as a three days journey at a later period in the course of a prolonged pilgrimage; for, as a rule, the first day s journey is hardly more than a preliminary movement for a start. Anyone familiar with Eastern travel will bear witness to this fact. For example, when I was to start from Suez for Mount Sinai, although everything was in readiness on the evening of my reach ing Suez, and I was desirous of pushing forward speedily, I was detained until well into the afternoon of the next day, because, as I was told, the first night s rest must be at Ayoon Moosa, in sight of Suez, across the Red Sea ; nor was my case an exception just here.

In describing the annual pilgrimage from Cairo to Mekkeh, Ebers says: " After resting outside the walls for two or three days, the caravan sets out, and makes its first day s journey, of scarcely more than four hours, as far as the first station at Birkett el-Hajj, or the Pilgrim s Lake. " A century ago, Niebuhr 2 re ported the same point as the reach of his first day s journey from Cairo ; and yet a century earlier, Thevenot 3 named it as his first stopping place on a similar journey. Four centuries ago, Breyden- bach 4 and Fabri, 5 making a pilgrimage from Gaza to Sinai, noted their first night s stopping place as just outside of the town of Gaza. And so it has been with the first day s journey, in all the centuries in the unchanging East.

Hackett 6 has elustered facts in illustration of this point. He says of a " first day s " journey : " On that day it is not customary to go more than six or eight miles, and the tents are pitched for the first night s encampment almost within sight of the place from which the journey commences." Referring to his own experience in this line, he says : " The only reason that I heard assigned for

1 Pict. Egypt, II., 130. 2 Reiseb, pp. 212-217. 3 Reisen, I., 220.

4 Itiner. 6 Evagator. II., 406. Illus. of Scrip., pp 15-20.

144 KADEXH-BARNEA.

starting thus late and stopping so early was, that it furnished an opportunity, if anything should prove to be forgotten, to return to the city and supply the deficiency." And he adds : " J find from books of travels, that we merely did in this respect what is cus tomary for travelers in setting forth on a journey ; and, further, that they give the same explanation of this peculiarity of the first day." Then he quotes to this eifect from Manndrell, Richardson, Burckhardt, Miss Martineau, and others ; and he shows the bear ing of this on the narrative of the return of the parents of the Child Jesus to search for him in Jerusalem, when at the elose of "a day s journey " he was not found in "the company." 1 And in this connection he notes the fact that the improbability of such a thing as this natural occurrence is one of the objections of Strauss to the accuracy of the Gospel narrative. Another illustration of imperfect knowledge as the basis of much of the modern " destructive criticism ! "

In the light of this explanation, it will be seen that the first "three days journey" from Sinai northward cannot fairly have been much more, if any, than an ordinary two days journey; and that thirty miles is quite as long a distance for it as could be counted on. Hence a place not farther away from the Plain er- Rahah than Erways el-Ebayrig, must be taken as the first encamp ing station of the Israelites, at the elose of that "three days jour- ncy."

And so the encamping and the journeying went on. "At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the eloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. . . . And so it was, when the eloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the eloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed : whether it was by day or by night that the eloud was taken

1 Luke 2 : 42-45.

THE TIME BETWEEN STATIONS. 145

up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the eloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up they journeyed." 1 There is cer tainly not much ground in that record for elaiming that the space between encampments was uniformly a day s distance.

The list of stations in Numbers 33 : 1-49 would seem therefore, to be, not a list of all the halting places of the Israelites, but, a list of the places at which there was a formal encampment. Indeed the Hebrew word 2 translated variously in this list, " took their journey," "journeyed," " departed," " went," and " removed," implies, in its very form, a " breaking up," or a " pulling up stakes," as on the change of an encampment. Nor is there any place twice mentioned in this list, although we have reason to suppose that during the forty years the host, or at least its tabernacle and its headquarters, encamped more than once at the same place. 3 For example, in this list of stations, it is recorded that "they departed from Hashmonah and encamped at Moseroth. And they departed from Moseroth, and pitched in Bene-jaakan ; " and so on to Hor-hagi- dad, and Jotbathah. But in Deuteronomy 10 : 6, 7, it is said, that they "took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan [the wells of Bene-jaakan] to Mosera " and so on to Gud- godah and Jotbath. The order of the stations in these two records is reversed, as if the places were visited in one order in going in one direction, and in reverse order in going the other way ; 4 but in the complete list of stations no one place has received a second mention, unless indeed under another name, and that for

1 Num. 9 : 18, 21,22.

2 M?tH (Vayyis oo "and they broke up.") See Keil and Dclitzsch s Bib. Com., III., 242.

s For a full discussion of this point, see Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., III., gg 30, 41 ; also see Keil and Delitzsch s Bib, Com., as above.

*See Eobinson, in Bib. Repos. Oct., 1832, p. 788. 10

146 KADESH-BARNEA.

an exceptional reason, as in the case of Kadesh as will be shown.

There is one point which ought not to be overlooked, while inquiring if the order of stations throws light on the proximity of any two stations named consecutively. The same record that says : " They removed from Kadesh and pitched in Mount Hor," says also : " They removed from Eziou-gaber and pitched in the Wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh." ] Now Ezion-gaber is known to have been at or near the head of the eastern arm of the Eed Sea the Gulf of Aqabah. 2 The Israelites when making their journey for the compassing of Mount Seir, went " through the Way of the Arabah, [or by way of the Arabah Road,] from Elath and from Ezion-gaber ; " 3 (and the Israelites seem never to have been in the Way of the Arabah, except at its southernmost end where it compassed Mount Seir.) Later, it is declared that king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-gcber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, "in the land of-Edom." 4 Now, if the stations named consecutively are to be reckoned as only a day s distance apart, it is clear that Kadesh, being only one remove from Ezion-gaber, and only one remove from Mount Hor, is at some point which is only a day s distance from either of those two places. This in itself would put Jebel Neby Haroon out of the

1 Num. 33 : 36, 37.

2 Winer (Bibl.Rcalwortcrb. s. v. " Eziongeber ") discusses this site, with comprehen siveness. He would find it at Aszyun or Assiun, a place referred to by Makrizi, the Eyptian historian, as quoted by Burckhardt (Travels in Syria, p. 511.) Of this place Robinson (Bib. lies. I., 169 /.) thinks no traces are to be found; and he would find its site at Wady " el-Ghudyan, opening into el- Arabah from the western moun tain, some distance north of Akabah." " However different the names el-Ghudyan and Ezion may be in appearance, yet the letters in Arabic and Hebrew all corres pond." Although this site is now ten miles or so north of the end of the gulf, Rob inson thinks that formerly the waters extended thus far. " This probably is the best site for it." (Smith- Hackett Bib. Die. s. v. "Ezion-gaber,")

s Deut. 2 : 1-8. * 2 Chron. 8 : 17.

KADESH IN THE LIST OF STATIONS. 147

question as a site of Mount Hor ; for even a straight line (and it would be difficult to shorten that] between the Gulf of Aqabah and Jebel Neby Haroon would be not less than three days jour ney ; if indeed it were less than four or five. 1 Nor have any sites for Kadesh and Mount Hor been named, which would bring Kadesh within a day s reach of Mount Hor on the one hand, and of Ezion-gaber on the other.

In short, everything combines to show that the mention of two stations in juxtaposition, in the record of the Israelites journeyings, gives no indication of the nearness of those stations to each other ; gives no reason for supposing that they are only a day s distance apart. Moreover it is evident that in some cases such nearness is an impossibility.

18. KADESH IN THE LIST OF STATIONS.

In the review list of stations in the thirty-third chapter of Numbers, the name of Kadesh does not appear until near the elose of the forty years wanderings; 2 when it is given in conjunction with Ezion-gaber and Mount Hor, as already noted. Yet it is evident that Kadesh was first reached within a short time after leaving Sinai ; 3 moreover, that when the sentence of dispersion, or wandering, which was there passed upon the Israelites, was near- ing its elose, there was a re-assembling of the whole congregation at that sanctuary-stronghold, for a new move Canaanward/ The absence of any early mention of Kadesh in the list of stations has been a cause of much inquiry, and of much difference of opinion, among scholars.

1 Robinson (Bib. Repos., Oct. 1832, p. 786), says: "From Ezion-gaber to Kadesh . . . could not be much less than the whole length of the great valley of the Gh6r, a distance not less than one hundred miles [say four to six days journey] whatever might be the exact situation of Kadesh."

* Num. 33 : 36, 37. s Num. 13 : 26. See pages 19-24, supra. * Num. 20 : 1.

148 KADESH-BARNEA.

It has been elaimed by some/ that the mention of Kadesh in this list is in reference to it in its proper place, on the occasion of the first, if not indeed of the only, visit to that station ; . . . and that all of the twenty stations preceding it, after leaving Sinai, were visited before Kadesh was ever reached. But this view of the case seems to be as inconsistent with the Bible narrative, as it is improbable on its face. 2 An examination of the text will hardly fail to make clear the truth in the matter.

The narrative records, that after the great plague at Kibroth- hattaavah, " the people journeyed from Kibroth-hattaavah ; and abode at Hazeroth." 3 Hazeroth was therefore the second encamp ment from Sinai. 4 There, again, was a delay. There " Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses," and Miriam was smitten with leprosy. " And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days : and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the Wilderness of Paran." 5 The third encampment, therefore, was " in the Wilderness of Paran." In what part of that wilderness? Light is thrown on this question also, by the narrative itself. It was clearly at the encampment in the Wilderness of Paran that the spies were sent into Canaan. The record is explicit on that point. " And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the Wilderness of Paran." 6 But Moses, after this, declares, as to

1 So Ewald (Hist, of Israel., II., 202, note) ; Laborde ( Com. Geog. sur I Exod., p. 113); Von Gerlach (Com. on Pent., in loco) ; Patter (as cited in Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., III., 218) ; Lowrie (in Schaff-Lange Com., at Num. 14: 25) ; Palmer (Dcs. of Exod., II., 513 /.) : and others.

2 Kurtz (Hist, of Old Cov., III., 218 jf.), while showing the untenableness of this view, deems it " inexplicable " that a careful commentator should be " able to adhere to so unfortunate a supposition, which is expressly contradicted on all hands by the biblical narrative, and even in itself is inconceivable."

* Num. 11: 33-35.

* Num. 33 : 16, 17. 5 Num. 12 : 1-16.

6 Num. 13 : 3.

KADESH IN THE LIST OF STATIONS. 149

the place of sending : " I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land." 1 This would look as if the Wilderness of Paran and Kadesh-barnea were used interchangably in this record ; and as if to put this point beyond all question, it is recorded of the return of the spies : " And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the Wilder ness of Paran, to Kadesh." 2 That would seem to fix it as plainly as words can fix it, that the encampment in the Wilderness of Paran was the first encampment at Kadesh : and this being so, Kadesh- barnea was the third regular encampment after leaving Sinai.

There is an incidental confirmation of this, in two general, or inclusive, statements of the first journey across the desert. In Numbers 10 : 11, 12, it is said, as preliminary to a detailed account of the journeyings : " And it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the eloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony. And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the Wilderness of Sinai ; and the eloud rested in the Wilderness of Paran." That this statement covers a series of moves, instead of being confined to a single stage, is evident from the context ; for it is after this that the narrative begins in detail : " And they first took their journey ; " 3 and again : " And they departed from the mount of the Lord three days journey ; " 4 and so on, stage by stage. Moreover the text itself, in the Hebrew, shows that it is a series of moves which is referred to, and not the first move of a series, merely : " And the sons of Israel pulled up stakes according to their breaking camps; 5 out of the Wilderness of Sinai [as their starting point] ; and the eloud rested [at their destination] in the Wilderness of Paran." 6

1 Num. 32: 8. * Num. 13: 26. s Num. 10: 13. 4 Num. 10: 33.

4 Dri J7pD7 7X"Vi^- J3 typ V (Vayyis oobenai Yisrael lemse aihem.

6 See Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., III., 192, with quotations from Ranke and Ileng- stenberg; also Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., III.,56/. ; Schaff-Lange Com., Exo dus and Leviticus," General Introduction, p. 21.

150 KADESII-BARNEA.

Or, as the similar general statement in Deuteronomy 1:19 gives it : " And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the Way of the Mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us ; and we came to Kadesh-barnea."

In other words the first great move of the Israelites as an organized people was from Sinai, the sanctuary where they had received their formal charter of nationality, to Kadesh-baruca, the sanctuary on the borders of Canaan, whence they were to enter into the land of their national inheritance. In passing over the " eleven days " distance, which separated these sanctuaries by the course they journeyed, they encamped at only two intervening stations. The other stops were but for bivouac.

Yet in the formal list of stations, in Numbers 33: 16-37, the third station from Sinai is given as neither Kadesh-barnea nor the Wilderness of Paran ; although we have seen that in the narrative of the journeyings those two names are used interchangeably for the encampment next after Ilazeroth. " Rithmah " here appears as the third station in the list; and this suggests the question whether Rithmah was an earlier name for Kadesh.

As we have already had occasion to consider, 1 " Kadesh " was probably not the original name of the encircled stronghold in the mountains, which became a sanctuary, and therefore was known as " Holy " (" Qadhesh,") w r hen the tabernacle found a resting- place there. What its original name was, is now the question. " Rithmah " 2 means, literally, Place of Rothem, or Place of Broom. 3 The " rothem," or " broom," is the desert-shrub, or bush, which the Vulgate and our King James Version wrongly translate "juniper." 4 Its Arabic name is retem, 5 or rethem. 6 It

1 See page 43, supra. 2 The Hebrew is i"T3rn (Rithmah.)

3 See Gesenius, and Fiirst, s. v. * Job 30 : 4 ; 1 Kings 19 : 4, 5 ; Psa. 120 : 4.

5 Freytag s Lex., s. v. iV^v 6 ?*"*) Burckhardt s Trav. in Syria, p. 483.

KADESU IN THE LIST OF STATIONS. 151

is the bush which is more commonly used for burning, and its roots for the making of charcoal. 1 It certainly supplies a not unnatural name for a station on the desert s verge.

The recognition of the site of Kadesh in the station Rithmah, is not a modern thought merely. It has been approved by many scholars during the course of many centuries. Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, or " Rashi," 2 the famous rabbinical writer of the eleventh century, held to it. 3 Since his day it has been repeatedly brought out by critical commentators and other Bible students ; for example : Adrichomius, 4 Raleigh, 5 Fiirer, 6 Quaresmius, 7 Ains- worth, 8 Drusius, 9 Pool, 10 Patrick, 11 Calmet, 12 Cellarius, 13 Brown, 14 Robinson, 15 Schwarz, 16 Kitto, 17 Fries, 18 Kurtz, 19 Keil and Delitzsch, 20 Wilton, 21 Forster, 22 Rowlands, 23 Wordsworth, 24 Tristram, 25 Fausset, 26 Riehm, 27 Edersheim, 28 Espin and Thrupp; 29 and again it has

1 Burckhardt s Trav. in Syr., p. 483 ; Robinson s Bib. Res., I., 84, 189 ; II., 203, 205.

2 This rabbi, called " Rashi " from the Hebrew initials of his name, was a famous Talmudic scholar of French birth, who lived from A. D. 1040 to A. D. 1105. His comments on Scripture are regarded by orthodox Jews as of very high authority.

s al ha-Torah, at Num. 33 : 18. * Theatrum Terrse Sanctx, p. 215 a.

s Hist. of World, Bk. II., chap. 5, ? 4. 6 Reis-Beschreib., p. 354.

7 Hist. Theol. et Moral. Terrx Sanctx, p. 25.

8 Cited in Pool s Synops. Crit. at Num. 33 : 18. 9 Ibid. 10 Annotations. 11 Crit. Com. at Num. 20 : 1 . 12 Diet, of Holy Bible, s. v. " Rithmah." 13 Geog. Antiq., Vol. II., maps at p. 390. " Diet, of Bible, s. v. " Rithmah."

15 "On the Exodus" in Bib. Repos., for Oct. 1832, p. 791. He speaks of "Rith mah, probably a station in the desert near to Kadesh ; " and of " Rithmah, or the desert of Kadesh."

18 Geog. of Pal., p. 212. " Scrip. Lands, " General Index," p. 56.

Stud. u. Krit., 1854, p. 57. 19 Hist, of Old Cov., III., 244.

20 Bib. Com., III., 243 /. 21 The Negeb, p. 80.

22 Israel in Wild., pp. 122-128. M Imp. Bib. Die., s. v. " Rithmah."

24 Bible with Notes at Num. 33 : 18. 25 Bible Places, p. 6.

Bib. Cyc., s.v. "Rithmah."

17 Handwdrtcrb. s. v. " Lagerstatten : " " Rithmah is ordinarily held to be the station from which the spies were sent out." 28 Exod. and Wand., p. 172.

29 Speaker s Com., note on Num. 13 : 26, and at 33 : 18.

152 KADESH-BAENEA.

appeared in the margin of various editions of the Bible, from Leo Juda s, 1 and the Genevan, 2 to the Bagsters. 3 Yet notwithstand ing this array of authorities, the identification has been often lost sight of, and has again been wrought out anew from the text by some student who was unaware of the similar work done by so many before him. Indeed there could hardly be a better illustra tion than is here furnished of the liability of students to overlook the successful researches of predecessors in their own field of inquiry. In my own case, when I had tracked out the identity of Rithmah with Kadesh, by the above described process of proof, I thought it an original discovery. But on looking up the authori ties, I was surprised not only at the evidence of its prominence for centuries back, but also at the repeated recurrence of the very error into which I had fallen, of counting an old truth a new discovery. Thus the scholarly Wilton 4 refers to this identification as if it were first proposed by Kurtz, and adds : " I had been fully persuaded of this identification many years before I saw it advocated by Professor Kurtz." Kurtz, 5 again, gives the credit of the discovery to Fries, 6 who, in turn, probably had no thought of elaiming it as an original suggestion. And even after Wilton, Forster 7 came out with it as his own, expressing surprise that no suspicion of it had been awakened in modern times. But all this is only added proof that the evidence of the truth lies in the Bible text itself; and that a careful student of that text is likely to find it for himself, even if he has no hint of it from any one of his many predecessors. It must be said, however, that eminent scholars, as for instance,

1 Published at Zurich, A. D., 1550. 2 London, A. D. 1581.

3 Comprehensive Bible, A. D. 1846. There may also be named, as approving this identification, a Dutch Bible published by Jacobszoon and Bonwenszoon, at Ley- den, A. D. 159G, and Van der Palm s (Leyden, A. D. ISIS.)

4 The Nerjeb, (published in 1863) p. 80, note.

5 Hist, of Old C ov., III., 215. 6 In Stud. u. Krit., 1854.

7 i srac i j n Wild., chap. III., (published in 1865.)

KADESH IN THE LIST OF STATIONS. 153

Hengstenberg, Baumgarten, Lengerke, 1 and Lange, 2 would find in the station " Beue-jaakan," 3 the first stop at Kadesh ; while Yon Raumer* coolly counts up the stations for the " eleven days" 5 be tween Sinai and Kadesh, and by this sum in simple arithmetic finds Kadesh at Tahath. 6 But it is sufficient to refer the compar ative elaims of Bene-jaakan and Rithmah, for this identification, to the Bible text, as above cited. Von Raumer s count is of no account.

A suggested objection 7 to " the view that takes Rithmah to be another name for Kadesh " is that this " imputes to the catalogue " of stations in Numbers " an arbitrariness in the use of names that would make it worthless for that purpose for which it was evi dently recorded." But this objection appears to be fully met in the facts of the case. If, as is probable, Kadesh was not the original name of the station which subsequently bore that name, but Rithmah was, then it would be both natural and proper to give to that place its name Rithmah, in the mention of a visit to it when Rithmah was its only name ; and again to give to it the name Kadesh, in the mention of a subsequent visit to it when it had acquired the name of Kadesh. From the various Bible refer ences to the place in question, it would seem that its original name was Rithmah ; that, when it became the resting place of the taber nacle, it was called Kadesh ; that, when it had become the place where sentence of judgment was passed on the Israelites, it was called En-mishpat ; 8 that, when it was a place of murmuring and strife to a new generation, it was called Meribah. In this view of

1 See Winer s Bill. Realwortcrb, s. v., "Wiiste, arabishe."

1 Schaff-Lange Com., at Num. 33: 32-35, 41-43.

s Num. 33 : 31, 32. < Der Zug der Israeliten, p. 41.

5 Deut. 1:2. e Num. 33 : 26, 27.

7 Lowrie, in Schaff-Lange Com., at Num. 14 : 1-45.

8 Gen. 14 : 7. Supposing the Book of Genesis to have been written during the period of the wanderings, it seems natural for Moses to mention this place, in the

154 KADESH-BARNEA.

the case, it would be eminently fitting to designate the place as Rithmath on its first visit, and as Kadesh on its second ; especially as the explanation of the correspondence and of the difference is made clear in the context.

This finding the probable identity of Kadesh with Rithmah, gives another elue to the locating of Kadesh. The name Rithmah still stands in the desert, in its Arabic form Aboo Retemat. 1 Rithmah, as has been shown, means Place of Retem. Aboo Retemat means the same. And the wady which bears this name 2 is in the immediate vicinity of the very point already designated as the probable halting place of Kedor-la omer, because of its being the common junction of all the roads into Canaan on that side of the desert. 3 It is quite in accordance with the tendency of things in the East, to have the original name thus survive all later changes. 4 Moreover the fact that this name Rithmah just here is an ancient one, 5 is further shown by its Arabic form Retemat being applied to a tribe of Arabs 6 who elaim the region as their home.

record of Kedor-la omer s march, as En-mishpat, by which it was now known to the Israelites ; and to add the explanation that it was the place which they had before known as their Kadesh. 1 CjU->s jf

2 Ilobinson s Sib. Res., I., 189 ; Bonar s Des. of Sinai, p. 292.

3 See page 42, supra.

* For example: Accho (Judges 1 : 13) became Ptolemais, but it is now Akka, or Acre ; Bethshan (1 Sam. 31 : 10, 12 ; 2 Sam. 21 : 12), or Bethshean (Josh. 17 : 11, 16 ; Judges 1: 27 ; 1 Kings 4: 12; 1 Chron. 7: 29), became Scythopolis, but is now Besan ; Lydda (Acts 9 : 32, 35, 38) became Diospolis, but is now Ludd ; and so on.

5 The Speaker s Commentary (at Note on Num. 13 : 26) affirms that the broom (retem) " probably gave a name to many localities," and mentions one place else where (in quite another region) which bore another form of this name. But as the form which corresponds with "Rithmah" is found only at this one point in all the region where Kadesh may be, or has been, looked for, it certainly is an important element in the locating of Kadesh. It is true that it might have been in half a dozen places ; but in fact it is in only one in the upper desert.

6 The Beny Retaymat (i^>LJO\). See Burckhardt s Beduinen und Wahaby, pp. 312, 602.

KADESH IN THE LIST OF STATIONS. 155

It appears, therefore, that an examination of the formal list of stations tends to identify Kadesh with Rithmah of that list ; and that there is a reasonable trace of Rithmah in "Wady Aboo Retemat, over against the very portion of the Azazimeh moun tain tract within which all our studies up to this time have com bined for the locating of Kadesh.

And this completes an examination of all the references to Kadesh-barnea in the entire Bible text, which can fairly be looked to as giving any indication of its locality. The very earliest men tion of this place is in a connection which would seem to put it in the heart of the Azazimeh mountain tract, at some point eastward of Jebel Muwaylih and of Wady Aboo Retemat near which all the great highways of the desert come together in a common trunk ; and every subsequent mention of the place either points directly to the same locality, or is conformable to it. Unless, therefore, some weighty reasons against this site should be ascertained outside of the Bible text, it would seem to be fixed within the limits named, beyond fair questioning.

in.

KADESH-BAKKEA.

ANCIENT REFERENCES TO IT OUTSIDE OF THE BIBLE TEXT.

KADESH-BARNEA.

1. IN THE EGYPTIAN RECORDS.

Having examined the various Bible references to Kadesh- barnea, in order to its locating, it is important- to search the ancient records outside of the Bible, to ascertain if any light is thrown on this site by references to it in them.

First in order come the Egyptian records. Indeed it is only there, that there is a possibility of any evidence contemporaneous with the Mosaic narrative. Modern investigations have disclosed much geographical information concerning the lands of the Bible story, in the monuments and papyri of ancient Egypt ; and it would not be unreasonable to hope to find incidental references in those records, to such a point of strategic importance in military movements as Kadesh-barnea would seem to have been from the days of Kedor-la omer onward.

The name Kadesh, or Qodesh, the Sanctuary, appears very frequently in the Egyptian records, as designating a stronghold of the Kheta, or Ilittites, in the north of Syria ; supposed to be on the Lake of Hums ; and there are good reasons for thinking that the same name is applied at times, in those records, to one site, or more, in the region of Syria, or Upper Canaan (the land of the Rutennu, or the Lutennu, of the monuments), apart from the Hittite sacred stronghold.

159

1 GO KADESH-B ARNEA .

Kadesh on the Orontes, or Kadesh of the Hittites, is a centre of interest in important campaigns of the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties; 1 notably Thotmes III., Setce I., and Rameses II. Its capture by one Pharaoh after another is cele brated in song and story in the papyri and on the monuments, and is pictured in glowing colors on the temple walls of Egypt. The poem of Pentaur, 2 reciting the valor of Rameses the Great in the overthrow of Kadesh of the Hittites, as repeated again and again in manuscript and in stone, is given a living freshness to the readers of to-day by the graphic pen of Ebers in his historical romance Uarda. This Kadesh, however, is obviously not the Kadesh-barnea of the Negeb.

But in the list of conquered towns of Canaan and Syria, in the Hall of Pillars at Karnak, 3 there is clearly a second Kadesh, or Qodesh, or Kedes, 4 apparently (from its order in the list) farther south than Kadesh of the Hittites ; and again there are frequent references on the monuments to a Kadesh of the Amorites, or "Kadesh in the territory of the Amorites." Brugsch, 5 and Lenor- mant and Chevallier, 6 are confident that Kadesh of the Hittites and Kadesh of the Amorites are one ; but they do not ignore the fact that a second Kadesh farther south in Canaan is named on the Egyptian monuments. Chabas, on the other hand, would distin-

1 See Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 388-401 ; II., 15-18 ; 46-65 ; Eec. of Past, Vols. II., IV., VI., VIII., passim ; Wilkinson s Anc. Egypt., I., 257 ; Miss Edwards s Up the Nile, pp. 204, 206, 436-443 ; Villiers Stuart s Nile Gleanings, pp. 172-177 ; Tom- kins s "The Campaign of Barneses II. in his Fiftli Year against Kadesh on the Orontcs," in Trans, of Soc. of Bib. Arch., Vol. VII., Part, 3.

2 De Rouge s Le Poeme de Pen-Ta-Our ; also in Rec. of Past, II., pp. 65-78 ; and in Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 56-65.

3 See Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt,!., 389-394; Conder s Palestine before Joshua," in Surv. of West. Pal., " Special Papers," pp. 177-194.

* Comp. No. 1 and No. 48 in that list.

5 Geog. des Alt. jE jypt, I., 59-61, 67 ; also Hist, of Egypt, I., 394; II., 16. e Anc. Hist, of East, II., 150.

IN THE EGYPTIAN RECORDS. 161

guish between Kadesh of the Hittites and Kadesh of the Amorites, and he would identify the latter with Kadesh -barnea. 1

This is a elaim worthy of our notice. In incidental proof of the non-identity of Kadesh of the Hittites, and Kadesh of the Amorites, the southernmost Kadesh, Chabas insists that the Egyptian records show that the country of the Amorites was at some distance southward, from the region of the Orontes; and this the Bible record also shows. Moreover, in the pictured, or sculptured, representation of the campaign against Kadesh of the Amorites, the latter place is "represented as standing on a hill side, with a stream on one side, and surrounded by trees;" 2 and thus it is "most plainly distinguished from the Kodesh of the Kheta (Hittites) on the Orontes, which is in a flat country on a recess of a lake, girdled by a double moat with bridges." 3

Again there are references on the temple walls and in the papyri to a Qodesh, or Kadesh, and a Dapur, or Dapour, or Tapura, in apparent proximity, in the land of Canaan, or the land of the Rutennu. 4 And in an inscription above a representation of the second of these fortresses, in the record of the conquests of Ram- eseS II., in his temple at Thebes, it is called "Dapur in the land of the Amorites ; " 5 as Qodesh is elsewhere called " Kadesh in the territory of the Amorites." 6 Among the proposed identifications of these two sites, Chabas, 7 followed by Tomkins, 8 advocates Debir 9 below Hebron, and Kadesh-barnea farther southward.

1 Etudes sur I Ant. Hist., p. 266 /. 2 See Rosellini s Monumenti, LIII.

3 Tomkins s Times of Abraham, p. 84 ; also his paper, as above, in Trans, of Soc. of Bib. Arch., Vol. VII., Pt. 3 ; Wilkinson s Anc. Egypt., I., 259 ; Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 48-52.

4 See " Travels of an Egyptian," in Rec. of Past, Vol. II., p. Ill ; Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 107-114; Surv. of West. Pal., "Special Papers," pp. 163-176.

5 Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 67 ; Birch s Egypt, p. 122. 6 Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 16. 7 Etudes sur I Ant. Hist., p. 264^.

8 Times of Abraham, p. 84. 9 Josh. 10 : 36-39. See also page 103, ff.,supra. 11

162 KADESH-BARNEA.

Such an identification, on such authority, ought not to be passed without examination, in a search for traces of Kadesh-barnea.

There are weighty objections to both these identifications, and equally weighty reasons in favor of other identifications. The order of the narrative in the Anastasi Papyrus, 1 in the course of which Qodesh and Dapur are mentioned together, would indi cate the upper portion of Samaria and the lower portion of Galilee, rather than southern Judah, as the region referred to;" and the same may be said of the place of the fortresses in the inscriptions on the walls at Thebes. 3 Moreover, the pictured delineations of the two fortresses in question furnish evidence that they are not Debir and Kadesh-barnea, but that they are Tabor 4 and Kedesh-Xaphtali ; 5 as can easily be shown.

Whether the name "Tabor" is or is not connected with the ancient name "Dapur" or "Tapura," of the Egyptian records, the name of Dcbooreyeh, 6 at the western base of Mount Tabor, is clearly a record of the ancient Daberath or Dabareh, of the days of Joshua, 7 and so of the days of the Egyptian records in question ; as also of the Dabira of Eusebius and Jerome. 8 And the fortress

1 See Rec. of Past, Vol. II., pp. 109-116.

2 See Conder s "First Traveler in Palestine," in Surv. of West. Pal., "Special Pa pers," 1GS/.

3 Birch (Egypt, p. 122), and Brugsch (Hist, of Egypt, II., 67, 110), favor this iden tification, although they do not attempt any proof of it. Condcr (as above, p. 169) thinks that Dapour is "probably the Diblath of Ezek. 6: 14;" but he misses the connection with Debooreyeh at Mount Tabor. * Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 67-

5 Brugsch (Hist, of Egypt, II., 110) identifies the Kadesh here linked with Dapur as Kedes (the present name of Kedesh-Naphtali.) Conder (as above) elaims the identification as his own.

6 See Von Schubert s Reise, III., 174; Robinson s Bib. Res., II., 350 /. ; Wilson s Lands of Bible, II., 90; Van de Veldc s Reise, II. 324, 331 ; Iliickert s Reise, p. 327; Hitter s Geog. of Pal., II., 314; Surv. of West. Pal., " Name Lists," p. 125; Tris tram s Bible Places, p. 235.

7 Josh. 19: 12; 21: 28.

8 Onomast. s. v. "Dabira." This place is apparently the one called "Buria" by William of Tyre (Gesta Dei, p. 1026.)

IN THE EGYPTIAN RECORDS. 163

which crowned the mountain would naturally bear the name of the city which it covered and protected. Now Mount Tabor is unique among mountains, rising as it does all by itself from a level plain. And the Egyptian representation of the fortress of Dapur shows just such a mountain as that, separate and distinct from other mountains, and with a citadel crowning its entire surface. 1 This agrees most admirably with the Tabor identification ; but it is quite inconsistent with the identification at Debir below Hebron, the site of which is found in Dhahareeyeh, 2 where is a ridge or hill side, but no such separate mountain summit.

And the evidence for the identification of the lower Kadesh, of the Amorites, with Kedesh-Naphtali, in the Egyptian delineation of its fortress, is as distinct and positive as is that in the case of Dapur. As has been already mentioned, 3 the fortress of Kadesh of the Hittites is well known as on a plain, and as surrounded with a bridged moat ; while the lower Kadesh is on a hill-side, with a stream below it. Now the site of Kedesh-Naphtali, which was a royal city when the Israelites entered Canaan, 4 and which was made a city of refuge after their occupation, 5 is described by trav elers in a manner to conform it peculiarly to the Egyptian pictur ing. It still bears the name Kcdes, 6 and is a short distance northwest of Huleh Lake, or the Waters of Merom. Tristram says of it : " Situated on an eastern slope, behind it rise the bare but herbage-clad hills, where flocks and herds camped for the greater part of the year. The town stood on a knoll, where it could not easily be surprised. Just below it gushed forth a copious spring, caught in various ancient reservoirs, for the use of man and

!See Wilkinson s Anc. Eyi/pt., I., 243; Rawlinson s Hist, of Anc. Egypt, I,, 482; also Tomkins s Times of Abraham, p. 86. J See page 103 ff., supra. 3 See page 161, supra. * Josh. 12 : 22 ; 19: 32-37.

5 Josh. 20 : 7-9 ; Judges 7 : 6-12 ; 2 Kings 15 : 29 ; 1 Chron. 6 : 76.

6 See Robinson s Bib. Res., III., 3G4ff.; Surv. of West. Pal., " Memoirs," Vol. I., pp. 226-230.

164 KADESH-BABNEA.

beast. Then, down a gentle slope, there were several hundred acres of olive groves ; and beyond these a rich alluvial plain." This certainly is very like the Egyptian picture, which shows Qodesh of the Amoritcs " as standing on a hill side, with a stream on one side, and surrounded by trees." 1

It is a noteworthy fact, that, the Talmud refers to Kadesh- Naphtali as Kadesh of the mountains, 2 which is practically the same as Kadesh of the Amoritcs. And it certainly accords better with many of the Egyptian references 3 to the Kadesh of the Amorites as in reasonable proximity to the plain of Megiddo, to suppose that this Kadesh, or Kateshu, was Kadesh-Naphtali rather than Kadesh on the Orontes.

At all events a careful examination of the facts seems to show unmistakably, that the second Kadesh, or Qodesh, of the Canaan- itish lists in Egypt, is not Kadesh-barnea, as Chabas and Tomkins have suggested. Xor, in fact, have we any reason for supposing that Kadesh-barnea bore the name Kadesh by which to be noted on the Egyptian records before the presence there of the sacred tabernacle of the Hebrews. Moreover, as has been shown/ it is

1 " The site is beautiful the summit and sides of a little ridge projecting from wooded heights on the west into a green plain." (Porter s Giant Cities, p. 271.)

" Unlike the many towns we had visited on rocky hill-tops, Kedesh-Naphtali occu pies a gently-sloping descent to a pretty vale." (Dulles s Ride Through Pal., p. 360.)

2 " Kedescli, dans la montagne de Nephthali," quoted from the Babylonian Talmud, Makkoth, 9 b., in Neubauer s La Geographic du Talmud, p. 55.

And Porter (Giant Cities, p. 262) says : " The Naphtalites were the Highlanders of Palestine." Naturally, therefore, those who preceded them in that region were "the Highlanders" the Amorites of Canaan; and their Kedesh was the "Kedesh of the Amorites."

3 See Annals of Thothmes III. Account of the Battle of Megiddo," in Rec. of Past, II., 37-58. The " Kateshu " first named in these " Annals " (pp. 38, 43) would seem to be the lower Kadesh ; while that named in the king s later progress (p. 51 /.) would seem to be the upper one.

See also Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 368-386; Lenormant and Chevallier s Anc. Hist, of East, I., 23 If.

* See page 83 f., supra.

IN THE APOCRYPHA. 165

not to be supposed that there was any fortress at Kadesh-barnea to be captured by Hebrews or Egyptians.

2. IN THE APOCRYPHA.

Next in order to the Egyptian records, comes the Apocrypha. This contains but a single locating of the southernmost Kadesh ; l and that is in a list of places, in Judith 1 :7-10, to which a message was sent by " the king of the Assyrians : " " To all that were in Samaria and the cities thereof, and beyond Jordan unto Jerusalem, and Betane, and Chellus, and Kades, and the river of Egypt, and Taphnes, and Ramcsse, and all the land of Gesem."

Here it is evident that the geographical order of the places named is from " beyond the Jordan," 2 or, from near the Jordan, southerly and westerly, by way of Jerusalem toward Egypt. After Jerusalem comes " Betane." This is probably the Beth- auoth 3 of Joshua 15 : 59, fairly identified by Wolcott 4 in theBayt Ainooii of to-day, a short distance north of Hebron ; this latter identification being approved by Robinson 5 and Winer 6 and Palmer 7 and Tristram, 8 and being in keeping with the view of Roland 9 and Grove. 10 Of the important ruins of this site, with their ancient watering-place cisterns, Tristram says : " Near them was the great highway to Egypt, and traces of the ancient paved

1 "Cades, which is in Galilee," or Kedesh-Xaphtali, is twice mentioned, in I Maccabees 11 : 63, 73. One reading of Judith 5 : 4, mentions Kadesh-barnea.

2 " Here this phrase means, not as commonly the country east of the Jordan, but that lying west of the river." (Schaff-Bissell Apocrypha, in loco.)

3 So says " Movers, followed by Fritzsche, Bunsen s Bibelwerk, and other authori ties" (Schaff-Bissell Apoc., p. 169.) The suggestion of Rawlinson (Herod., II., 460) that Batansea, or Bashan, is intended, is quite inconsistent with the geographical order of the text.

*Bib. Sac., February, 1843, p. 57 f. 6 Bib. Res., III., 281.

6 Bib. Realwbrterb., s. v. " Betane."

7 Survey of West. Pal., " Name Lists," p. 397. 8 Bible Places, p. 68 /.

Palaxtinu,, p. 625. 10 Smith-Hockett Bib. Die., s. v. " Betane."

166 KADESH-BARNEA.

road remain, and marks of wheel-ruts, where no wheeled carriage has passed for centuries." This indicates a reason for naming this station on the way Egyptward.

Next to " Bctane " is " Chcllus," or, Chclus. 1 This is naturally thought by Roland 2 and Grove 3 to be the Khulasah, 4 or Chalutza, or Elusa, which was a centre of pagan worship, 5 and lay south westerly from Bcersheba. Winer 6 would find in Chellus the ancient Halhul ; 7 but as this name still stands " Halhul," 8 it seems hardly probable that it would have been known, at any time between the early and later period, as " Chellus." In a list of episcopal and arch-episcopal towns in the see of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, made up early in the sixth century, 9 two stations at the east of the arch-episcopate of Gaza are named, as " Chalasa " and " Cholus," 10 or, as " Elusa " and " Elas." n The second of these two stations would correspond yet more elosely with Chelus; and this is not improbably the place referred to as " el-Khulus," in the Arabic version of the Polyglot Bible, as standing for Gerar, in Genesis 20 : 1, 2 ; 26 : 1, as mentioned by Roland, 12 Robinson, 13 and Stewart, 14 rather than " Elusa " as they supposed. But which ever of the three sites be accepted for Chellus, the direction is still southerly and westerly, from above Hebron toward the borders of Egypt.

After " Chellus," between that and " the river of Egypt," or Wady el- Areesh, comes " Kades." And just here is where we should expect to find " Kades," or Kadesh-barnea, in view of all

1 Schaff-Bissdl Apocrypha, in loco. 2 Palsestina, p. 717.

3 Smith-Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. "Chellus."

*Bib. Res., I., 201 /.; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 385 /., 423, Bartlett s Egypt to Pal., p. 401 /.

5 Jerome s Vita Hilarionis. *Bib. fiealworterb., s.v." Chellus." Josh. 15:58. 8 Robinson s Bib. Res. III., 2S1 /. ; Jerome s De Locis Ilebnticis, s. v. " Elul."

9 Quoted in the Appendix to Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 550 ff.

10 Ibid., p. 552. n Roland s Palxstina, pp. 217, 218. ^ Ibid., p. 805.

is Bib. Res., I., 202, note. " Tent and Khan, p. 208.

IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS. 167

the biblical indications of its site. It is at the southern extremity of Palestine, at the turning point westward of the boundary line toward Wady el- Areesh. And so the Apocrypha agrees with the Old Testament text in the location of Kadesh-barnea.

3. IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS.

And now for the help of the rabbinical writings, in our search for light on Kadesh-barnea and its locating. And at first it seems a darkening of counsel that comes to us, in words without know ledge ; but those words will bear studying.

In the Targums, and in the Talmud instead of Kadesh, and of Kadesh-barnea, we find another term substituted ; namely, " Reqam," or " Reqem-Giah," in several diverse but not materially different forms. 1 The reason and significance of this Substitutionary terra has been a matter of much discussion and of no little confusion among earlier and later commentators. An added element of confusion is the fact that the same term, " Reqem," is, in one instance at least, applied in the Talmud to Petra, 2 or the Rock City, at the east, or the southeast, of the Holy Land.

Josephus," followed by Eusebius* and Jerome 5 and many

1 In the Targums :

The Pseudo-Jonathan, at Num. 34 : 4, and elsewhere : K#U Dpi, reqam yce d. The Jerusalem : N^ JT Dpi, reqam degai d. Onkelos : Dpi, reqam.

IT :

In the Babylonian Talmud : In Yalkoot, Ekeb, iTKJ Dpi, reqem gaih. In Siphre", Ekeb, and in treatise, Tosiftha, Schebiith, chap. 3, HX J Dpi,

reqem geeah.

In the Jerusalem Talmud: In Schebiith, 6: 1, Hi UT Dpi, reqem dego ah. 1 In Gittin, 1 : 1, Dpi, reqem. 3 Antiq., Bk. IV., Chap. 7, ? 1.

4 Onomast., s.vv., " Arcem," "Petra," " Recem."

5 De Loc. Heb., s.vv., "Arcem. " Petra," " Recem."

168 KADESH-BARNEA.

others, suggested that this name Reqam which he applies exclu sively to Petra was given in honor of Rekem, a Midianitish king slain by the Hebrews under Phiuehas on the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan. 1 But as this name is applied by the rabbis to Kadesh, the sanctuary of the Hebrews, we may be sure that it had some other signification than this. To suppose that they would call that sacred site by the name of an accursed chieftain slain by the sword of the Lord, is as unreasonable as it \vould be to sup pose that the early Christians of Damascus had named a church " Ananias " in honor of the husband of Sapphira. 2

That the term Reqam in the rabbinical writings is commonly applied to Kadesh-barnea, and that the location of Kadesh-barnea as thus designated corresponds with the biblical indications of its site not far eastward of the great caravan route between Egypt and Syria would seem clear on an examination of those writings. In several name-lists of places given in the Talmud, 3 as marking the boundaries of the Holy Land, the starting point is Askelon. Running northward along the western boundary, and thence east ward and southward, the line indicated by these lists returns along the southern side, westerly to its starting point Askelon. On this route, " Reqem-Giah " occurs on the southern line, in proximity to Askelon and " the great road which leadeth to the desert." But it is also evident, as before noted, that there is a second Reqam not a second Kadesh referred to in those writings as on the eastern border of the Holy Land, or just beyond it. This Reqam is probably the " Petra " mentioned by Josephus, Eusebius, and Jerome ; which mention has been the occasion of so much doubt and confusion.

A careful talmudic scholar 4 of two centuries ago touches this

1 Num. 31 : 1-8. 2 Corap. Acts 5 : 1-11 ; 9 : 10.

3 See a table of these lists, facing page 11, in Neubauer s Geog. du Talmud. 4 Johannis Othonis Lex. Rabbin. Philolog. (Geneva, A. D. 1675), s. v., Cadesh- Barnea."

IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS. 169

point when he says : " Kadesh-barnea, and Kadesh simply, are

translated Rekam by all the Oriental interpreters Rekam

was the boundary of the land of Israel, yet so that it was to be esteemed as outside the land. . . . There were two noteworthy places named Rekarn on the limits of the land ; one was Kadesh on the southern side ; but the other, Kadesh [Rekam] on the eastern side concerning which Rabbi Nissim speaks in Gittiu I., when he says, Rekam [Petra] itself is considered as the east of the world as Gentile territory, not as Israelitish territory." The passage in Gittiu here referred to, shows that there is an eastern " Rekam " (as Josephus and others say Petra is called) ; but it does not show that there is an eastern Kadesh. 1

The learned Lightfoot, 2 tracking this matter " by the light of the Talmud/ notes that " the Eastern interpreters " render Kadesh by " Rekam, or in a sound very near it ; " and that there are two places mentioned as Rekam, by those interpreters, " in the very bounds of the Land, to wit, the southern and eastern : that is a double Kadesh." Then he goes on to say, that " of Kadesh, or Rekam, in the south part, there is no doubt ; " while in his opinion there was not a second Kadesh. His conclusion is : " That that Kadesh, to which they [the Israelites] came in the fortieth year (which is called Meribah, Xumbers 20 : 13), is the same with Kadesh-barnea is clear enough from hence, that Meribah in Kadesh is assigned for the southern border of the Land (Ezekiel 47 : 19) ; which border of old was Kadesh-barnea (Numbers 34: 4; Joshua 15: 3)."

If, indeed, it could be found that the term Reqam has a signifi cation applicable alike to Kadesh-barnea and to Petra, it would at once make clear the cause of all this confusion in the references to these two places by Jewish and Christian writers for now twenty

1 See Mischna, with Maimonides notes (Amsterdam edition), p. 415. iHorx Heb. et Tal., Vol. I., pp. 19-21.

170 KADESII-BARNEA.

centuries, more or less. Is such a solution of the problem practi cable? We have seen 1 that Sel a was first applied to Kadesh- barnea, and afterwards to Petra ; and that confusion was possible from the use of that term interchangeably as the designation of the two places. Is there anything like this in the two-fold use of the term Reqam ?

It is somewhat strange that no student of this subject has noted the fact that rikhdm, 2 or rukhdm, a elose equivalent of " Reqam/ is to-day an Arabic term for " rock," and therefore might be applicable, as is the Hebrew Sela, to both Kadesh-barnea and Petra. The primitive meaning of the Arabic word rukhdm is of that which is split or stratified, parted or piled in layers ; and the word is often applied to marble, 3 or lime stone, or alabaster: 4 but it is also used in designation of rock of all kinds. For example, in a modern Arabic work on the geography of Egypt, 5 a reference is made to the " red rukham," 6 or the syenite granite, of Aswan ; and again the various rocks of an entire district are treated under the general head of " Rukbam." 7

The word " Ruqeem " 8 almost identical with the Hebrew "Reqam " occurs once in the Quran. 9 Its meaning there has been another puzzle. As Sale 10 says of it : " What is meant by this word the commentators cannot agree." But among other proposed explanations, " some will have it to be the name of the mountain "

1 Sec page 124 /, supra.

2 jLi-\. gee Lane, Freytag, and the Jesuits French Arabic Lexicons, s. v. 3 Abulfeda s Tab. JE jypt., p. 14. Surv. of West. Pal., "Name Lists," p. 405. "Rukhika, white marble." Also, Freytag s Lex. Arab. Lat., s. v. "rukhiim." * Catafago s Arabic Die., s. v. " rukham." s Fikry s Gcog. of Eijypt, Cairo, A. H. 1296. ^11 id., Part II., page 74.

Ubid., "f^V

9 Sura 18. v. 8. In the Arabic Version of Walton s Polyglot Eible, at Gen. 14: 7 the word "Kuqeem," given for " Kadesh" is identical with that, as above, from the Quran.

10 In Koran with Notes, p. 238, note.

IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS. 171

in which was a cave, referred to in the context; while others apply it to a legend of three men shut in a cave by "the falling down of a vast stone which stopped the cave s mouth," who " were miraculously delivered by the rock s rending in sunder to give them passage." Either explanation consists with the idea of " Ruqeem " meaning a rock-mountain with its cave sides, like Petra ; or again meaning a smitten Rock, like that of Kadesh-barnea.

It is evident from this showing of the case, that the Arabic term Rikham might not unnaturally be applied interchangeably to the Rock of Kadesh, and to Petra the Rock City. And now, apart from the fact of the admitted resemblance of the Arabic and the ancient Hebrew, it is worth our while to consider the traces of words, similar in form and meaning to the one in question, in the cognate Syriac and Hebrew. 1

Jerome distinctly states that Petra in Edom is called Rekem by the Syrians ; 2 although Eusebius says that it is the Assyrians who so name it. 3 In the Peshitto Syriac Version, 4 at Numbers 34 : 4, "Kadesh-barnea" is supplied by Reqam degaia, 5 and in the accompanying Latin Version this is rendered Recem Superbam Reqam the Lofty, or perhaps here, the Pre-eminent. A literal rendering of the Syriac would make it simply Reqam of the Plain. We have already seen that the word Reqam, here ascribed to the Syriac, is in use in the talmudic Hebrew ; and this brings us to the question of the meaning of the word in these languages.

In both the Hebrew and the Syriac 6 the word ragam r means stoning, or to stone. For example, this is the word used of the proposed stoning of Moses and Aaron by the rebellious Israelites at Kadesh-barnea, 8 when the people were dismayed at the report.

1 In the tracking of these philological proofs, I am particularly indebted to the scholarly assistance of Mr. John T. Napier, whose services at many other points in my work I have elsewhere acknowledged.

1 De Loc. Heb., s. v. " Petra." 3 Onomast., s. v. " Petra." * Walton s Polyylotta.

5 Tjl * VttO $ 6 See Castellus s Syriac Lexicon. T DJ"X 8 Num. 14: 10.

172 KADESH-BA RNEA.

of the spies ; and again of the stoning of the sabbath-breaker, 1 in the days following. Fiirst suggests that the root of this word was a noun rcgan, 2 " a stone-heap ;" and he directly suggests its connection with "Reqem" 3 the name of a town in the tribe of Benjamin ; 4 where he thinks it may have referred to existing stone heaps as it similarly might apply to stone structures at Petra. 5

Another accomplished Oriental scholar 6 says of the root meaning of rcqam: " Comparing the Arabic ( f^) ; the Syriac (VOJQ 5); and the Hebrew (OPT) ; I should take the radical meaning to be strike, thrust, whence dot, excavate. So in Arabic the verb means to write ( cut letters, or print ), and to embroider. The latter is also the sense in Syriac and Hebrew to embroider, from striking, or piercing ; whence the meaning of the Hebrew (Dp~0 seems to be pierced, that is perhaps, excavated/ an appro priate name for Petra, and for the city mentioned by Abu l Feda." It will be seen, farther on, that the root meanings here proposed have like appropriateness with the one suggested by Fiirst in application both to Petra and to the " struck " or " pierced " Rock of Ivadesh the " Fountain of Miriam."

Thus it certainly may be, that the Arabic rikhdm, rukhdm, and ruqecm ; the Syriac rcqam and ragam ; the Chaldee rcqam ; and the Hebrew ragam, reqam, and rcqcm, are vestiges in variety of a common Semitic root, 7 having reference to " stone " or " rock."

1 Num. 15 : 35, 36. 2 Q}\ Fiirst s Heb. u. CJwild. Worterb., s. v., "ragam." 3 rjrn.

4 Josh. 18: 27. Grove, in Smith- Hackett Bib. Die., s. v., "Rekem," suggests a trace of this name in the present " Ain Karim," west of Jerusalem ; the reputed home of Zacharias and Elizabeth. This suggestion is adopted by Fausset (Bib. Cyc., s. v.), and Young (Analytical Concordance}.

5 Yet Fiirst does not seem to have thought of the connection of Reqem with Petra and Kadesh, as bearing on this suggestion of his.

6 Professor C. H. Toy (of The Harvard University Divinity School), in a private letter to the author.

7 For the elose relationship of the various Semitic languages, see Fischer s

IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS. 173

That variations similar to these through changes of the gutturals and palatals, and of the vowels are frequent in the languages re ferred to, is a fact familiar to every scholar. 1

If this conclusion be accepted, the mystery of " Reqem," as applied alike to the Rock at Kadesh, and the Rock-City Petra, is solved ; and the confusion growing out of the interchange of names is accounted for. And the designation of Kadesh as Reqam de-Geeah, 2 or Reqam of the Plain, 3 is a natural one, as over against Reqam of the Mountains in Edom, or Moab.

That, indeed, the term " Reqam " has reference to a place of rock, or of rocks, whenever we know the place referred to, is clear ; and the inference is legitimate that it ahvays means this. As applied to " Petra," this is obvious ; and this covers the various mentions of it in Josephus, Eusebius, and Jerome.

Ibn Hauqal, 4 an Arabian traveler and geographer, writing in the tenth century, tells of " Reqem," 5 a town situated near the Belqa, where "all the walls and houses are of stone, in such a manner that one would imagine they were all of one piece." Three centuries later, Abulfeda (Aboo l Feda), a hereditary Emeer of Syria, who wrote works on geography, both as an eye witness and as a student, made mention 6 of this same place, " Er-Ruqeem, a small town situated near El-Belqa; 7 the houses of which are all

" Anleitung zum Studium des Midrasch und Talmud," pp. 13-34, in Winer s Chal- ddische Grammatik.

1 Concerning the interchanging, in Hebrew, and in the other Semitic dialects, of P O>( ( l) 5 -I ^>(g) 5 f\ ^t (kh) 5 see the articles on these letters, in Eli Smith s "Essay on the Pronunciation of the Arabic," in Appendix to Robinson s Bib. Res., III. (first edition) ; also Robinson s Gesenius, and Adolf Wahrmund s Handbuch der ncu-Arribi$chen Sprache, I., p. 11, $ 36.

2 See page 167 /, supra.

3 Compare the Hebrew N J, gayt, X J, gai ; the Arabic ^y^jjewa, xxs>., jeeah : which all have the meaning of " a plain," or of " a low-lying place."

4 Ouseley s Oriental Gcog. of Ebn Haukal, p. 40. 5 *J>

8 Tabula Syr ix, p. 11. T " El-Belqa is one of the districts of Esh-ShariU, [and is] a fertile land having

1 74 AM DESH-BAENEA.

cut out of the live rock, as though they were one rock." 1 The Arabic word "Utiqecm" 2 as given here is identical with that found in the Quran and in the Arabic Version, as already quoted. Elsewhere, Abulfeda 3 refers to this Er-llnqecm as north of Kerak, and not far from it. Although no attempts to identify this place seem to have been made in modern times, it would appear worthy of notice that Seetzen 4 found a "Bet el Kerm," in the region re ferred to by Abulfeda ; between Kerek and the Belqa. Burck- hardt s visited this place, which lie speaks of as " the ruins of an ancient city called Bcit-Kerm/ 6 belonging to which, on the side of the road, arc the remains of a temple of remote antiquity." Again it was visited by Irby and Mangles, 7 who think that the temple was Roman, resembling that which they " took to have been a palace at Petra." More recently it was seen by Do Saulcy, 8 who speaks of the temple as " magnificent," a " marvelous struc ture." Tristram 9 also saw the ruins in passing. Xot only is there a suggestion of the name " Ruqcem" in the name " Kerm" the consonants in the two words being identical, and the change in their order not an unusual one; 10 but the very name " Rakim " is

Heshbon as its metropolis. This [Ilcshbon] is a little town situated in the valley, planted with trees and grain, and having gardens and tilled fields. That valley, in deed, stretches even to the. Glior, or plain of Zoghar. El-Belqa is distant from Jericho one day s journey to the east." (Abulfeda, as above.)

1 For other Arabic references to this place, see Gildemeister s " Paliistinakunde aus Arabischeii Quellcn," in Zeitschrift des Deutsch Pal. Ver., Band VI., p. 9.

2 |**i* -Ji, cr-Ruqcem.

3 Annul es Moslem., quoted at third hand in Robinson s Bib. Res., II., 522. 4 Reisen, I., 411. 5 Travels in Syria, p. 376.

6 j* j 0^-0 7 Travels, p. 458.

8 The Dead Sea, I., 293-206. 9 Land of Moab, p. 125 /.

10 Concerning the common transposition of consonants, in Semitic languages, see Ilodiger-Davidson s Gesenius s Ilcb. Gram., Chap. II., $ 19 (5).

As already stated Grove and others think that the name " Karin" ( Ayn Karim), west of Jerusalem, may be a vestige of Eeqem," by such a transposition of the con sonants. According to the " Name Lists" of the Survey of Western Palestine (page 280), this Karim ( + \Q ) differs in one consonant from the " Qerm " ( * Ji }, as re-

7,V THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS. 175

reported by Canon Tristram as still existing iii that region ; be tween Kerak and the Belqa.

It has been thought by many that there was a Petra in Moab, as well as a Petra in Edom. Leake, the editor of Burckhardt s Travels/ has given reasons for believing that the Petra of Moab which he would identify in Kerek was referred to by Diodorus Siculus, in his story of the defence of Petra against Demetrius. Von Raumer 2 has argued strongly in the same direction. Relaad 3 and Robinson, 4 while not accepting this conclusion, admit that there are references by Eusebius, Jerome, and Athanasius, which, taken without explanation, would seem to show two Petras ; one in " Palestine," and one in " Arabia." Cellarius 5 is positive that there were two. Now if there was a Petra in Moab, it is more than probable that that was the Petra which Josephus 6 tells of as called Arekeme, after the name of its founder ; for the king Rekern, to whom Josephus refers, fell on or near the plains of Moab, 7 and does not seem to have had any connection with Edom. If Arekeme was a compound of Ar and Rekem, as certainly is

ported by Burckhardt (Travels in Syria, page 376), in the land of Moab; the latter being identical with the Hebrew " Reqera " ; but this difference may be only a seem ing one. (See Preface to " Name Lists.") It is noteworthy, however, that Thomson (Central Palestine and Phtenicia, Land and Book, p. 58) translates the " Karim " of Judea as " vineyards," while Tristram (Land of Moab, p. 133) gives the same meaning" vineyards" to the " Kurm " near Kerak. And again, Palmer (Des. of Exod., II., pp. 352, 367, 373) has shown that the ancient vineyards of those regions were often composed of " small stone-heaps, formed by sweeping together in regular swathes, the flints which strew the ground " ; and that " along these the grapes were trained, and they still retain the name of tdcilat el- anab, or grape mounds." Moreover, he finds these mounds called also " rujiim el-kurum, or vineyard heaps." (Ibid., II., 411.) According to this, whether the anagram be rukim or kurim, it might fairly mean stone-heaps." But this is merely incidental. If nothing more, it is certainly curious as a coincidence.

1 Preface, viii.-xi. 2 Palastina, pp. 451-465; also, p. 276.

Palcestina, pp. 926-934. * Bib. Res., II., 522 ff.

6 Geog. Antiq., Lib. III., Cap. 14., \ 29, p. 580. e Antiq., Bk. IV., chap. 7, \ 1. 7 Num. 31 : 1-12.

176 KADESH-BARNEA.

possible, the prefix may have stood for the word meaning " a city;" l or for tlie uame of a chief city of Moab, sometimes used for Moab itself; 2 or again for a simple article. 3 In the first case the com pound word would mean Rock-City ; in the second case Moab- Rock ; in the third case merely The Rock.

If again there was a Pctra in Moab, it may well be supposed that the Er-Ruqecm of Abulfcda was that Petra; 4 and that traces of its name arc still found in " Beit Kerm " and " Rakim," near Kcrek. But, however this may be, it is clear that wherever we can fix the name Ruqecm, we find that it refers to a place of stones or of rock ; and this W T C may fairly take to be its meaning in all cases.

But just here it maybe objected that the Rock of Kadesh was a eliff, rather than a small and detached rock ; and that while the term rcqam would possibly apply to the smitten rock (feoor) of Horcb, it would be inappropriate to the more imposing Rock (ScFct) of Kadesh. 5 In answer to this it is sufficient to say that the rabbins did not always distinguish between the two rocks of Horeb and Kadesh ; or rather, that they held that the rock smitten at Horeb was miraculously carried forward to Kadesh, and thence along all the route of the Israelites, and at last found its place in the Sea of Galilee, where its marvelous power continued to mani fest itself. 6

The Jewish tradition was that this rock was a " block of stone, round like a beehive," and pierced with twelve holes, from which flowed the streams for the twelve tribes. 7 Accompanying the

1 Vjp, eer. 2 Num. 21 : 15, 28; Dent. 2: 9, 18, 29.

3 7tf al ; actually a weak demonstrative pronoun, which passed into an article.

4 Schultens (as quoted in Kohler s Notes to Abulfeda s Tabula Syrice, p. 11), and Von Raumer (Palastina, p. 276), would find Petra in this Er-Ruqeem.

5 See page 124 f.^sttpra.

6 See Baring-Gould s Legends of Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 204 /.; Buxtorfs Syn. Juil, Chap. XI. ; Lightfoot s Horse Heb., Vol. III., p. 295; also Franz Delitzsch s Notes on " The Rock that Followed Them," in " The Independent," for Dec. 7, 1882.

7 According to the Monkish traditions, this Rock was miraculously carried back

IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS. 177

Israelites in their marches, this rock furnished their water supply in all the desert wastes. When the eloud rested, and the tabernacle was formally put up, the rock was accustomed to take its place in the tabernacle court. Then the princes of the people would come and direct with their staves the courses of the streams for the several tribes ; and the water would flow so as to give drink to all, " to each man in the door of his tent."

This rock was called the Fountain of Miriam, and the rabbins held that it was because of Miriam s death at Kadesh-barnea that once more "there was no water for the congregation," 1 and that the Lord directed Moses to speak to the rock that it might again give forth its water as in the days of Miriam s life. As finally sunken in the Sea of Galilee, this rock, according to tradition, "can still be seen from certain points of view, as before Jeshimon, or as one is ascending to the peak of Carmel, or from the middle door of the old synagogue of Serugnin." And thence the Foun tain of Miriam discharges itself at " the end of the Sabbath " and " mingles itself with all fountains." And wherever those waters flow they carry healing; for "if it should happen that at that moment of time any Jewess should draw some of that water, it would certainly be most efficient to the working of all cure;" for " whoever drinks from such a fountain as that is healed, even though his whole body were covered with the most loathsome disease." 2 It would even seem as if the multitude of sick, blind, halt, withered who waited for the troubling of the waters at Beth-

to Rephidim when it had accomplished its purpose for the Israelites ; and a rock -which is elaimed to be this one is shown near Mount Sinai to-day, having traces of twelve fis sures from which the~water flowed. It is frequently pictured in the reports of travelers, as, for example, in Moncony s Reisen (A. D. 169(5) ; in Shaw s Travels (A. D. 1738) ; in Pococke s Description of the East (A. D. 1743) ; in Laborde s Voyage (A. D. 1830) ; in Newnham s Illustrations of the Exodus (A.. D. 1830) ; and in many other works. Moreover it is often referred to by Christian travelers as a veritable sacred relic.

1 Num. 20: 1, 2. 2 Buxtorf s Syn. Jud., as above.

12

178 KADESH-BARNEA.

esda 1 were watching for the inflow from the Fountain of Miriam. It is thought that Paul had this well-known rabbinical tradition in mind, when he said of the Israelites in their journcyings: "They drank of a spiritual Rock which followed them: and the

t/

Rock was Christ." 2 The tradition according to the rabbins was, that a natural rock followed them to supply their bodily thirst. The truth according to Paul was, that a spiritual Rock followed them, to supply their soul thirst.

In view of the rabbinical legends attached to the Rock which supplied the Israelites at Kadesh, it would certainly not be strange to find that Rock and by metonomy the Place of that Rock referred to in the rabbinical writings by a term which, in its use elsewhere, seems to mean " smitten rock," " layer rock," " pierced rock," "stone heaps," and "stone dwellings." Xor again would it be strange if that term thus applied should cause more or less con fusion in its possible application to other places of rock, or of rock- dwellings.

4. IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN NAME LISTS.

In turning from the Jewish to the early Christian writings, for help in the locating of Kadesh-barnea, we are practically limited to Eusebius and Jerome. The first named of these writers pre pared, early in the fourth century, his " Onomasticon," a Name List of SaCred Places. This being issued in Greek, it was trans lated into Latin, by Jerome, under the title of "De Locis He- braicis," who also made some additions to it, before the elose of the same century.

While examining this source of information, it is important to bear in mind the real value and the evident limitations of both

1 John 5: 2-7. It will be borne in mind that the Revised Text leaves out the ref erence to an angel s troubling of the water.

2 1 Cor. 10: 4.

IN THE EARL Y CHRISTIAN NAME LISTS. 179

these writers in the fields covered by them. Concerning places of which they had personal knowledge, the facts they give are of great value; and the same may be said of other places concerning which the identification was not in doubt in their day. But beyond the range of their personal knowledge, they had few helps to an understanding of geography; and their work shows their liability to be misled or confused by a similarity of names in different sites, and by vague impressions or hasty conclusions. As Von Raumer 1 says of their combined geographical writing: " Their work is of double worth, since both authors lived in Pales tine; but of course they arc of slighter authority when they speak of ancient places which neither of the two saw." And as Condor 2 adds : " It seems plain that they were far more hasty than modern scholars would be iu fixing upon a site of similar name without reference to other requisites;" hence "the instances of incorrect identification are very numerous."

In the day of Eusebius and Jerome, Kadesh-barnea had long passed out of prominence as a place of habitation, although its name was so elosely linked with the history of Palestine; and its site as indicated in our researches thus far would hardly have been in the line of travel to or from the Holy Land. Petra, on the contrary the Petra of Edom was still a centre of political and commercial importance; and its site must have been well known. We have no reason, however, for supposing that either Eusebius or Jerome had been at either Kadesh-barnea or Petra. Indeed Robinson 3 says, that in view of their citing Josephus as authority for the interchanged names of " Petra," " Recem," and "Arcem : " " it would seem that they in no case speak from their own knowledge," of these places. It is, therefore, quite reason -

1 Palastina, p. 4.

*" Early Christian Topography," in Surv. of West. Pal., "Special Papers," p. 249 /

3 Bib. Res., II., 521.

180 KADESH-BARNEA.

able to suppose, that both Euscbius and Jerome had vague ideas of the precise location of Kadesh-barnca ; and that the similarity of its rabbinical name " Ileqam " with the alternative names of Petra, would confuse their ideas of the relations of these two places ; and of other sites linked with them, as already shown in the case of Mount II or.

As a matter of fact, both Euscbius and Jerome seem to have taken Kadesh and Kadesh-barnca to be alternative names of the Wilderness of Kadesh ; and that wilderness to be an extensive stretch of desert south of Palestine : all the wav alone* from the

J O

Wilderness of Shur on the borders of Egypt, to the easternmost limit of the Wilderness of Pa ran where lay Pctra or Rcqam, " the cast of the world." ! Indeed, in one place, they specifically declare this to be their view of the case ; and, again, several of their mentions of Kadesh arc conformed to it. Speaking of Gerar, 2 they say : " Scripture mentions that it was between Kadesh and Shur ; that is, between two wildernesses, of which one is joined to Egypt into which [Shur] the people came after crossing the Red Sea ; but the other, Kadesh, extends even to the desert of the Saracens" of Arabia Felix. 3 Eusebius describes Kadesh- barnea as "the desert stretching to Pctra, a city of Palestine;" 4 while Jerome adds that Kadesh-barnea is " in the desert which is joined to [or which actually stretches on until it touches] the city of Petra." 5 Again, in a mention of " Arad," 6 Eusebius says it is "situated near the desert called Kadesh;" and Jerome 7 says, " near the desert of Kadesh." Moreover, both Eusebius and Jerome locate the Well of Judgment 8 [Eu-mishpat] in Gerar, in the western part of the desert.

1 See page 168 f., sujym. 2 Onomnsticon., s. v.

3 The desert east of the Arabah. See Forster s Gcog. of Arabia, II., 7-32. * Onomasticon, s. v., " Kaddes." 5 DC Loc. Heb., s. v., " Cades."

6 Onomnsticon, s. v., " Arama." 7 DC Loc. Ileb., s. v., " Arad."

8 lbid. } s. v., " Puteus fudicii." Onomasticon, s. v., $piap Kpiaeui;.

IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN NAME LISTS. 181

In another work, 1 Jerome speaks of the monk Hilarion as " going to the desert Kadesh " by way of Elusa a route which would be taken to day by a traveler from Palestine toward the Azazimeh mountain tract, or toward the desert south of those mountains. In no case, however, is Kadesh identified with Petra, either by statement or by implication, in the writings of Eusebius and Jerome ; any more than in the writings of Josephus and the rabbins.

From all these facts it would seem, that while there are no con elusive indications of the precise location of Kadesh-barnea in the Egyptian records, in the Apocrypha, in the rabbinical writings, or in the early Christian name-lists, there is nothing in those extra- biblical sources of information which conflicts \\ ith the indications already found in the Bible text ; while there is more or less in confirmation of those indications.

1 Vita Hilarionis.

IV. K ADE S H-B AE^E A.

KADESH-BAKNEA.

1. WHY IT DROPPED FROM NOTICE.

Notwithstanding the importance and early prominence of Kadesh-barnea as a boundary line landmark, and as a point of strategic value on the border of the Holy Land, it seems to have dropped out from the records of travel and of study during a period of six to eight centuries after the days of Eusebius and Jerome ; and the reasons for this fact it is not difficult to surmise.

Because Kadesh-barnea was a secluded stronghold, off from the main routes of travel while yet it was near to them, it would natu rally be passed by without notice, when there was no special occasion for turning aside to it. It was not a station on any of the great Roman roads across the desert, or into and through Palestine, to find a place on all the prominent route-maps, such as the Antonine Itinerary and the Peutinger Tables. It was not in the ordinary routes of pilgrimage to or from Jerusalem or Mount Sinai, to have mention in the devout itineraries, from Bishop Arculf s to that of Sir John Mauudeville. 1

Nor was it in the line of the customary approaches to Palestine from the "West, during the varying conflicts for the possession of that land, as recorded in the crusading chronicles of the middle ages. No Christian army followed in the track of Kedor-la omer

1 See Eeissbuch des Ileiligen Lands; also, Wright s Early Travels in Palestine.

185

186 KADESH-BARNEA.

or of Moses, in an attempted entry into the Holy Land from the southward ; and, therefore, none needed to seek a stopping-place at the border stronghold which those chieftains recognized as an objective point in such a movement.

Meantime, there were no geographical studies of that region, in either Jewish or Christian circles, which gave fresh light to any out-of-the-way location, however important it might be in its rela tions to the Bible narrative. Hence it is not to be wondered at, that Kadesh-barnea seemed forgotten.

2. A GLEAM DURING THE CRUSADES.

In a single instance there is a mention of Kadesh-barnea, in the crusading chronicles of William of Tyre; 1 and naturally this mention is in connection with a movement Egyptward.

It was between the second and third crusades, 2 under the reign of Amalric I. (or Amaury I.), the brother and successor of Bald win III., as kino; of Jerusalem. A. D. 1167. A state of thin 0-3

/ o o

which at that time, was, in a sense, advantageous to the Christians, grew out of the discords and conflicts among the Muhammadans of Egypt, Syria, and Asiatic Turkey. The rival khaleefehs of Cairo and Baghdad were in bitter hostility to each other; and both the sultan of Damascus and the king of Jerusalem endeav ored from time to time to avail themselves of this hostility for personal ends. 3

After the Christian and the Syrian armies had successively invaded Egypt and then withdrawn from it, the sultan of Damas-

1 See his "Historia," m Gesta Dei per Francos, at p. 962 /.

2 As in all such matters, there is a difference in the dividing line recognized by different authorities. Mill (Hist, of Crusades, chap. X.), counts this period between the second and third crusades; so does Cox (Encyc. Brit., ninth ed., Art. "Cru sades"); but Michaud (Hist, of Crusades, Bk. VII.), includes it in the third crusade.

3 Various authorities (as above) go to show these facts.

A GLEAM DURING THE CRUSADES. 187

cus made a league with the khaleefeh of Baghdad for the subju gation of Egypt; iu order that the sultan might govern it politi cally, and that the eastern khaleefeh might secure undisputed religious sway in the Muhammadan world. To this end a vast army was raised, and began its move Egyptward. Then it was that Egypt invoked the aid of the Christians, promising to pay a heavy tribute in return for the protection asked for.

The king of Jerusalem agreed to render the desired assistance. At his summons, there was an assembly at Nablus of all the dig nitaries of church and state in the kingdom of Jerusalem; and arrangements were speeded for the raising of men and money without stint, for the new campaign. Meantime the report came to king Amalric that the Syrian leader with his allied army " had taken his way through the desert by which the people of Israel came to the Land of Promise ; " ] that, in fact, he had crossed the Desert et-Teeh from its eastern to its western borders, entering it, doubtless, by the way which Kedor-la omer had taken into the Wilderness of Paran. Then king Amalric, gathering all the sol diers at his disposal, hastened down to intercept him, going " even to Kadesh-barnea which is in the desert;" but "not finding him he quickly returned," says the chronicler. 2

From further reports of the movements of Amalric, in connec tion with this invasion of Egypt from the East, 3 it is evident that his own course was Egyptward, and that he went by way of Gaza, from the centre of his kingdom. This mention of Kadesh-barnea would seem, therefore, to show that during the crusading period, as in the days of Jerome and Eusebius, that region was counted the desert, or a portion of the desert, that stretched along the southern boundary of the Holy Land from near its western limits.

Another remarkable illustration of the typical character of

1 Gesta Dei, p. 963. 2 Ibid.

8 See Mill s Hist, of Crusades, chap. X., p. 131 /.; Michaud s Hist, of Crusades, Vol. III., p. 388 /.

188 KADESII-BARNEA.

Egypt, with its temptations and its bondage, in contrast with Palestine, with its conflicts and its possibilities of rest by faith, is furnished in the story of this Egyptward movement of the new king of Jerusalem. When Amalric had seen the abounding ma terial treasures of Egypt, he coveted them as more attractive than his straitened and desolate domain in Palestine, and he determined to possess that land. And his purpose and endeavors in this di rection became the beginning of the end of Christian supremacy in Palestine. It was in connection with this diversion of the strength

O

of the crusaders power, that ground was lost on their northern borders, and that Saladin (Salah-cd-Deen), the new leader of the Saracens, was brought into preeminence before his own people, and became a power for the crushing out, for the time at least, of the Christian sway in the Holy Land. 1 It would have been bet ter for Amalric to have sojourned, like Abraham, between Kadesh and Shur, rather than to have passed hurriedly through Arabia, in the hope of finding a more attractive home in the Land of Bond age than was available to him in the ancient Land of Promise.

3. NATURAL MISTAKES OF MEDIAEVAL WRITERS.

In the lack of any fresh discoveries concerning the site of Kadesh-barnea, it is not to be wondered at that the ambiguous and uncertain references to it in the name-lists of the early Christian writers, together with the duplicating of its synonym Reqam in the early rabbinical writings, continued for centuries to cause con fusion in both Christian and Jewish attempts at its locating. Nor can it be doubted that every attempt to reconcile these conflicting indications with the clearer disclosures of the Bible text, would inevitably increase the confusion.

Those who followed the Onomasticon, would be inclined to look

J See Michaud s Hist, of Crusades; Vol. III., pp. 392-406.

NATURAL MISTAKES OF MEDIAEVAL WRITERS. 189

for Kadesh-barnea as a wilderness-region south of Palestine, stretching across the desert even to Petra on the east of the Ara- bah. Those who turned to the Bible for guidance would be sure that Kadesh-barnea lay far to the westward of the Arabah, and on the southern border of the Holy Land proper. Those who would reconcile the Bible and the Onomasticon, or who had been misled by the talmudic references to the two Reqams, must seek for two Kadeshes, or one Kadesh and one Kadesh-barnea ; the one at the east of the southern desert; the other westward. And just this variety of opinions is to be found in the writings of commen tators, geographers, and travelers, for a series of centuries.

The first explicit mention of a Kadesh as distinct from Kadesh- barnea, so far as I know, is by " Rashi," l in the latter part of the eleventh century. He simply says : " There were two towns ; the one was called Kadesh, and the other Kadesh-barnea." 5 He gives no reason for this opinion ; nor docs he seem to have any special familiarity with the geography of the Holy Land from personal knowledge. He was apparently misled by the double Reqam in the Talmud the Rock-Kadesh and the Rock-Petra ; and again his error at this point would be sure to mislead Jewish writers after him, as Eusebius and Jerome were the means of misleading Christian scholars.

It is said that Maimonides, who elosely followed Rashi in time, "constructed a map of the frontiers of Palestine." 3 Such a map I do not find reproduced or referred to in any edition of his works which I have examined; but there is a rabbinical map, or rude plot, of the Holy Land boundaries, to be found in many old works, 4 and possibly this dates from his time. It simply notes the place of Kadesh-barnea, as west of the lower end of the Salt

1 See page 151, supra. 2 Rashi, al ha-Torah, at Num. 32 : 8.

8 See Zunz on " Geographical Literature of the Jews," in Asher s Benjamin of Tudeln, p. 254.

4 See, e. g. Van Hamelsveld s Bib. Geog. Vol. I., p. 138.

190 KADESH-BARNEA.

Sea; but in such a way as to throw no light on its precise location.

The earliest mention of Kadesh-barnea which I find in any Christian writer after Jerome, is in the Latin work of the Domini can Brocardus, entitled " Locorum Terrac Sanctse Descriptio," which was probably written near the elose of the thirteenth century. 1

Brocardus had been in the Holy Land ; but apparently not in the desert. His references to Kadesh-barnea are vaprue and inex-

o

act ; and are evidently controlled by the idea of Eusebius and Jerome, that it was a wilderness-region stretching westward along the desert border of Palestine, from the vicinity of Petra ; or from Kcrek, at the east of the Dead Sea, which was then supposed to be the site of ancient Petra. His statements throw no new light on the subject ; they rather go to show the general lack of knowl edge on this point in his day.

Perhaps the earliest map of the Holy Land with any attempt at accurate locations, was that of Marino Sanuto, an Italian geogra pher 2 and a historian of the crusades, 3 who had visited Palestine. His map was drawn early in the fourteenth century ; and it was long made the basis of the maps of that region. As it extended only to the southern tongue of the Dead Sea, it did not include the region of Kadesh-barnea ; but a note which appears at the lower margin of the map, as reproduced in an edition of " Gesta Dei per Francos," under date of 1611, refers to the "land of Amalek" as southward of the lower line of the map, and as "ex-

1 "All editors refer this tract to the thirteenth century; some to the early part, and some t<~> the elose ; but the weight of authority seems to lean towards the latter part, or about A. D. 12SO" (Robinson s Bib. Res. II., 539).

2 He also prepared "a map of the world representing the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts as far as Flanders, probably drawn between 1312 and 1321 " (Encyc. Brit., Ninth ed., Art. "Map").

3 His " Secreta Fidelium " is in Gcsta Dei.

BEGINNINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH. 191

tending to the tongue of the Dead Sea and Kadesh-barnea." This note, which is in substance taken from Sanuto s " Secrcta Fide- Hum/ would seem to indicate that he counted Kadesh-barnea as a westward landmark, over against the Dead Sea as an eastern one.

4. BEGINNINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH.

There was no lack of pilgrimages to the Holy Land during all the Middle Ages ; nor was Mount Sinai then overlooked as a place of Christian pilgrimage. But the pilgrims generally were intent rather on showing their veneration for sites which were tradition ally identified, than on discovering anew any sacred place which had long been lost sight of. It was not until near the elose of the fifteenth century that a spirit of fresh investigation seemed to be awakened in travelers there as elsewhere ; then, however, the in vention of printing promoted the quickening of that spirit to a degree quite unexampled before.

First among Christian travelers to suggest that they had visited the site of Kadesh-barnea, were Breydenbach and Fabri ; and their suggestion has chief value in the fact that it was a suggestion in this direction, however little it had to rest on.

It was in 1483-84 that Dean Breydenbach of Mayence, and Friar Fabri of Ulm, two Roman ecclesiastics, journeyed together from Jerusalem to Mount Sinai by way of Gaza and Beersheba. Among their companions were the Count of Solms and Freiherr Hans Werli von Zimber. Breydenbach and Fabri wrote each his own report of the journey ; l and each wrote the story over again for the benefit of a titled companion. 2 These four reports show many discrepancies in the order and distances of places visited ; 3

1 Breydenbach s Itin. Ilierofolym. ; Fabri s Evagatorium.

2 Fabcr s Beschreibung, for Hans Werli ; Breydenbach s Beschreibung, for the Count of Solms. * For example, Breydenbach says, that on leaving Gaza they stopped just outside

192 KADESII-BARNEA.

such discrepancies, however, as are not to be wondered at in itine raries of that period, and of that region. Of the two ecclesiastics, Fabri is commonly the more accurate ; yet Breydenbach has had the larger popularity, perhaps from his freer plagiarism from Brocar- dus s work already mentioned. Both writers have more promi nence through their place at the dawning of a better day on the field of their research, than any work performed by them would merit on its own account.

At some distance below Gaza these travelers came to a place which they thought might be identified with Kadesh-barnca. Fabri says of it: 1 "We came into a land undulating and unequal with hills, but barren. The place also is called in Arabic, Cha- watha. 2 And in it we found many signs and marks that there were once human habitations ; for, above us, we found twelve great walled ancient cisterns, round about which were lying many broken pieces of pottery, and ashes . . . According to the position of that place, I think that it is the region of Kadesh barnea." Breydcubach goes a little farther, in his inclination to identify this

the city for the first night ; and the second night they stopped at Lebhem, " one mile from Gaza." Fabri says, that the day following their night at Gazmaha, just outside of Gaza, they journeyed "eight hours" in the direction of Beershcba, and then stopped at Lebhem. He mentions that on this route, at one German mile (nearly five English miles) from Gazmaha, their Arab shaykh left them, on his return to Jerusalem. The place of this incident may have misled Breydenbach in the writing up of his notes. Fabri iu another place says that they reached Beersheba some hours before reaching Lebhem. Such discrepancies as these would seem to indicate that while these travelers refer to veritable places visited by them, they are confused as to the distances and order of places, one from another, as might easily be the case in writing up a record from note-jottings. (Comp. Evagatorium, II., 409, 410, and Reissbuch, p. 292).

Robinson (fiih. Res., II., 541) says: "On coinparing the two accounts, I find that of Fabri to be more full and accurate ; and wherever there is a discrepancy (as at Hebron) the latter is to be preferred."

1 Evagatorium. II. 411 /.

2 It is more probable that the Arabic name was Hawwadeh ( &sC\j*. ) an irregular plural of hawd ( (J^- ), meaning " Cisterns " or Place of Cisterns.

BEGINNINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH. 193

as the site of Kadesh-barnea. He says of it : l " We came into a place which in the Arabic tongue is called, Cawatha ; but in the Latin, Cades."

Just where this place was is not clear from the several narra tives. From one record, it would seein to be near Gaza; from another, to be at two or three days distance southeasterly ; and from yet another, to be below Boersheba. 2 It is thought by some that Tucher, a traveler from Bethlehem to Gaza, in 1479, had re ferred to this region under the name " Mackati ; " 3 although this is by no means sure. On the strength of these notes, Zimmermann, in his large map of Syria and Palestine, 4 which accompanied Ritter s great work, laid down " Chawata," with several alternative names, at a point a little southeast of Gaza ; and the new map of the Palestine Exploration Fund 5 gives " Khan el-Hawadi " 6 at about the same point. The whole thing is, however, of little importance except as showing the fact, that in this earliest mention of the possible site of Kadesh-barnea in the record of modern tra vel, the idea of Eusebius and Jerome, that the region of Kadesh- barnea extended westward to near the Mediterranean border of Palestine, prevailed in the minds of the more intelligent Christian pilgrims, as it had before prevailed in the minds of the crusaders.

With the discovery of printing, there came also a new applica tion of copper engraving, and wood-cutting, for the multiplication of illustrations in printed works; and this facilitated an increase of maps to accompany geographies and Bibles. In the second half of the sixteenth century a rude map illustrating the exodus and wanderings of the Israelites was reproduced, with variations, in popular editions of the Bible in Latin, French, and Eng-

1 Itinerarium, (Spires edition ; pages not numbered.) See note at page \9l, supra. 3 Tucher s " Beschreibung" (in Reissbuch, p. 678).

4 Karte von Syrien u. Palastina. 5 3fap of West. Pal., Sheet xix.

6 " The word means hind legs," says " Name Lists " (Surv. of WeM. Pal.}, p. 361. Possibly Hawwadeh was mistaken for this word by the explorers. See note at p. 192. 13

194 KADESH-BARNEA.

lish. 1 In tli is map, Kadesh-barnea was represented as on the southern border of Canaan, at a point a little more than half way across from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean; just where a study of the Bible referenees to it, unconfused by the guesses of Eusebius and Jerome, would prompt to its locating. 2

But Bible-maps, like Bible-commentaries, were not all con formed to one pattern then, any more than they are now. In at least one Latin Bible, as early as 1483, 3 the maps, which were exceptionally well wrought, gave two sites for Kadesh; one, as " Cades-barne," southerly from Hebron; another as "Cades En- mishpat," farther eastward. Of course the Bible maps reflected the views of geographers for the time being.

With the rise of printing and engraving, there was a revival of interest in old-time maps and geographies, as well as a multiplica tion of new ones. Various editions of Ptolemy s Geography were re-issued, with accompanying maps. 4 Xo maps drawn by Ptolemy had been preserved. 5 The earliest known maps plotted from his data are supposed to have been made in the fifth century of our era. The new maps issued with the successive printed editions of his work, while conformed to his data, naturally had more or less additions to them in accordance with the later advances in geo graphical discovery. For example, in his geography he makes no mention of Kadesh-barnea; but in an edition of it printed at Rome, in 1508, one of the maps has a similar note to that on

1 See, e. g. : Francis Stepliens s French Bible, A. D., 15G7 ; Rovillius s French Bi- l>le, A. D., 15(19; Santander s Latin Bible, A. D., 1574; Selfisch and Bechtold s Latin Bible, A. D., 1501; Barker s English Bible, A. D., 1599.

2 1 am inclined to think that Miinster was the author of this map ; as will be seen farther on. A biblical and geographical conclusion of his, is worthy of respect.

3 Christopher Plantin s Latin Bible, Antwerp. 4 See Ruge s article " Map," in Encyc. Brit., ninth edition.

5 Huge (as above) says : " No maps appear to have been drawn by Ptolemy him self." But Ptolemy ( Ccoy., Bk. I., chaps. 21-24,) speaks of his methods of preparing his maps, in a manner to justify the belief that he did prepare them.

BEGIXNIlfGS OF FULLER RESEARCH. 195

Marino Sanuto s, concerning the stretch of the region of the Arnale- kites from the tongue of the Dead Sea to Kadesh-barnea, or " Cades- Be rsabee " as it is here called. The maps in other editions of Ptole my which I have examined 1 contain no mention of Kadesh-barnea.

The two centuries following the invention of printing were marked by a revival of geographical study. Some of the maps of that period are of a style and finish to bear comparison with good work of the present day. And the basis of much of our geographi cal knowledge was then laid by such masters in their line as Mer- cator and Miiuster and Ortelius, and others less known but not less worthy of praise. The Holy Land came in for its full share of study by the foremost geographers of the time ; but, of course, they had no new data for the settlement of disputed sites, and they naturally gave large weight to the opinions of Bible students of their day and earlier, in such a matter. Their locations of Kadesh- barnea arc, therefore, valuable only as showing the current opinions of their time concerning it.

Jacob Ziegler, a Bavarian scholar, published a work on the geography of Palestine, with accompanying maps, in 1532. 2 These maps show a elose study of the Bible text, and they locate " Akrabbim" at the westward of the lower tongue of the Dead Sea, and " Chades Barneah " southwesterly of that tongue, mid way toward the Mediterranean shore ; just where the latest con elusions of scholars would find it. Gerard Mercator s first geo graphical work was a map of the Holy Land, published in 1537. This, by itself, I have not seen ; but Mercator s later maps of Palestine, so far as I have seen, 3 do not note Kadesh-barnea.

1 Including Strasburg, A. D. 1525 ; Basle, A. D. 1545 ; and later ones.

2 Published, like many a book of that day. without a title. There is nothing in this line beyond: " Jacob i Zieglcri, Argentorati, apud Petrum Opilionem., M.D. XXXII."

3 Including his Atlas Minor, Amsterdam, A. D. 1614, and his larger Atlas, Amster dam, A. D. 1633.

196 KADESU-BARNEA.

Minister s Cosmography of 1550 1 gives a map of Palestine and of the region below it, on -which is laid down the line of Israel s exodus and wanderings much in the form which soon after ap peared in popular editions of the Bible, as already noted, 2 and which indeed may have been the foundation of that. The name of Kadesh-barnea docs not appear on this edition of the map, but this seems to be an accidental omission ; for the turning-point of the Israelites from the southern border of Canaan is made, without a note, just at the place where Kadesh-barnea is noted in the Bible-maps, midway between the Dead Sea and the Mediter ranean; and in a subsequent edition of his Cosmography, 3 Miiuster locates Kadesh-barnea, Kadesh, and Zin, together at that point, southerly from Hebron. This would seem to show his under standing of Kadesh-barnea as a " city " in the Wilderness of Kadesh, and both in the Wilderness of Zin, according to the Bible text.

Ortelins, of Antwerp, in 1570, took np again the two-fold idea of Kadesh ; and, in the maps accompanying his " Theatrum Orbis Terrarum," he located Kadesh-barnea in its proper place, south of Hebron, as if in conformity to the Bible text ; while, as if to con form to his understanding of Eusebius and Jerome, he noted " Zin or Kadesh " at the southeast of the Dead Sea, not far from the Petra of that day, which was Kerek.

And now came a new landmark in the realm of popular bibli cal geography, in a treatise that had much to do with perpetuating the error of more than one Kadesh. Christian Adrichomius, a Romish ecclesiastic of Holland, availing himself of the earlier

f O

geographical works, together with the records of study and travel in the field of the Holy Land, 4 brought much gathered material

1 Cosmoy. Geoy., Basle. 2 See page 193 /., supra. 3 Bus!-, A. D. 1574.

4 Adrichomius gives a long list of authorities consulted by him, including the an cient geographers, and later writers, such as William of Tyre, Brocardus, Mercator, Vitriacus, and Breydenbach.

BEGWNINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH. 197

into elassified order, under the title of " Theatruni Terrsc Sanctee." His work resembled the Onomasticon in its systematic form, rather than the unsystematic treatise of Brocardus. Its first edition was published at Cologne, in 1590, five years after the author s death. At once it had popular favor ; and at least five subsequent editions were published within a century.

While the accompanying maps of the Holy Land were more in detail and fuller than those published before his day, they were less accurate concerning the region of the Hebrew wanderings ; for they actually gave no hint of two arms to the Red Sea, and of the peninsula formed by them. His method of solving difficulties concerning the location of Kadesh was eminently simple. It was merely by multiplying the sites. He gave Kadesh, Kadesh-barnea, the Desert of Kadesh, and Kadesh-palm l (a name which came from a misreading in the Apocrypha 2 ), as four distinct places. The Desert of Kadesh, or of " Zin, which is Kadesh," he located at the south of the Dead Sea, sweeping down toward the Red Sea; and in that desert he located Kadesh, or Meribah-Kadesh ; also Kadesh-palm. Kadesh-barnea, with Rithmah, he located at its proper place, on the south of Palestine, half-way across to the Mediterranean. With this variety to choose from, it was easy for any one to quote Adrichomius in justification of a favorite site of Kadesh; and Adrichomius became, and long remained, a popular authority in his field.

Almost simultaneously with the work of Adrichomius, there came a more modestly pretentious work by Bunting, of Magde burg, under the title of "Itiuerarium Sacrse Scripturoe." First printed in German, in 1591, it was translated, with some re-shap-

1 Edition of 1600, p. 118, a, 21 ; b, 22, 23, 24.

2 Ecclesiasticus 24 : 14. " I shot upward like a palm tree on the sea-shores," or "in Engaddi (h ab/ialotr ; 248, Co., ev Ta6M, i.e., kv Eyyatii ; h Eyyddoif, 296, 308 ; kv TdJoif, 253 ; Old Lat., in Cades). All are clearly corrections for the first." (Schaff-Bissell Com. on Apoc., in loco.)

198 KADESH-BARNEA.

ing, into English, as "The Travels of the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets/ etc. ; and it easily held a place for more than a century. This work actually assumed to give the precise latitude and longi tude of every scriptural site, together with its distance in miles from Jerusalem ; and at every before debatable point, including every station of the wanderings, it was as prompt and positive with an unambiguous answer, as is an Arab guide in locating sites in expectation of bakhshccsh. Consistency was evidently of less importance than explicituess in this author s various locations.

In this work, 1 " Kadcs-Barnea " is called " a city of the Idume- ans ; " it is said to be " forty miles from Jerusalem towards the south;" its longitude is given at 65 22 (corresponding with the modern 35 22 ), and its latitude at 31 29 (the same as at present.) Of " Zin-Kades " it is said : " This was a great wilder ness lying between Ezion-Gaber and Kades-Barnca, being 184 miles in length, abounding with thorns and high mountains. Upon the north side thereof lay Mount Seir and Kades-Barnea, and towards the south the Red Sea. It was called Parau and Zin, of the abundance of thorns that grew there ; for Zin of Zanan, signifies a sharp thorn; Zinnim, full of thorns; and Kadesh, sanctity or holiness. Here Moses and Aaron having struck the Rock twice, at length it brought forth water ; but for their mur muring and incredulity God would not suffer them to go into the Land of Canaan. This lay 120 miles from Jerusalem toward the south." Of Rithmah it is affirmed : " It is distant from Jerusalem 112 miles toward the southeast." If only these several statements could have been first reconciled, and then believed, the site of Kadesh-barnea would have been settled conclusively two centuries ago.

Following Adrichomius and Bunting, in the attempt to reconcile the statements of Eusebius and the indications of the Bible-text by

i See the English edition, pp. 117, 119, 121.

BEGINNINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH. 199

making a distinction between Kadesh-barnea and Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, there came Raleigh, 1 of England ; Quaresmius, 2 of Italy ; Blaeu, 3 and Dapper, 4 of Holland ; Heidmann, 5 and Ho- rnaun, 6 of Germany ; Sausou," of France ; Spauheim, 8 of the Neth erlands, and others. All of these geographers agreed in locating Kadesh-barnca, southerly from Hebron, where the Bible text locates it. They differed, however, in the location of the " Ziu which is Kadesh ; " some of them placing this not far eastward of Kadesh-barnea, and others placing it even eastward of the Dead Sea. From travels, meantime, there was little light shed ; although an occasional gleam showed itself through such an opening of the desert elosures. Roger, a French missionary, on a map accompa nying his description of the Holy Land 9 located Kadesh below the Dead Sea, as if in accordance with its noting by Eusebius as reaching toward Petra. It does not appear, however, that he had himself visited that region. At about the same date, Antonio of Castile furnished a map with his record of travels, 10 on which he noted Petra as south of the Dead Sea, and Kadesh as southward from Petra. He, indeed, had a Spanish precedent, in Moutano, 11 for the locating of Kadesh-barnea well to the southward, even in the region of Mount Sinai ; although the latter placed the site mid- way between the eastern and western bounds of the peninsula, while Antonio s map gave no hint of a peninsula.

1 Ifist. of World, " Zin-cadcs ioyneth to Arabia ye Desert, aud Cades-barnea to Idumea " (note to Map, Vol. I., p. 218.)

2 Hist. Theolog. et Moral. Terrx Sanctx, p. 25 /. 3 Map in Theat. Orb. Terr. 4 Map in Naukeuriye Beschr. van Pal., p. 1. 5 " Tabula II." in Palxstina.

6 Map "Judaea" in Atlas Novus.

7 Nicholas Sanson, and afterward his sons William and Adrian published a num ber of atlases. In the earliest map by Nicholas which I have seen (Map 6C, of the editions of 1064) only one site is elaimed for Kadesh, and that in its proper place as Kadesh-barnea; but subsequent maps by the Sansons note two sites.

8 Map " Pala3stina " in Geoy. Sac. et Eccles. 9 La Terrc Sainte. w El devoto Pereyrino.

11 Cited as authority for the maps in Plantin s Bible, A. D. 1583.

200 KADESH-BARNEA.

On the other hand, Christopher Fiirer, of Germany, went over the desert between Egypt and Palestine in 15G5-67 ; and after wards wrote an account of his journeyings in both Latin and German. A later edition of this work, 1 prepared by his brother Jacob, was published in 16-iG, with carefully-designed maps, and an appended geographical chapter. On these maps, Kadesh and Kadesh-barnea are together on the southern border of the Holy Land, in the proper central position. Again, the map accompany ing the itinerary of Salomon Schweigger, 2 of Nuremberg, locates Kadesh at the same point, without duplicating it elsewhere.

It was in the latter half of the seventeenth century, 3 that Light- foot published his still famous " Horse Hebraica?," which threw such a flood of new light on many a dark passage in the Bible and in the Talmud. As has already been mentioned, he took up this puzzling question of a double Reqam and a double Kadesh, and although he did not seem to surmise the reason for the appa rent duplicating (in the name of the Rock-Kadesh and the Rock- Petra), he was pronounced in his conviction that Kadesh and Kadesh-barnea were one, or were coincident. Indeed, on this point his argument from the Bible-text was and is unanswerable ; and it would seem to be overwhelmingly conclusive. 1 A school boy can understand it. In substance it is this : The gathering place of Israel after its thirty-eight years of wandering was "Kadesh;" 5 not called " Kadesh-barnea," but simply Kadesh. That was the " city " Kadesh, on the uttermost borders of Edora, from which the messengers were sent to Edom s king. That Kadesh was the place of murmuring for water ; and in conse quence it came to be called " Meribah," or " Strife," or " Meribah- Kadesh." G Afterwards, Meribah-Kadesh is named as a central or

1 Reis-Bcschreib. 2 Rcus-Bcschreib. z From 1658 to 1674.

* JTorcc ITcb., Vol. I., p. 21. 5 Exod. 20 : 1.

6 Comp. Exod. 20 : 13, 24 ; 27 : 14 ; Deut. 32 : 51 ; 33 : 8.

BEGINNINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH. 201

pivotal point of the southern boundary of the Holy Land. 1 But again it is declared that the pivotal or central point of the southern boundary of the Holy Land is " Kadesh-barnea ; " 2 not Kadesh simply, but Kadesh-barnea. It is therefore clear that both " Kadesh " and " Kadesh-barnea " are identical with " Meribah- Kadesh ;" and if proving them equal to the same thing does not prove them equal to each other, one of the familiar axioms of mathematics will have to be amended. The force of that argu ment has never been shaken, indeed it may be said never to have been directly assailed.

In this matter, however, as in many another, it has been shown that it is easier to mislead popular opinion by an erroneous state ment, than to correct popular opinion by a demonstration of that error. Eusebius and Adrichomius were still looked upon as original sources of information concerning the Holy Land and its surroundings ; and many a scholar who turned to them for light was influenced by their misconceptions, even after Lightfoot had made the truth clear to those who followed his processes of reason ing. Moreover, the old error of two Kadeshes was given a new start, and with fresh life, in the early part of the eighteenth century by the important geographical works of Cellarius 3 and Roland, 4 of Germany, and Wells, 5 of England. Each of these works repeated the old arguments for a double Kadesh, and not one of them met or mentioned the Bible evidence, as presented by Lightfoot, in proof of the identity of Kadesh and Kadesh-barnea. When such leaders as these were newly at fault, it is not to be wondered at that the public generally inclined to the old error.

Yet, all this time there were independent investigators who recognized the plain indications of the Bible text despite the vague and misleading suggestions of Eusebius. Prominent among

1 Ezek. 47 : 19 (margin) ; 48 : 28. * Num. 34 : 4 ; Josh. 15 : 3.

3 Not. Orb. Antiq. * Palacstina. *Hist. Geoy. of O. T. and N. T.

202 KADESH-BABNEA.

these was Hasius, a German mathematician and theologian, whose careful work 011 the geography of the Holy Land 1 has not had the prominence which its real merit would justify. 2 He recognized Kadesh-barnea as identical with Kadesh in the Wilderness of Ziu, and he located it according to the biblical indications, on the southern boundary-line of Judah. Again, Bachieuc, a Dutch geographer, approved the identification, by Breydeubach and Fabri, of Kades just below Gaza; 3 and Ernst F. K. Rosenmiiller, a German geographer, adopted the same view, 4 although he sub sequently 5 wavered in his opinion.

It is unnecessary to track these lines of varying opinion through all the realm of biblical geography and biblical comment, down to the period of fresh investigation, on a broader basis of knowl edge, into the facts of the Bible story. It is sufficient to say, that almost without exception all were agreed in locating " Kadesh- barnea" on the southern border of the Holy Land, southerly from Hebron, while some would find another "Kadesh" nearer to the Dead Sea. The Bible clearly demanded the westerly location of Kadesh-barnea ; even Eusebius and Jerome, by a liberal construc tion, justified it ; and scholars were practically a unit in so recog nizing the truth, down to the days of Roland, and subsequently.

The arguments in favor of a second Kadesh were, its necessary proximity to the uncertain borders of Edom, together with the in ference from the rabbins, and from Josephus, Eusebius, and Jerome, that it was in some way near to Reqam or the Rock, which was supposed to be Petra. To find that the borders of Edom extended westward of the Arabah, that the Rock was another name for Kadesh-barnea as well as a name for a strong-

o

1 He<jni Davidici ct Salbmoncei Descriptio, etc. Nuremberg, A. r>. 1739. 2 Singularly enough this valuable work finds no mention in the bibliographical list of Robinson or in that of Von Raumer.

;) l alaestina,Vo\. V., p. 384, note. 4 Scholia in V. T. (Leipzig, A.D. 1795), in loco. 5 See his Bibl. Alterth. (A. D. 1828) III., 86.

FRESH HINTS AND SURMISES FR OM DESER T TEA VEL. 203

hold of Mount Seir, and that the Bible made Kadesh-barnea iden tical with Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, would at any time have proved sufficient to fix the location of Kadesh-barnea, and of course of Kadesh also, southerly from Hebron, where well-nigh all had been ready to admit was one of the two sites, if two were a necessity.

5. FRESH HINTS AND SURMISES FROM DESERT TRAVEL.

Until and during the eighteenth century, the ordinary route of tra vel between Mount Sinai and Jerusalem, for those who visited those sacred sites, was along the western borders of the peninsula, enter ing the Holy Land at Gaza. More commonly the route was from Suez to Mount Sinai, and back over the same course ; occasionally the route from Mount Sinai was northward to Castle Nakhl, thence northeasterly to Gaza ; and on rare occasions a Christian crossed the desert to Mekkeh. 1 A direct journey from Mount Sinai to Hebron was almost or quite unknown ; hence there was little op portunity of exploring the region where all the Bible indications would locate Kadesh-barnea. Yet travelers were tempted then, as now, to find more of the Bible sites, in the line of their own journeying, than a elose adherence to the Bible descriptions would fully warrant ; and this increased the number of suggested loca tions of Kadesh.

In 1722, Dr. Shaw, an English elergyman, traveled in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine. He was inclined to locate Kadesh-barnea near Castle Nakhl (which he would identify with En-mishpat), and he argued in favor of this site 2 with more of reason than the advocates of many another site since his day. He recognized this as a prominent oasis in the evident direction of Jvadesh-barnea

1 Sec, for example, Thevenot s Reisen, Frankfort-on-the-Maiii, A. D. 1693, and Muller s Fremdling zu Jerusalem, Vienna and Nuremberg, A. D. 1735. 2 See his Travels, p. 318 ff.

204 KADESH-BARNEA.

from Mount Sinai : and according to his calculation of the dis tance, this oasis was sufficiently far northward. He was on the right track, but he stopped to locate before his full journey north ward was completed. His identification was approved by Van Ilamelsveld, 1 a Dutch geographer of the same century.

A little later than Shaw, Bishop Pococke published his exten sive " Description of the East," in report of his own travels and studies. In this, he expressed the opinion that Kadesh and the AVildcrness of Ziu were perhaps to be found " about sixten miles from the convent [at Mount Sinai] to the northwest." 2 His sole reason for this opinion was, that the Prefetto of Egypt had seen there " exactly such another stone as the rock of Massa and Meribah in Rephidim, with the same sort of openings all down, and the signs where the water ran." This stone " was likewise called the stone of Moses," by the Arabs ; and it was said that " this must be the rock of Meribah, in the wilderness of Zin or Kadesh, which Moses smote twice, and the water came out abundantly ; [this] being after they returned into those parts from Eziongeber." And this is the extent of the disclosures concerning the site of Kadesh-barnea down to the beginning of the present century.

The first traveler of this century who crossed the desert below Palestine by a route which carried him in the vicinitv of the region

*i O

where the Bible indications, and the well-nigh universal opinion of Bible geographers up to his time, would locate Kadesh-barnea, was Scetzeu, a German explorer of more than ordinary powers as an observer. His death in Arabia prevented his giving any com pleted form to the results of his researches ; but his published letters and journals comprise much information of value. In March and April, 1807, 3 he journeyed southward from Hebron. On the 30th ofi March, in the vicinity of Wady el- Ayn, or more accurately, Wady Ayn el-Qadayrat, 4 near the common trunk of

i Bib. Geog. III., 394. 2 Vol. I., p. 147. 3 Relsen, III., 47 /.

* See Robinson s Bib. Res., I., 189.

FRESH HIXTS AND SURMISES FR OM DESER T TRA VEL. 205

the desert-roads, which has been referred to as the probable halt ing-place of Kedor-la omcr on his northward march/ Scetzen en countered Azazimeh Arabs, or the " Adsasme " as he calls them. And then, on that edge of the Azazimeh mountain tract, he came on a " flat dry wady," which was called " Wadi el-Kdeis." Al though Seetzen did not attempt any identification of this name with that of Kadesh, the correspondence of the two names (the Hebrew Qadhcsh, and the Arabic Qadees 2 which seems to be that which is noted by Seetzen) is obvious.

And this is the first hint of the ancient name in the Arabic nomenclature of the region reported by a modern traveler. Yet an old time Arabic geographer 3 had reported a " Qadoos " at one day s journey south of " Mesjid Ibraheem " (which Wetzstein understands to be Hebron, but which may be Beer-sheba, as Abra ham s " place of worship "). These are new gleams of light on a possible identification of the site of Kadesh-barnea.

After Seetzen came Burckhardt, a Swiss traveler, who was fitted by nature and by careful training for eminent service in his varied fields of Oriental research. He was in the East during most of the time from 1809 until his death at Cairo in 1817. In 1812, he dis covered the ruins of ancient Petra, the Rock-City which was doubtless one of the Reqams of the Jewish rabbis and the early Christian writers ; and at the same time he opened up to the modern world the extensive Arabah, or the Ghor of the Arabic geographers. In doing this latter service, he suggested that the Arabah was Kadesh-barnea; 4 and thereby he not only gave fresh life to the old notion that " Kadesh " was in that vicinity, but he gave a start to a new error, that " Kadesh-barnea" was there in the land of Edom, instead of on the southern border of Judah, west-

1 See page 42, supra. 2 See page 16, supra, note.

5 Maqdisi, as quoted from a manuscript in the Berlin Museum by Wetzstein iu " Excursus III.," in Delitzsch s Com. on Genesis.

4 Travels in Syria, p. 443.

206 KADESII-BARNEA.

ward. " The existence of the valley El-Araba," he said, " the Kadesh-barnea, perhaps, of the Scriptures, appears to have been unknown both to ancient and modern geographers, although it forms a prominent feature in the topography of Syria and Arabia Petrrea." Burckhardt did not at any time visit the western por tion of the upper desert, to become acquainted with the Axazimch mountain tract which Sectzcn had skirted, thereby to be able to compare that region with the Arabah; nor did he attempt any argument in proof of his proposed identification of Kadesh-barnea. lie simply made the suggestion of the identity of the two places ; but that was enough, from such a man as himself, to give the idea not only currency but popular acceptance.

Following Burckhardt, came Iliippcll, 1 a German naturalist, who, from 1822 to 1831, made important additions to the sum of knowledge concerning the desert region ; but he proffered no sug gestion as to the site of Kadesh. In 1828, M. Leon dc Labordc, a French artist and biblical scholar, with his companion M. Linant, visited the peninsula of Sinai, and supplemented the dis coveries of Burckhardt in the site of ancient Petra by a series of admirable drawings. 2 Labordc accepted the suggestion of Burck hardt that the Arabah was Kadesh-barnea, 3 and he even located the "city" of Kadesh at " Embasch," 4 at the mouth of Wady Jcrafeh, " the great drain of all the long basin between the Arabah and the ridges west of Turf er-Rukn, extending from Jcbel et-Tih on the south to the ridge between Jebel Araif and el-Mukrah on the north." 5

Another location of the "city," or of the "fountain," of Kadesh, in Burckhardt s Arabah-Kadesh, was made by Karl von Raumer, a German scientist and theologian, who studied and wrote upon the wanderings of the Israelites before he had visited the East, and

1 Relsen. 2 Voyage, dc I Arab. Pit. 3 Sec his Maps, in his Voyage.

* Comment., at Num. 33 : 30. 6 Robinson s Bib. Res. I., ISO.

FRESH HINTS AND SURMISES FROM DESERT TEA VEL. 207

who again discussed the subject in connection with a record of his travels there. It was in 1836 that he proposed an identification of Kadesli in the upper Arabah. His description of his location was somewhat confused, 1 as he apparently supposed Jebel Madurah to be nearer the Arabah than it is ; but subsequently he settled on Ayn Hasb 2 as the site for his championship. But all that can be said for or against that site is, that if the Israelites were ever up there in the meshes of that Edomitish net, Ayn Hasb would have answered as well as any one of a half dozen spots for Kadesh-barnea. From the days of Burckhardt and Laborde, the records of des ert travel have been numerous and intelligent, quite beyond any thing known before that time. Yet, after all, comparatively few travelers have passed up the Arabah into the Holy Land, and fewer still have gone directly northward to Hebron from the lower or central desert. Hence the references, from this source, to any supposed site of Kadesh-barnea, are by no means numerous. In 1836, Stephens, an American traveler, went up the Arabah, and was naturally inclined to think that Kadesh-barnea must have been somewhere along his route to Hebron. 3 The next year Lord Lindsay, an Englishman, went over the same ground, and had a similar opinion. 4 Von Schubert, who, like Von Raumer and Riippell, was a German naturalist, was in that region the same year as Lord Lindsay. He thought Kadesh-barnea must have been near Jebel Madurah; 5 and Count Bertou, 6 a Frenchman, who shortly followed him, reported the name "Kadessa" as still lingering there. Other travelers, meantime, may have given their surmises on this point ; but I do not find them recorded, although I have looked for this purpose through the writings of Volney, 7 AH Bey, 8 Irby and Mangles, 9 Legh, 10 Henniker, 11 and Russegger, 12

1 Der Zug dcr Israel., pp. 34-37. 2 Paldstina, pp. 480-488.

s Incidents of Travel, II., 112. * Letters, II., 22, 50. 5 Reise, II., 444.

6 Quoted by Robinson, (Bib. Res., first ed. II., 659-CC9). Travels. 8 Travels. 9 Trawls. 10 " Excursion." u Notes. 12 Reisen.

208 KADESH-BARNEA.

among those whose routes would have been most likely to suggest an identification of Kadesh-barnea in view of the surmises of their predecessors.

6. ROBINSON S PROPOSED IDENTIFICATION.

And now we come to a new era in biblical geography, as marked by the travels of Dr. Edward Robinson, an American explorer whose observations in Palestine and the Peninsula of Sinai have practically given the base line and trigonometrical stations for all the following surveys of those lands of the Bible. The subsequent work of scholars and explorers in that region has been, in a sense, little more than the testing of his preliminary surveys. " Robin- sou s Biblical Researches in Palestine and in the Adjacent Re gions " have been hardly less important and influential in their field in our day, than were the works in various former times of Eusebius, and Jerome, and Brocardus, and Adrichomius, and Roland, in a similar field. The many unmistakable new-identifi cations of biblical sites made by Robinson have been cither accepted without question, or abundantly sustained by farther examination ; and even his occasional errors of identification have naturally gained a hold oil the Bible-studying public hardly less firm and ineradicable than the truths brought out by him.

Robinson was impressed with the striking features of the mountain range on the east of the Arabah, where Burckhardt had dis covered the ruins of ancient Petra, and he yielded to the tradi tional identification of Mount Hor at Jebel Xebv Huroon ; T although it was obviously within the limits of the Mount Seir which the Israelites were not permitted to enter. From this divergence lie was farther led to believe that the Israelites, instead of going across the " great and terrible wilderness " of the Desert

1 Bib. Res., II., 131-173.

R OB IN SOWS PROPOSED IDENTIFICATION. 209

et-Teeh by any direct route from Mount Sinai to Canaan, actually descended into the Arabah, and proceeded northward into a region which he had before recognized as within the probable reach of Edom s occupancy. 1 And there, in that Edomitish territory, on the open highway, exposed to hostile attack in every direction, and in no sense covered or secluded, was his suggested site for Kadesh- barnea, an objective point of an invading army ; whence to send spies into the enemy s country beyond it.

The precise spot selected by Robinson for the site of Kadesh- barnea was Ayn el-Waybch, a desert spring near the western slope of the Arabah, and just above the western bank of the Wady el- Jayb, the peculiar "wady within a wady" 2 which is "the vast drain of all the Arabah/ 3 and which in the rainy season receives also the water-flow of the Wady Jcrafeh which in turn drains the western desert of Et-Teeh. Ayn el-\Vaybeh is in a northwesterly direction from Jebel Ncby Haroon, and on the opposite side of the Arabah.

Referring to Wady el-Jayb, as one crosses it from east to west, Robinson says: 4 "Just on its westward side, where the land slopes up very gradually into a tract of low limestone hills, lies Ain el- Weibeh, one of the most important watering places in all the great valley. There are here indeed three fountains, issuing from the chalky rock of which the slope is composed. . . . The three foun tains are some rods apart, running out in small streams from the foot of a low rise of ground, at the edge of the hills. The water is not abundant; and in the two northernmost sources has a sickly hue, like most desert fountains, with a taste of sulphuretted hydro gen. . . . But the southernmost source consists of three small rills of limpid and good water, flowing out at the bottom of a small excavation in the rock. The soft chalky stone has crumbled away forming a semicircular ledge about six feet high around the

1 See page 86, supra. * Bib. Res., II., 120. 3 Ibid., II., 118. * Ibid., II., 174. 14

210 KADESH-BARNEA.

spring, and now a few feet distant from it. The intermediate space is at present occupied by earth ; but the rock apparently once extended out, so that the water actually issued from its base." Yet all this "rock" is down in Wady Arabah; and the name of the fountain " El-Weibch " is according to Robinson s own rendcrintr,

o o/

a "Hole with Water." 1

It is evident that there is no trace of the former importance or sacredncss of "Kadesh-barnca," in the name, or in the appearance, of " Ain el-Wcibeh" at the present day. Indeed on this point Robinson says : " We could find here no trace of the remains of former dwellings." And again : " The surrounding desert has long since resumed its rights : and all traces of the city and of its very name have disappeared." It would, in fact, have been very strange if, at any time, a "city," or a settlement of any kind, had been attempted there " upon the plain, or rather the rolling desert of the Arabah ; " the surface of which, in that very region, is "everywhere furrowed and torn with the beds of torrents." 2 And as to the " rock " from the " base" of which the water is supposed to have formerly issued, Robinson evidently employs the word in a geological rather than a popular sense ; for there is no Rock, no " Sel a," no imposing eliff, down there in the Arabah bed. The " soft chalky stone " which may have once been the basin wall of the " Hole with Water," is a sorry representative of the Sel a " before " which Moses and Aaron " gathered the congregation together," when the people had murmured for lack of its accus tomed water-flow. 3

In support of his identification of Ayn el-Waybeh as Kadesh- barnea, Robinson proffered no proofs beyond other suggested iden tifications in the neighborhood ; all of which identifications must

1 See Eli Smith s "Arabic Index," s. v. " el-Weibeh," Bib. Res., III., first edition ; also Robinson s Index to Bib. Res., II., 591.

es., II., 121. s Num. 20.

ROWLANDS S DISCOVERY. 211

stand or fall with this one. 1 Thus, for example, he now deemed the Arabah as the " uttermost border " of ancient Edom westward, although he had before expressed the opinion that this was not so ; and he gave no reason for a change of his opinion, unless it were that the fixing of Kadesh-barnea at Ayn el-Waybeh made a change of the supposed boundaries of Edom a necessary sequence.

But whether Robinson had good arguments or none at all in support of one of his identifications, his soundness and accuracy at so many points were sufficient to carry the multitude with him, and to incline even other good scholars in his direction, in every case where his expression of conviction was positive. Hence it came to pass, that Ayn el-Waybeh took its place as a proper site for Kadesh-barnea.

7. ROWLANDS S DISCOVERY.

It was just after the first publication of Robinson s " Biblical Researches," that another new element was introduced into the dis cussion of the Kadesh-barnea question, by a remarkable discovery made by the Rev. John Rowlands, an English elergyman, who was a friend and companion of Canon Williams, then chaplain to Bishop Alexander of Jerusalem.

Rowlands had already passed some time in the East, including a winter in Egypt, a summer in Mount Lebanon, and nine months in Jerusalem. 2 He had been twice through the Sinaitic desert, taking both the eastern and western routes, and becoming familiar

1 He even looks at the Smooth Mountain, eight hours distant from Ayn el-Waybeh, as the mountain which the Israelites ascended from Kadesh (Num. 14 : 40) ; and he says that the name Es-Siifah "is in form identical with the Hebrew Zephath" (Bib. Res. II., 181) ; although it is not easy to see how n3V and *1 a *f\\ can be called " identical" in either form or meaning.

2 The facts given herewith are obtained from my personal correspondence with Mr. Rowlands, in supplement of the information published in his report of his dis coveries, as herein referred to.

212 KADESH-BARNEA.

with the Arabah, as well as with the western route into Palestine. Beginning the study of Arabic under a Syrian priest at Con stantinople, he acquired sufficient familiarity with the language, not only to write it, but to speak it with tolerable proficiency. His Bible studies had satisfied him of the general location of Kadesh- barnea, on the southern border of Canaan, and he became interested in a search for its site. His first movement in this direction was with his friend Williams, in a trip from Hebron, southward, in October, 1842, under the guidance of " Sheikh Salini of the Teahars" 1 (Teeyahah?) Their discovery of the southern border line of the Promised Land, in the natural barrier of the Smooth Mountain (Mount Halak), as they stood on that wall-rampart, at the westward of Jebel Madurah, has already been cited. 2 It was while they stood there, that Shaykh Selim informed them that at some distance westerly (or southwesterly), there was a place known as " Kadese," which they instantly recognized as a term corres pondent with Kadesh, or Kadesh-bnrnea, on that same southern boundary line. But they were at that time unable to pursue their investigations farther ; and they returned to Jerusalem with only this gleam of horizon-light on the site of Kadesh.

This new journey of Rowlands proved eventful in its discoveries. It was then that he identified " Sebatah " as the site of ancient Zephath ; * that he pointed out " the grand plain called Es-Serr " as " the Seir alluded to in Deuteronomy 1 : 44," where the Amorites chased the defeated Israelites toward Kadesh-barnea ; and that he called attention to Moilahi, or Moilahhi, as the possible site of Hagar s Well, or Beer-lahai-roi. 2 His only formal report of this journey was in a familiar letter to his friend Williams, which found a place in the Appendix to the latter s volume, " The Holy City," published several years later. 3 That portion of this letter which describes the visit to " Kaddese," or Qadees, is here given in full :

"Now, my dear friend, for Kadesh, my much-talked-of and loug-sought-for Kadesh. You may conceive with what pleasure I tell you, that I have at length found this important and in teresting locality to my entire satisfaction. Our excitement (I can speak at least for mine while we stood before the Rock smitten by

1 Judges 1 : 17. Gen. 16 : 14. In 1845.

214 KADESH-BA RNEA .

Moses, and gazed upon the lovely stream which still issues forth under the base of this Rock) would be quite indescribable. I cannot say that we stood still our excitement was so great that we could not stand still. We paced backwards and forwards ; ex amining the rock and the source of the stream ; looking at the pretty little cascades which it forms as it descends into the channel of a rain torrent beneath ; sometimes chipping off some pieces of the rock, and at other times picking up some specimens and some flowers along a green slope beneath it.

The Rock is a large single mass, or a small hill, of solid rock, a spur of the mountain to the north of it rising immediately above it. It is the only visible naked rock in the whole district. The stream, when it reaches the channel, turns westward, and, after running about three or four hundred yards, loses itself in the sand. I have not seen such a lovely sight anywhere else in the whole desert such a copious and lovely stream. I took two vials full of it away with me. Shall I send you one ? I think I must do it, if you will not go and see Kadesh yourself. But I must give you some particulars about the locality of Kades, or Kudes, as it is called. I shall therefore first of all describe the position, and then adduce my proofs for its identity with ancient Kadesh-barnca. The waters of Kades, called Ain Kades, lie to the east of the highest part of Jebel Halal, towards its northern extremity, about twelve miles (or four and a-half hours by camel) to the E.S.E. of Moilahhi. I think it must be something like due south from Khalasa.

But to the proofs, which is the most important point. 1. Its name Kades, or Kudos (pronounced in English Kaddase or Knd- dase), is exactly the Arabic form of the Hebrew name Kadesh ; the jfiT, as you will find in both the Hebrew and the Arabic, not being the common Kaf, but Kof ; and giving the a sound, somewhat resembling the short u. 2. The locality corresponds with, or falls in the line of, the southern boundary of the

ROWLANDS S DISCOVERY. 215

Promised Land (Josh. 15 : 1, 8), from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, by Safaa [Sufah] or Maaleh-Akrabbim, the Wady el-Murra, and the Wady el-Arish, or the river of Egypt. 3. It corresponds also with the order in which the places of the border are mentioned. Adar and Azmou, two places in the border, which we have discovered in the names Adeirat and Aseimeh, sometimes called Kadeirat and Kaseimeh, now, and perhaps always, merely fountains or springs, lie to the west of Kades, and Wady el-Arish, or [the] river of Egypt, succeeds in the same line. 4. It lies east of Jebel el-Halal, or Mount Halak, mentioned somewhere by Jeremiah [Joshua] as the uttermost extremity of the Promised Land to the south. 5. It lies at the foot of the mountain of the Amorites (Deut. 1 : 19). 6. It is situated near the grand pass or entrance into the Promised Land by the Beer Lahai-roi, which is the only easy entrance from the desert to the east of Halal, and most probably the entrance to which the Hebrews were conducted from Sinai towards the Land of Promise. 7. A good road leads to this place all the way from Sinai, and the distance is about five days of dromedary-riding, or about ten or eleven days of common camel-riding, as the Bedouins stated (Dent. 1 : 2). 8. A grand road, still finer, I was told, by broad wadies, goes from Kades to Mount Hor [Jebel Xeby Ha- roou] (Xum. 20 : 22). 9. The nature of the locality itself answers in every respect to the description given of it in Scripture, or rather inferred from it the mountains to the east of Kades, and some very grand ones to the south, called Jebel Kades, the Wilderness of Kadesh/ the Rock, the water, and the grand space for encampment which lies to the southwest of it, a large rectangular plain about nine by five, or ten by six miles, and this opening to the west into the still more extensive plain of Paran.

But enough of Kadesh. I must hasten on to Suez, without making many notes or comments on our journey."

216 KADESH-BARNEA,

8. THE CONFUSION OF SITES.

There was quite another state of things in the Kadesh-barnea discussion, when the opinion of Robinson and the discovery of Rowlands were fairly before the public. The advantage to begin with, in this new state of things, was largely on the side of Robin son. He was widely known, and was fittingly recognized as pre eminent in his sphere. His opinion was published, and, as a mat ter of course, was generally accepted, before the report of Row lands was given to the world. Rowlands, on the other hand, had no such commanding position ; and his story of his discovery, when it followed Robinson s elaim, was practically hidden in an appendix to a work which was itself made prominent in opposition to Robinson on quite another matter than the site of Kadesh-barnea. 1 Had the case rested with the English-speaking world alone, it seems probable that the discovery of Rowlands would have been permanently left in an eddy caused by the resistless sweep of Rob inson s great reputation. But the case was not rested there.

However the English and American public might be carried along by the opinion of one leading mind, the critical, thorough, and impartial scholars of Germany were sure to weigh carefully all the evidence in the case before they accepted the conclusions of even such an explorer as Robinson on a point like the identifica tion of Kadesh-barnea. The first uplifting of the discovery of Rowlands into anything like its due prominence, was by Professor Tuch, of Leipzig, an eminent biblical student and Oriental scholar. In 1847, in a careful study of the campaign of Kedor-la omer, published in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, 2 Tuch showed conclusively that Kadesh must have been located in the

1 Williams \vas the champion of the traditional site of the Holy Sepulchre, as over against Robinson on the other side.

2 Zeitschrift des deutschcn morijcnldndischen Gesdlschaft, Vol. I., pp. 1GO _/", 169 ff.

THE CONFUSION OF SITES. 217

very region where Rowlands had found Ayn Qadees; and he was confident that the ancient site had been there discovered. Almost at the same time, Professor Winer, of Leipzig, a foremost biblical cyc- lopedist, accepted the identification, and gave it a place in a new edition of his Biblical Cyclopedia. 1 Tuch s article was translated by Professor Samuel Davidson, a well-known English biblical scholar, and published in Kitto s Journal of Sacred Literature. 2 Just then, also, Dr. John Wilson, an Oriental scholar and traveler, de elared against Robinson s identification, and spoke favorably of that of Rowlands, in his admirable work " The Lands of the Bible. 3 " And now, the site Ayn Qadees had such backing as commanded res pect even in opposition to a site approved by the eminent Robinson. It was in response to these German critics that Robinson came out anew in defense of his own identification, and in opposition to that proposed by Rowlands ; and it was at that time that Robinson s statements, and his misstatements, concerning both Rowlands and his discovery, introduced an element of confusion into the discus sion of the Kadesh-barnea question which has continued as a cause of perplexity down to the present day, and which it is one object of this book to eliminate. It is, in fact, hardly to be wondered at, that the judicial faculty of a mind like Robinson s should have been disturbed by the unexpected evidence of his error in so im portant an identification as that of a pivotal point in the lower boundary line of Palestine, and in the history of the Israelitish wanderings, coupled with the elaim that a comparatively unknown traveler had penetrated the mountain tract which Robinson had not been able to explore, 4 and had actually discovered there the an cient site of Kadesh with its still existing name. How could such a state of facts fail of prejudicing the chiefly-interested party against a rival identification ?

1 Bib. Realwdrterb., a. v. " Kadesch." 2 For July, 1S48.

3 Vol. I., p. 338. See Bib. Res. I., 186 ; II., 193, note.

218 KADESH-BARNEA.

Robinson s new defense of Ayn el-Waybch, or rather his criti cisms upon Ayn Qadees and its discoverer (for it was in that form that his comments were made), appeared first in an article in the "Bibliothcca Sacra" for May, 1849, and again in foot-notes to the later editions of his "Biblical Researches." 1 Referring to the report of Rowlands, Robinson said, in his magazine article : " Until recently it has seemed to me, that the very fanciful and amusingly credulous character of the whole narrative would put every one upon his guard ; and furnish in itself the best exposition of the fallacy of the whole matter. But the idea has since been taken up by Prof. Tuch of Leipzig, as falling in with a theory of his own on another topic ; 8 and his article has been translated by Prof. Davidson, and published in England. Winer, also, in the new edition of his Rcalwortcrbuch (art. Kadesh ) adopts the same view, relying on the supposed identity of the name. Hence it has become worth while to bring the matter to the test of exam ination."

And first " the test of examination " is to be applied to the dis coverer, rather than to the discovery. " Mr. Rowlands appears in his writings, and is described by those who know him," says Robin son, " as a very amiable man ; but fanciful, visionary, and full of credulity." Then, an anonymous letter received by Robinson is quoted, a saying of Rowlands and his report : " His letter in Williams Appendix, is a tissue of moonshine." After the discov erer, the discovery is examined. An item from the report of Rowlands is quoted, as follows : " The water of Kudes, called Ain Kades, lies about twelve miles (or four and a half hours by camel) to the E. S. E. of Moilahhi." On this Robinson com-

1 " Notes on Biblical Geography," pp. 377-381. 2 Vol. I., p. 189 ; II., 194.

3 This other topic on which Tuch had a theory, was the location of Kadesh in the days of Kedor-la omer. Tuch having shown that Kadesh was in a certain region at that period, was prepared to believe that it might have remained there, even until Rowlands re-discovered its site.

THE CONFUSION OF SITES. 219

ments : <{ Where then is this Kudos ? The reader, perhaps, will be surprised to learn that the spot here pointed out is men tioned both by Seetzen and in the text of the Biblical Researches, and is inserted on our map. If he will turn to the map he will find marked, in that direction, and about that distance from el- Muweilch, a fountain called Ain el-Kudeirdt ; it is a little east of our route, and is described by us according to the accounts of the Arabs. 1 The Kudeirdt are a tribe or elan of Arabs in this region, who water their flocks at this fountain, and sometimes as far north as Beersheba. 2 Seetzen lodged at one of their encampments. 3 The conclusion is inevitable, that the name Kudes as here presented by Mr. Rowlands is a mere blunder of a tyro in Arabic for el-Ku

A conclusion drawn by Robinson on this " test of examination " is : "As therefore the whole hypothesis of a Kadesh in this place rests upon the supposed identity of name ; and the said name is thus shown to be a mere blunder ; it might perhaps be sufficient to let the matter rest here." Yet to make the conclusion surer, as he looks at it, Robinson presses several added points against the site of " Ain el-Kudeirat " (which he has decided is Rowlands s sup posed " Kudes,") prominent among which points is the following : " According to the scriptural account, both the spies and the Israel ites on entering the Promised Land from Kadesh, had immediately to ascend a mountain. 4 If Kadesh was at Ein El-Weibeh or in the vicinity, all this is a natural and exact representation ; since the ascent from the great valley begins immediately back of that fountain. But if Kadesh be sought at Ain el-Kudeirat or any where in that region, the language of Scripture is wholly inappli cable. The tract between the latter spot and Beersheba is an open rolling country ; there are swells, but no mountain, to be crossed ;

1 Bib. Res., I., 280. 2 Bib. Res., II., 619. 3 Hitter, Erdk. XIV., p. 837 /.

* Num. 13 : 17 ; 14 : 44, 45 ; Deut. 1 : 24, 41.

220 KADESH-BARNEA.

and none to be ascended until we reach the mountains of Palestine proper on the north of Beersheba towards Hebron ; a distance from Ain el-Kudeirat of about sixty miles, or four days march for troops."

Now, apart from the personal criticisms of Mr. Rowlands by Dr. Robinson, there are several remarkable statements in the exceptions here taken to the report of the former s discovery. So far from having confounded " Kudeirat" with " Kudes," Rowlands distinctly affirms that " Kadeirat and Kaseinieh, now, and perhaps always, merely fountains or springs, lie to the west of Kades" 1 It is but fair to presume that Robinson examined his own " map " rather than the report of Rowlands while bringing the latter to "the test of examination." And, inasmuch as Seetzen had, long before, heard the name " Kdeis " in this region, and as Rowlands had been prompted to this very search by hearing that a similar name was to be found here, it would hardly be fair to suppose that the name itself was wholly based on another so dissimilar as Kudeirat, even if the positive proof to the contrary were not in the very report which Robinson was criticising. Moreover, as Row lands gave eight distinct reasons for the identification, in addition to the correspondence of name, and noted them separately with Arabic numerals, it is somewhat surprising to learn that "the whole hypothesis of a Kadesh in this place rests upon the supposed identity of name." As to Robinson s supplemental series of argu ments against the site of " Kades," as they chiefly rest on his mis take of supposing that Rowlands had " Ain el-Kudeirat" in mind, they are practically irrelevant to the case. 2 Robinson admits that he never saw Ayn el-Qadayrat, but merely heard about it from the Arabs. Whether or not, therefore, there was a mountain just north of it was fairly an open question ; and again it would have

1 See the text of Rowlands s report, at page 215, supra.

2 Those which would, otherwise, have any weight, have been forestalled in the earlier geographical studies of this volume.

THE CONFUSION OF SITES. 221

no proper bearing on this discussion, in any event, as it was not Ayn el-Qadayrat that was proposed as the site of Kadesh-barnea.

This being the substance of Robinson s magazine article, against Rowlands as a discoverer and against the site discovered by Row lands, its misstatements were condensed for a reappearance in the notes to " Biblical Researches." Referring to " Ain el-Kudcirat," Robinson says : 1 " This is the spot called by Mr. Rowlands, Kudes and visited by him as Kadesh-barnea. He obviously made out the name Kudcs by misunderstanding the name of the tribe who water at this fountain. There is no other foundation for supposing a Kadesh here." And again : 2 " Mr. Rowlands supposes that he found Kadesh at the fountain el- Ain in the high western desert. . . . That fountain is called also Ain el-Kudcirat, from a tribe of Arabs who water there. 3 Out of this name Mr. Rowlands, or his Greek dragoman, seems to have made Kudos, and on the strength of this blunder, assumed there the site of Kadesh." Yet when we bring these notes of Robinson " to the test of examination," by comparison with Mr. Rowlands s original report, and his supple mental statement, we find that : 1. It was not his dragoman who led him into the blunder of confounding " Kudcirat" with " Kudcs." 2. His dragoman was not a Greek. 3. He had no dragoman. 4. He. made no blunder, on the point in question ; and the proof that he made none was in his original report, which was overlooked by Robinson while he was examining his own map. For any further "test of examination" in this matter, the substantial facts are now before any reader who would decide the point for himself.

Robinson s influence was sufficient to carry along with him a large portion of the English-speaking people, by the mere fact of his opinion rather than by the strength of his argument. If he

1 Bib. Res. I., 189, note. 2 Ibid. II., 194, note.

s It is more probable that the tribe of Arabs takes its name from the fountain. That is the common order in the East.

222 KADESH-BARNEA.

could say that he still believed in Ayn el-Waybeh, why should an average man have any doubt on the subject ? But German scholars were not to be led in that way. They asked for proofs rather than asseverations on a point once fairly in debate. And as a result of their inquiry and investigation, the current of scholarly testimony in favor of Rowlands s identification gained steadily and largely in Germany ; nor did that identification lack acceptance and support from reputable and independent scholars in England and America.

Even before the discovery of Rowlands was made public, other scholars, including Ewald, and Hitter, and Rabbi Sch \varz, 1 had declared, in the light of all modern research, in favor of a location of Kadesh at a more westerly site than the Arabah ; the last named of these scholars having proposed an identification of Kadesh-barnea at a " Wady Gaian," or " Wady Abiat," 2 [ Wady Abyad] connected with Wady Bcerayn, a little to the northward of Wady el- Ayn ; although he was disposed also to understand that the talmudic refer ence to a double Rcqarn involved the acceptance of a second Kadesh. 3

So far as I can see, the first thorough and convincing argument in favor of Rowlands s site was made by Fries, a German scholar, in an article "On the Position of Kadesh," as published in the German critical magazine "Studien und Kritiken," in 1854. His

o /

work went farther than that of Tuch, in showing the western stretch of Edom, and in a careful treatment of the Negeb ; more over he showed the insuperable objections to a location of Kadesh in the Arabah. Fries was followed by Kurtz in another masterly exhibit of the facts and arguments in this discussion. Indeed Kurtz had issued the first edition of his work, the " History of the Old Covenant," before Fries s article appeared; but in subsequent editions he quoted freely from Fries, and gave him unstinted credit. 4

1 See Kurtz s Hist of Old Cor. III., 201.

2 Descript. Gcog. of Pal. (American ed.) pp. 23, 39.

8 Ibid., p. 214 /. * See Hist, of Old Cov., English ed. III., 194-210.

THE CONFUSION OF SITES. 223

It would even seem as if these presentations of the case would alone have been sufficient, in the absence of farther argument, to have convinced any impartial student who should examine them. But they were not to be left alone.

Rittcr, in his new edition of his great geographical work, spoke approvingly of Rowlands s proposed identification ; l as also did Ewald with some qualification. 2 Keil and Delitzsch, 3 Kalisch, 4 Knobel, 5 Lange, 6 Menke, 7 Yolter, 8 Strauss, 9 Hamburger, 10 Arnold, 11 Volck and Muhlau, 12 and others among the Germans, accepted it unqualifiedly, or referred to it as thus accepted. Bunscn, also, is cited as of this opinion. 13 Graetz, 14 while evidently misled by some of Robinson s misstatements concerning Rowlands and his dis covery, admitted that the site of Kadesh at Ayn Qadees, was veri fied by subsequent research and argument. Meanwhile among English scholars, Wilton, 15 Wordsworth, 16 Alford, 17 Palmer, 18 Tris tram, 19 Edersheim, 20 Geikic. 21 and others, came to a similar conclu sion with the best German scholars, by an independent process of reasoning, or adopted the conclusions of those investigators. The best work in the same line by American scholars was done by

1 Geog. of Pal., Am. ed., I., 429-433. 2 Hist, of Israel, Eng. ed., II., 193, note.

3 Bib. Com. at Gen. 14 : 7, and at Num. 13 : 11-16 ; 20 : 14-21 ; also Keil s Com. on Ezek. at 47 : 19.

*Hist. and Crit. Com. on 0. T. at Gen. 14: 5-7.

5 Exeget. Handb. at Num. 33 : 36, 37, and at Josh. 15 : 3, 4.

6 Schaff-Lange Com. at Num. 20 : 1. 7 Bibelatlas, Map No. III.

8 Das Heiliffe Land, p. 319. 9 Sinai u. Golgotha, p. 123.

10 Real-Encyc. fur Bibel u. Talm., s. v. " Kades."

11 In Herzog s Rcal-Encyc. Art. " Kadesch."

12 See their Gesenius s Heb. Germ. Lex., eighth ed., s. v. " Kadesh. " Kadesh is usually located at the spring Ain Kudes ; Robinson, on the contrary, misplaced it at the Arabah."

13 See elark s Bible Atlas, p. 26. u Gesch. d. Judm. I., 396.

15 See The Negeb passim ; also Fairbairn s Imp. Bib. Die., s. v. " Kadesh."

16 Bible with Notes, at Gen. 14 : 5-7. 17 Genesis, etc., at 14 : 5-7. 18 Des. of Exod. II., 350-358 ; 509-520. 19 Bible Places, pp. 3-6.

20 Exod. and Wand. p. 165 /. J1 Hours with Bible, II., 327 /.

224 KADESH-BARNEA.

President Bartlett/ of Dartmouth College, and Professor Lowrie, 2 of Allegheny.

Had it not been, indeed, that the followers of Robinson on this point, in England and America, were men who controlled the avenues to popular biblical knowledge, the question in dispute would have long ago been settled beyond the possibility of a re opening. Kor would even this advantage have availed them, if it had not been for their constant repetition of Robinson s undis puted misstatcmcnt concerning Rowlands s confusion of Ayn el- Qadayrat with Ayn Qadees ; a misstatement which a single refer ence by any one of them to the original report of Rowlands would have promptly ruled out of the controversy.

Even so valuable a work as the "Speaker s Commentary" has aided in promoting popular error on this subject. Its comments on the Book of Numbers were primarily prepared by the Rev. J. F. Thrupp, who held to the westerly site of Kadesh ; but, as he died before his work was completed, his notes were revised by the Rev. T. E. Espin, who followed Robinson in his opinions and in his errors, and changed the direction of the comments accordingly. 3 Espin s arguments against the identification at Ayn Qadees in elude tho utterly baseless idea that Ayn Qadees is located at Ayn el-Qadayrut ; and it even makes the topographical blunder of elaiming that " [Wady] el-Am is on high ground," and that " from it the spies must have gone down rather than up towards Hebron." 4 The baselessness of the suggestion that Qadees and Qadayrat were confounded in Rowlands s identification, would be evident to any one who turned for himself to the report of Rowlands ; and the absurdity of the elaim that one must go doicn rather than up in passing from either Qadees or Qadayrat towards Hebron, would be seen on the first glance at a sectional view of the country, such as

1 Egypt to Pul., pp. 356-378. 2 Schaff-Lange Com. at Num. 13 : 26.

3 See Speaker s Com., " Introduction to the Book of Numbers," p. 654.

4 Hid., " Xote on Chap. 13 : 26.

THE CONFUSION OF SITES. 225

is given in Stanley s " Sinai and Palestine," or in elark s " Bible Atlas;" but, on the other hand, he who depended on the " Speaker s Commentary " for information on these points, would inevitably be led astray, and so be prepared to accept the supple mental commentator s opinion, that Kadesh is to be identified with Ayn el-Way beh.

The same errors that deface the " Speaker s Commentary " stand out quite as prominently in the widely-known " Bible Atlas " of the Rev. Samuel elark, above referred to. This geographical work actually declares 1 that the fountain discovered by Rowlands, and proposed by him as the site of Kadesh, is " called Ain el- Kudeirat," and on the strength of this baseless assumption it argues against the identification, reiterating the absurd topographical blunder, " that the road from the Ain el-Kudeirat into the Holy Land is down hill." Of course it is not to be supposed that Mr. elark had either referred to the report of Rowlands on which he was commenting, or that he had compared his own statement of the down-grade towards Hebron with the sectional view of the desert approach of the Holy Land which was presented in his own Atlas; 2 but this reason for his being in error would not guard from the same error those who looked to him for direction in geo graphical studies.

Dr. William Smith s "Ancient Atlas," also a popular standard in its sphere, approves Robinson s identification, 3 and takes excep tion to that of Rowlands, although in his maps the geographer notes, as possible sites, both Robinson s and Rowlands s, and adds a third one, Ayn esh-Shehabeh, between those two ; and in his " Old Testament History," 4 he seems to favor each one of these three sites in turn. In " Smith s Bible Dictionary," however, there is evidence that the report of Rowlands has been referred to

i Bible Atlas, pp. 24-26. Bible Atlas, Plate II., Map No. 4.

In notes on Map 39, at page 25. * Chap. XIII., Note " B."

15

226 KADESII-BARNEA.

by the writer on " Kadesh." 1 Yet tlie preference is gi\ T en by that writer to Ayn el-Waybeh, as the nearest approximation to a pro bable site of Kadesh among the many already suggested. An opinion like this, however poorly supported, in such an avenue of knowledge, would inevitably have more influence with the public generally, than a dozen elaborate essays in sources of critical study.

Keith Johnston s " Royal Atlas," also, is conformed to Robinson s opinion. And what has proved yet more misleading than the " Bible Atlas " and the " Ancient Atlas " and the " Royal Atlas " combined, is the fact that Kadesh-barnca is located at Ayn el- Waybeh in the maps of the Teachers Bibles, of the Oxford Uni versity Press, of the Bagsters, and of the Queen s Printers. By this means, millions of young Bible-students have been started wrong in their Bible geography ; for there are those who would as soon doubt the inspiration of the chronology of the Bible margins, as the geography of the Bible maps.

Porter, who has the popular ear through his editing of Murray s "Hand-book for Syria and Palestine," and as the writer of the article "Kadesh" in Kitto s " Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature," follows Robinson in the elaim that Rowlands "was evidently mis led . . by a fancied resemblance in names," in his discovery of Ayn Qadees, but he is original in his suggestion that the site of that fountain is "in the midst of the desert of Tih." 2 His opinion is of course made known to multitudes who are unfamiliar with the results of modern critical and geographical research in the lands of the Bible. Fausset, in the " Englishman s Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopedia " 3 adopts Robinson s identification of Ayn el-Waybeh, and also his misstatement that Ayn Qadees is at Wady el- Ayn. Drew, in his " Scripture Lands," 4 and Payne

1 The Rev. Henry Hayman. 2 Alexander s Kitto, Art. " Kadesh."

3 Art. " Kadesh." * pp. 75-78.

THE CONFUSION OF SITES. 227

Smith in " The Bible Educator," also favor Robinson s site, 2 while Kitto s " Scripture Lands " 3 accommodatingly approves the identifications of both Robinson and Rowlands ; going back to the old-time idea of a double Kadesh, which was so thoroughly exploded by Lightfoot, two centuries ago. Yet Kitto had earlier argued sensibly against the idea of a two-fold site. 4

A mong the Germans, Von Gerlach 5 would locate Kadesh in the Arabah, as would Hitzig, 6 who hesitated between Ayn el-Way beh, and Ayn Hasb (somewhat farther north) as advocated by Von Raumer. Indeed it ought to be said that a number of Germans have, earlier or later, favored the location of Kadesh at some point in the Arabah, even though they did not coincide with Robinson, in fixing it at Ayn el-Waybeh. Thus Unruh 7 favored Ayn Hasb ; Reuss, 8 and Berghaus, 9 would find a site at some point near Ezion- geber, where Buddeus, 10 a century ago, suggested it ; and Biissler u named Wady Ghuwayr for the location.

El-Khaloos, or Elusa, was advocated as the site of Kadesh by an over positive English writer. 12 Holland inclined to some site at the southeastern point of Jebel Muqrah ; ia and there indeed is Ayn esh-Shehabeh, or Shehabeeyeh, a living spring which has been often named as a possible site for Kadesh/ 4 but which no one seems to have visited. 15 Conder 16 sweeps all along the upper

1 Vol. I., p. 231.

2 Payne Smith does not name Ayn el-Waybeh, but his description corresponds with its site. 3 See p. 81 ; also " General Index," p. 5( .

4 See citations from Kitto s Pictorial Bible, and his earlier editions of Bible Cyclv- pedin, in Bush s Notes on Numbers, at 20 : 1.

5 Com. on Pent, at Xum. 13 : 26 ; 20 : 13. 6 De.r Prophet Ezekiel, p. 371. ~ Der Zu<] der Israel., p. 66. 8 UHi&toire Sainte, III., 264, note.

9 Special- Karte von Syrien. lo ffi.it. Ecdes., A. D. 1744.

11 Das Heilige Land, p. 131. 12 H. C., in Jour, of Sac. Lit. for April, 1860, p. 57.

13 Report of Brit. Assoc. for 1878, p. 622 ff. 14 See elark s Bib. Atlas, p. 25; Smith s Anc. Atlas, Map 39, etc.

15 See Robinson s Bib. Res., 1., 179. In Quart. Stat. of Pal. Explor. Fund for Jan., 1881, p. 60 /.

228 KADESH-BARNEA.

Arabah in his preferences ; " say from Petra to Tell el-Milh, at the foot of Nukb es-Sufa." He strangely suggests a correspond ence between " Maderah " and " Adar."

Of Americans, there are comparatively few who have made special and independent studies in this direction. Bartlett and Lowrie have been already named as approving Rowlands s site. On the other hand, Bush, 1 Coleman, 2 Durbin, 3 Barrows, 4 and others, followed Robinson. Olin 5 suggested Wady Feqreh. McClintock and Strong 6 adopted Von Raumer s location at Ayn Hasb, and Abbott and Conant 7 did the same. Crosby, 8 expressed his belief that Kadesh was to be found at some point near Jebel Muqrah ; and this is practically the view of Holland. Naturally, however, the opinion of Robinson carried great weight with his countrymen, especially in the absence of any personal knowledge on their part.

It is hardly necessary to follow out farther or more elosely than this, the various suggested identifications of Kadesh ; or to multi ply farther the names of those who have had a part in discussing the subject, or in influencing public opinion by a recorded vote in favor of one site or another. Yet the list would not be even fairly complete, without a mention of the noteworthy and remarkable proposal of Dean Stanley, to find the site of Kadesh in the Rock- City, Petra itself. 9 It is quite needless to detail his nominal argu ment in favor of his suggestion ; for it was rather the poetry of the idea than any cold reasoning on the subject that led him to carry the host of Israel directly into the stronghold of Edom and the sacred fortress of Mount Seir. In view of all that he has to say of the matter, the only wonder is that he will concede that the

1 Notes on Numbers, at 20 : 14. 2 Hist. Geog. of Bible, p. 109.

s Observ. in East, I., 197. 4 Sacred Geog. and Antiq., p. 253.

& Travels, II., 60. 6 Cyclo. of Sib., T/icoL, Ecdes. Lit., s. v. " Kadesh."

* Diet, of Relig. Knowl., s. v. " Kadesh." 8 Notes on Joshua, p. 14G.

9 Sinai and Pal. pp. 92-98.

FAILURES TO RE-FIND ROWLANDS^ SITE. 229

" present ruins are modern," instead of boldly elaiming that the great theatre itself was built expressly for the funeral services on the occasion of the death of Aaron.

9. FAILURES TO RE-FIND ROWLANDS S SITE.

In addition to the confusion of sites by this suggestion of more than a dozen distinct identifications of Kadesh-barnea, and by the statements and misstatements, in direct conflict, of " authorities " without number, a new element of confusion and of doubt was introduced by the repeated failures of explorers to find the locality visited and described by Rowlands, even with the help of all the landmarks noted by him. It was not so much to be wondered at that Ayn Qadees had been passed by without discovery in all the years before attention was called to it specifically ; but it did come to be a cause for wonder that, after its location was fairly de scribed, it was not to be found or heard from again.

As has been already mentioned, the direct route northward from Castle Xakhl to Hebron was taken but rarely by desert travelers. But even when it was taken, now as before, it seemed to throw little or no light on the site which Rowlands uplifted into such pre-eminence. His own report of it was given in a hurried per sonal letter ; and the many questions asked about points not touched in his description were not replied to by him in any formal statement. Hence one and another European or American traveler made the determined attempt to learn more on the subject by per sonal research ; but all to little purpose.

Dr. Stewart, an English elergyman, passing over the mid-desert route, in 1853, somewhat westward of Seetzen s course, pressed his Teeyahah guides for information as to the locality described by Rowlands; according to his mistaken understanding of it. 1 There-

1 Tent and Khan, p. 189 /.

230 KADESH-BAENEA.

upon, they coolly informed him that the well in question, which he reports as "Am el-Khudes," was "near the top of the western shoulder of the mountain," Jebel Helal; and that while "no camels could approach it ... a man with a water-skin slung on his back, could get at it by elimbing with his hands and feet." This "chaffing" of the Arabs, Stewart actually took for solid topo graphical knowledge, and on the strength of its possession he pro ceeded to criticise and correct the statements of his more successful fellow-countrymen. "This differs very widely from the glowing description given of it [the mountain-top spring] by the Rev. Mr. Rowlands, in a letter which appears in the appendix of his friend, Mr. Williams , book ; though it is probable they can be reconciled by supposing the stream, by which he encamped, to come down from the spring near the summit." And, on the strength of this story from the Arabs, Stewart entered " Am Khades," accordingly, on the map accompanying his really valuable book of travels.

Again Dr. William M. Thomson, the veteran and widely- known American missionary, after a quarter of a century s resi dence in the East, reported 1 of his search within a few miles of the locality pointed out by Rowlands: "I made diligent inquiries about Kadesh; but both our own Arabs and other Bedawin we met in the neighborhood were either absolutely ignorant of such a place, under any possible pronunciation of the name, or they pur posely concealed their knowledge of it." lie knew enough of the Arabs, however, to understand that seeming ignorance might really be studied concealment ; and he indulged in no sneers at the elaims of Rowlands to have seen that which a subsequent traveler w r as unable to re-discover.

Abeken, a German explorer, who was a companion of Lepsius in the latter s expedition to Egypt (1842-184G), made a journey at a later date, along this region; and a "Jebel el-Kudeis" Ls re-

1 South. Pal. (Land and Book,) p. 200.

FAILURES TO RE-FIX D ROWLANDS S SITE. 231

ported, as on his authority, in a position corresponding with the "\Vadi el-Kdeis" of Seetzen. 1 But this was not the Ayn Qadees of Rowlands; and there were even those who would frame an argument against the identification of Kadesh at Qadees, on the strength of this proof of another locality in the same region bear ing this correspondent name.

At length, after nearly thirty years from the discovery by Row lands, Palmer, the English Oriental scholar, who had already made his important explorations of the lower peninsula, and who had evidenced rare ability in influencing and controlling the Arabs, went out for the express purpose of exploring the Negeb and the desert immediately below it. 2 In this undertaking, he had in mind the re-discovery of the site of Kadesh-barnea, as one of the more important results of his researches ; and, in the minds of those who believed that Rowlands had correctly reported his discovery, there was little doubt that Palmer would now make this truth clear beyond a question. But even he was unable to find any such site as Rowlands had described, or to learn directly about it, 3 and, although he was convinced that in that region was the locality of Kadesh-barnea, and made a convincing argument in its favor, he came at last to believe that Robinson s gratuitous misstatement concerning Rowlands s confounding of Qadayrat and Qadees must have been the truth in the case; and he accordingly put himself on record as supposing that Rowlands " applied the name [ Ain Gadis/ as Palmer writes it] wrongly to Ain el Gudeirat,

1 Abeken s reports seem to have been made through the pages of the Berlin Monatsbericht der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunden; but I do not find there a record of the journey on which this discovery was reported. The mountain is, however, laid down as by his authority on Kiepert s map in Murray s Handbook for Syria and Pal., and is referred to in Smith-Hackett Bib. Die., Art. "Kadesh," note at p. 1522.

1 See his Des. of Exod., II., 283.

3 On this point I had the personal assurance of Professor Palmer, in a conference with him, on my return from the East, in the spring of 1881. It is also made clear by Besant, in his Life of Palmer (p. 101 /.)

232 KADESH-BARNEA.

some miles farther northward." l The " three springs, or rather shallow pools, called themdU [_ cistern-dregs ] by the Arabs," which Palmer thought were the real Ayn Qadees, were certainly not the springs described by Rowlands, nor anything like them. As a reason for this failure of Palmer to find the site which Rowlands had discovered, his accompanying shaykh, the wily Sulayman, afterwards asserted that he had purposely held back the dis tinguished explorer from a sight of the long-sought wells. 2

Palmer was followed, in 1874, by President Bartlett, an Ameri can scholar, who was equally intent on ascertaining fche truth con cerning the discovery of Rowlands, and equally unsuccessful. He also had the crafty Shaykh Sulayman as his escort, who, under the pressure of strong urging, conducted Bartlett to a locality which he said bore the name asked for. It was subsequently proved that the place thus shown to Bartlett was Ayn Qasaymch, 3 one of the two sites named by Rowlands as westward of Ayn Qadees. Even at the time, Bartlett was compelled to say of it : " It will be seen that this locality docs not conform to Rowlands s specification ;" but he was now prepared to believe that Rowlands s " narrative shows looseness of statement, both in description of places and in estimates of distances;" 4 and to declare that "we may at once recognize the description of Mr. Rowlands as somewhat overdrawn, his location confused, and his confidence excessive." 5 Moreover, Bartlett brought a new element of confusion into the discussion by insisting that there was really no such fountain as Ayn el-Qaday- rat in Wady el- Ayn ; nor indeed a fountain of any sort ; that, in fact, the fountain which both Robinson and Palmer, (and a host of commentators and geographers between them,) had declared was mistaken by Rowlands for Ayn Qadees did not have an existence, and therefore could never have been misnamed by Rowlands s Greek

1 DCS. of Exod., II., 350. 2 See Bartlett s Egypt to Pal., p. 359.

3 As will be shown farther on. 4 Egypt to Pal, p. 361. 5 Ibid., p. 367.

FAILURES TO RE-FIND ROWLANDS S SITE. 233

dragoman, even if Rowlands had had a dragoman, and that dragoman had happened to be a Greek. 1 Bartlett said in defence of this opinion, that neither Palmer nor Robinson, nor indeed Rowlands or any traveler before or after him, elaimed to have seen this fountain ; 2 while he had searched the wady thoroughly, and could " speak with some confidence on the subject." In view of all that had gone before, this unexpected result of the researches of so intelligent a traveler as Bartlett, raised anew the perplexing questions : Are there really three distinct fountains in that region : Ayn Qadees, Ayn Qadayrat, and Ayn Qasaymeh? or, are there only two ; and if two, which two ? or is there indeed but one ? And so instead of new light, there seemed only added shadows on the site of Kadesh-barnea through added research.

Three years after this visit of Bartlett to the region in question, another eminent American scholar, the Rev. Dr. Philip Schaff, crossed the desert northward with a party of friends, and vainly attempted to go over this route from Castle Nakhl to Hebron. Of his meeting with the Teeyahah Arabs at their mid-desert starting- point, he said: 3 "The sheikh, a commanding-looking man, di verted us from our intended route to Beersheba and Hebron (although we were willing to run the risk of danger)."

A year after Dr. Schaff was thus turned aside from his purpose, the Rev. F. "W. Holland, of England, already referred to as having no peer in his experience as an explorer of the Sinaitic desert, 4 made his fifth visit to that region, having it as one of the prime objects of his journey to settle the question of the site of Kadesh- barnea. If he could not succeed in finding the place so many times vainly hunted for, who could hope to do so? Yet even he

1 See page 221, supra.

2 He did not refer to Seetzen, who mentions the surroundings of the fountain as if he had seen it (Reisen, III., 47) ; yet even Seetzen does not directly say that he vis ited the place.

3 Through Bible Lands, p. 202. * See page 77, supra.

234 KADESH-BARNEA.

was induced to return without penetrating to the site described by Rowlands; being deterred by "the disturbed state of the country, owing to constant raids of the Arabs from the east of the Arabah ; and [by] the excessive drought." l

There was certainly little encouragement, in the experience of these travelers, to new endeavor in the same direction. Yet all these failures increased the obvious desirableness of farther and decisive information on the subject, from some clearly independent source. And this was the state of things at the opening of the year 1881.

1 Jour, of Trans, of Viet. List., Vol. XIV., p. 11.

Y.

KADE S H-B ARKEA : STORY OF A HUNT FOR IT.

KADESH-BAKNEA.

1. ITS AEAB GUARDIANS.

To begin with, it is important to know something of the hindrances to a hunt in the region where the site of Kadesh- barnea must be looked for.

That region is the territory of the Bed ween ; of the men of the desert. The Semitic Bed ween, although of many diverse tribes, are essentially one people j 1 and in no particular is their race-unity more apparent than in their unvarying recognition of their tribal- diversity. As a people, they are agreed that as tribes they are not agreed. Each tribe, or confederacy of tribes, stands firm as a representative of their common father Ishmael, of whom it was pro phesied before his birth : " He will be a wild man ; his hand will be against every man, and every man s hand against him." 2 The solidarity of the tribe, and the separateness of the tribes, are facts held with like religious zeal among all the Ishmaelitish Bed ween. And all are as one, in counting sacredly permanent the " ancient

1 "The Bedawin, whose name is the plural of the word Bedawi (man of the desert), although divided into independent tribes, which are often hostile one to another, may be regarded as a single nation, united by a common speech. ... In every age, the nomads, led by the chiefs of their families (sheikhs) have pitched their tents on every spot from the banks of the Euphrates to those of the Nile, from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of the Persian Gulf." (Pierotti s Customs and Traditions of Palestine, p. 200 /.)

2 Gen. 16 : 12.

237

238 KADESH-BARNEA.

landmark" 1 which designates the boundary line between the terri torial possessions, or roaming places, of tribes which are not as one.

To see one tribe of Bed ween is to see a specimen of all tribes ; but to be with one tribe is, in a peculiar sense, to be apart from all other tribes. You can move at will within the domain of the tribe of which you are, for the time being, a member; but the bounds of that domain you can pass only at your peril. For example, Laborde tells of a rock at the upper end of the Gulf of Aqabah on which every Muhammadan throws a stone in passing, in imitation of Abraham who there threw stones at Satan, when the latter would have turned him from the path of duty. " The rock just mentioned," says Laborde, " serves as a line of demarcation between the Bedouin of the peninsula of Sinai, and all the Arabs of the north. The moment we passed this frontier, the protection of our guides was of no use, except in so far as they might assist personally in defending us ; and they depended much more upon our guns and pistols for the safety of their dromedaries than upon their own prowess." 2

A recognition of these immutable facts of Bed ween life is essen tial to an understanding of the barriers and limitations to research in the land of the Bed ween.

The lower peninsula of Sinai is controlled by the Tawarah Bed ween, including several tribes or elans, associated or confeder ated under one head shaykh ; the Shaykh el-Belad, or Shaykh of the Territory. Their common tribal name is derived from Tur, or Toor, a word signifying mountain, and applied to the Sinaitie mountain group. They are sometimes known as Beny et-Toor, Sous of the Mountain ; although this designation is given to them by outsiders, they calling themselves by their separate tribal names. 3

1 Deut, 19: 14; Prov. 22: 28.

2 Laborde s Journey, p. 95. See, also, Robinson s Bib. Res. I., 162. 3 For descriptions of the Bed ween of tbe Peninsula, and tbeir tribal lines, sec Tlievenot s Rcisen, pp. 234-237; Shaw s Travels, I., 220-2,57; Hurckhardt s Travis

ITS ARAB GUARDIANS. 239

The Tawarah are a kindly-disposed and trustworthy people ; the most so of all the Arabian Bed ween. They have more to do with civilized travelers than any of their neighbors; for they are imme diately responsible for all the carrying trade the escort of cara vans and the guidance of pilgrims and tourists between Suez and Sinai, and northward from Sinai to the great Hajj route from Cairo to Mekkeh, which crosses the desert from west to east. Their gentleness and fidelity so attach to them the travelers whom they guide, that almost always they are parted from with regret, and remembered and referred to affectionately. 1

North of the Tawarah, in the central desert, are the Teeyahah Bed ween, comprising several elans, who again have their collective popular name from the region they inhabit the Desert of Et-Teeh, or Desert of the Wanderings. East of the Teeyahah, toward the Gulf of Aqabah, are the Hay wat ; 2 and northeast of the Hay wat

in Syria, pp. 557-564; his Beduinen u. Wahaby, passim; Labordc s Voyage de I Arabic Petree, pp. 52, 71 /. ; RiippelFs Reiscn, chap. 22; Robinson s Bib. Res., I., G3/., 133-138, 105 /., 18G; Ritter s Gcog. of Pal., I., 377-413; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 293-300.

For other descriptions of the characteristics of the Bed ween of the East, see Con- der s Tent Work in Pal., II., 270-292 ; Bedouins of Euphrates, passim ; Merrill s East of Jordan, pp. 467-515 ; McCoan s Egypt As It Is, pp. 26-28 ; Klunzinger s Upper Egypt, pp. 248-267 ; Pierotti s Customs and Trad, of Pal., pp. 200-207 ; Von Maltzan s Reisen in Arabien, I., 193-403.

1 For illustrations of the characteristics of the Tawarah in contrast with other Bed ween, and of the tribal jealousies in the matter of convoying travelers, see Burckhardt, Laborde, Robinson, Ritter, and Palmer, as above referred to; also Fazakerley s "Journey, in Walpole s Travels in the East, p. 385, 391; Lord Lind say s Letters, II., 163 ; Stephens s Incidents, II., 31 ; Formby s Visit to East, pp. 254- 256; Miss Martineau s Eastern Life, p. 343; Olin s Travels, I., 378; Bartlett s Forty Days in Desert, p. 163; Stewart s Tent and Khan, p. 12; Wilson s Lands of Bible, I., 270 /.; Bonar s Desert of Sinai, p. 273 f.; Caroline Puine s Tent and Harem, pp. 252-264; Strauss s Sinai u. Golgotha, pp. 113-121; Bartlett s Egypt to Palestine, p. 329; Schaff s Through Bible Lands, p. 137; Field s On the Desert, pp. 223-228.

* Dr. Wilson (Lands of Bible, I., 265) locates the Hay wat, or Ileiwat, south of the Teeyahah, between the Hajj route and Jebel et-Teeh ; but Burckhardt, Robinson, Ritter, and Palmer, locate them as above.

240 KADESH-BARNEA.

are the Ilawaytat and the Alnwcen ; west and northwest of the Tawarah, toward Suez and Gaza, are the Terabeen. The three tribes, of the Tecyahah, the Haywat, and the Terabeen, are in elose alliance, and are even thought by some to be of a common recent stock. 1 Together they outnumber any tribe or confederacy of tribes in the desert. From their central position, the Tecyahah elaim the right to escort, within their borders, all travelers who cross the desert in any direction, including the great Hajj, or annual sacred pilgrimage from Cairo to Mekkeh and back again. The Khedive, in his best estate, has been compelled to pay them liberally for this escort ; and if they had been on the desert in the days of Abraham, Kedor-la omer would have had a lively time trving to cross it without recognizing their elaim.

v O O

The Tceyahah are ruder and less trustworthy than the Tawarah. It was pithily said of them by Palmer, 2 that while " the ancient Arabs prided themselves on th^ee things, eloquence, hospitality, and plundering ; from the Teyaheh tribe the first two have en tirely disappeared, but they are still unrivalled " in the third.

All by themselves, in the mountains bearing their name, 3 north of the region of the Teeyahah and the Haywat, are the Azazimeh Bed ween, " one of the poorest and most degraded of Arab tribes " the most Ishmaclitish of Ishmaelites. According to Palmer s testimony, 4 "they are superstitious, violent, and jealous of intrusion upon their domain, suspecting all strangers of sinister designs upon their lives and property." 5 Of the difficulties in the way of

1 Burckhardt (Travels in Syria, p. 560) speaks of these three tribes, together with the Tawarah, as "all derived from one common stock, the ancient tribe of Beni Attye." Is it possible that he was misled by the term Beny et-Teeh, " Sons of the [Desert of the] Wanderings ? " He evidently does not mean " Ateeyeh."

2 Des. of E.rod., II., 294 /. 3 See page 70 /, supra. 4 Des. of Exod., IT., 291 /.

5 Laborde (Journey, p. 283, note) calls attention to the fact, that this jealous suspi cion of visitors from without, has been, from of old, a characteristic of the tribes bor dering on the Holy Land; as illustrated by the warning given by the princes of Ammon to their king against the kindly messengers of David : "Are not his servants

ITS ARAB GUARDIANS. 241

any research into their territory, he adds, out of his own experi ence : " To examine the country and wrest from them the secrets of its topography and nomenclature, when the use of a prismatic compass exposes you to execration as a sorcerer, and when to ask the simplest question is to proclaim yourself a spy, is, as our own experience has taught us, neither an easy nor an agreeable task."

Not only are the Azazimeh unwilling to make any terms with " Christians " as they call all Europeans or Americans ; but they are watchfully suspicious of their Teeyahch neighbors, when the latter are escorting travelers along their territory, and they protest against any freedom being allowed to the hated elass, in the line of archeological researches. 1

Ayn Qadees, the site of Kadesh-barnea, is in the heart of the Azazimeh territory. The Azazimeh themselves will not guide travelers to it ; nor will they give consent to the Teeyahah to do so. Hence, although it is but a little distance east of the direct route from Sinai to Hebron, it has, for generations, been practi cally inaccessible to travelers. The ordinary Teeyahah guides could not escort travelers thither : the superstitious Azazimeh would not. And, in this state of things, the Teeyahah have doubtless been reluctant to admit to travelers that they knew of a place so near their route, while they were unable to go to it. Therefore it is, that there came to be doubts of its very existence, during the nearly forty years in which intelligent and persistent explorers from Europe and America failed either to find it or to gain any information concerning it, as they journeyed in its region, after it was first lighted on in modern times by the adventurous and zealous Mr. Rowlands, of England.

Rowlands, indeed, was peculiarly favored in having Terabeen guides, from Gaza, as he went in search of the long-sought site.

come unto thee for to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land ? " (1 Chron. 19: 3).

1 See, e. g., Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 370 /. ; 403, 407 /.

242 KADESH-BARNEA.

The Terabeen are the only Arabs who seem on good terms with all the other tribes alike. Their immediate territory stretches from below Suez to Gaza. They are in elose confederation with the ruder Teeyahah, 1 in fact they are by some counted as a portion of that tribe. Moreover they are more than friendly to the gentle Tawarah. As Robinson s guide " Tuweileb" said, "Between the Tawarah and the Terabin, there is an oath of friendship, to endure as long as there is water in the sea, and no hair grows in the palm of the hand. " And what is still stranger, these kindly-disposed Terabeen arc on excellent terms with the jealous, superstitious, and quarrelsome Azazimeh, " and sometimes pasture within their territory," 3 even while the Azazimeh and Teeyahah are at feud with one another. Thus the Terabeen arc in a peculiar sense a resolv ing element in the disturbing forces of the desert peoples ; and it was through their guidance that Rowlands was enabled to reach the jealously-guarded fountain of Qadees within the territory of the Azazimeh. But when he came out from that sacred enclosure, it seemed as if its entrance were not only immediately elosed be hind him, but actually lost to sight and knowledge. Because the Teeyahah were commonly excluded from the land of the Azazimeh, it is probable that many of them were really unfamiliar with the name and location of Ayn Qadees, while those who did know it were prompt to avert all discussion of the feasibility of a visit to it, bv professing ignorance of such a site, or bv Iviug about it, and

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extemporizing a convenient substitute for it, just as the one plan or another seemed most likely to accomplish the end desired. And

1 Dr. Sch afT (77ir0?i^7i Billc Lands, p. 202,) tells of warfare between the Teeyahah, and the Terabeen and Haywat, at the time of his tour in 1877 ; but it is more prob able that the opponents of the Teeyahah were the Azazimeh ; as is indicated by the fact that his Teeyahah guides were unwilling to escort him in the direction of the Azazimeh toward Hebron, but were ready to take him among the Terabeen toward Gaza.

*ib. Res., I., 137. Ubid., I., 186.