Deut. i,2,19; ii,14; ix,23; Josh, x, 41; xiv,(;,7; xv,3; Sept. K-dSi]Q [roi)] Booj'//), a site on the south-eastern border of the Promised Land, towards Edora, of much in- terest as being the point at whicli the Israelites twice encamped (their nineteentli and thirty-seventh stations) Avith the intention of entering Palestine, and from which they were twice sent back ; the tirst time in pursuance of their sentence to wander forty years in the wilder- ness, and tlie second time from the refusal of the king of Edom to permit a passage through his territories. It is proliable that the term " Kadesh," though applied to signify a "city," yet had also a wider application to a region, in which Kadesh -meribah certainly, and Ka- desh-barnea probably, indicate a precise spot. Thus Kadesli appears as a limit eastward of the same tract which was limited westward by Shur (Gen. xx, 1). Shur is possibly the same as Sihor, " which is before Egypt" (xxv, 18 ; Josh, xiii, 3 ; Jer. ii, 18), and was the first jiortion of the wilderness on wliich the people emerged from the passage of the Ked Sea. See Shur. "Be- tween Kadesh and Bered" is another indication of the site of Kadesh as an eastern limit (Gen. xvi, 14), for the point so fixed is " the fountain on the way to Shur" (v, 7), and the range of limits is narrowed by selecting the western one not so far to the west, while the eastern one, Kadesh, is unchanged. Again, we have Kadesh as the point to which the foray of Chedorlaomer " return- ed"— a word which does not imply that they had previ- ously visited it, but that it lay in the direction, as view- ed from Mount Seir and Paran, mentioned next before it, which was that of the point from which Chedorlao- mer had come, viz. the north. Chedorlaomer, it seems, coming down by tlie eastern shore of the Dead Sea, smote the Zuzims (Amnion, Gen. xiv, 5; Deut. ii, 20), and the Emims (Moab, Deut. ii, 11), and the Horites in Mount Seir, to the south of that sea, luito " El-Paran that is by the wilderness." He drove these Horites over the Arabah into the Et-Tlh region. Then " re- turned," i. e. went northward to Kadesh and Ilazezon Tamar, or Engedi (comp. Gen. xiv, 7 ; 2 Chron. xx, 2). It was from Kadesh that the spies entered Palestine bj' ascending the mountains : and the murmuring Israelites, afterwards attempting to do the same, \vere driven back by the Amalekites and Canaanites, and afterwards ap- parently by the king of Arad, as far as Ilormah, then called Zephath (Numb, xiii, 17 ; xiv, 40-45 ; xxi, 1-3 ; Deut. i, 41-44 ; compare Judg. i, 7). There was also at Kadesh a fountain (Ex-jiishpat) mentioned long be- fore the exode of the Israelites (Gen. xiv, 7) ; and the miraculous supply of water took place only on the sec- ond visit, which implies that at the first there was no lack of this necessary article. In memory of the mur- murs of the Israelites, this fountain afterwards bore the name of " the Waters of Meribah" (Deut. xxxii, 51). The adjacent desert was called the "Wilderness of Ka- desh" (Psa. xxix, 8). On the second visit to this place iMiriam died there, and jMoses sent messengers to the king of Edom, informing him that they were in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost part of his border, and asking leave to pass through his country, so as to continue their course round jMoal), and approach Palestine from the east. This Edom rei'used, and the Israelites accord- ingly marched to Mount Ilor, where Aaron died; and then along the Arabah (desert of Zin) to the Red Sea (Numb. XX, 14-29). The name of Kadesh again occurs in describing the southern quarter of Judah, tlie line de- fining which is drawn "from the shore of the Salt Sea, from the bay that looked southward; and it went out to the south side of Akrabbim, and passed along to Zin, and ascended up on the south side to Kadesh-barnea" (Josh. XV, 1-3 ; compare Numb, xxxiv, 3, 4). In Gen. xiv, 7 Kadesh is connected with Tamar, or Hazezon Ta- mar, just as we find these two in the cf)mparativcly late book of Ezeldel, as designed to mark the southern bor- der of Judah, drawn through them and terminating sea- ward at the " river to," or " towards the great sea" (Ezek. xlvii, 19; xlviii, 28). There is one objection to
this view. The Kadesh from which the spies were sent was in t/ie wilderness of Paran (Numb, xiii, 26); Ka- desh-barnea was in the wilderness of Zin (xx, 1). This is easily removed. Paran was the general name for the whole desert west of the Arabah, extending from Pales- tine to Sinai (Gen. xxi, 21 ; Numb, x, 12 ; xii, 10 ; 1 Sam. xxv, 1). It even seems to have included the Ar- abah, reaching to the very base of Mount Seir (Gen. xiv, G). Zin was a specific name for that part of the Arabah which bordered on Edom and Palestine (Numb, xiii, 21 ; xxxiv, 3, 4 ; Josh, xv, 1-3). If Kadesh was sit- uated on the western side of the Arabah, then it might be reckoned either to Paran or to Zin ; or, if we agree with Keil, Delitzsch, and others (Keil on Josh, x), that Paran was the general name for the whole, and Zin the specific name of a portion, the objection is removed at once. — Kitto; Smith. Compare Kedesii, 1.