The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 171

of the Azazimeh (see note on eh. x. 12). This desert plain, some ten miles by six in extent, is screened from ordinary observation by the outer mountain walls of tha .Azazimat, which shut it off on the west from the desert road from Sinai to Hebron, on the north from the Wady Murrah. At the north-east of the plain is a bold and bare rock, a promontory of the northern mountain rampart, from the.foot of which issues a copious spring, which begins by falling in cascades into the bed of a torrent, and ends by losing itself in the sands. Amongst the W adys which open into the plain is one which bears the name of Redemat (see note on eh. xii. 16). It 1s un- certain whether there is any easy communication between this plain and the W ady Murreh, bot there are several passes on the western side which lead by a slight circuit to the southern table-lands of Palestine. The view adopted by the majority of English commentators is that of the traveller Robinson. According to these authorities Kadesh must be sought in the Arabah, the broad depression which runs northward from the head of the Elanitic Gulf until it meets the Ghor below the Dead Sea. By most of those who hold this view the site of Kadesh is placed at Ain-el-Weibeh, ten miles to the north of Mount Hor, and opposite the opening (from the east) of the Wady el Ghuweir, which affords the only easy passage through Edom to the north-west. Others, however, prefer Ain Hash, a few miles further north. The local peculiarities of either place are such a~ to satisfy the requirements of the narrative, although they would not by themselves have recalled the scenes with which Kadesh is associated. Of other theories none perhaps need to be considered here, because none can reasonably enter into competition with the two already mentioned; they avoid none of the difficulties with which these are beset, while they incur others of their own. If, indeed, Rabbinical tradition (followed in this case by Jerome) were worth any- thing, it would decide the question in favour of Petra, the Aramaic name of which (Rekem) uniformly takes the place of Kadesh in the Syriac and Chaldee, and in the 'ralmud. Kadesh-Barnea in the Targums is Rekem-Geiah. Petra itself (of which the ancient name apparently was Selah (2 Kings xiv. 7), the very word used in eh. xx. 10, 11) stands in a gorge famous for its giant cliffs, still called the Wady Mlllla, concerning which the local tradition is that it was cleft by the rod of Moses. But apart from these resemblances of name, which are so fallacious, and these legends, which are so worthless, there is absolutely nothing to connect Kadesh with Petra; on the contrary, the position of Petra, far away from Palestine, on the skirts of Mount Hor, and in the heart of Edom, distinguish it sharply from the Kadesh of the Bible story. The two can only be identified on the supposition that the sacred narrative, as it stands, is mistaken and mi9leading. In examining briefly the arguments by which the western and eastern sites respect- ively are maintained and assailed, it will be better to dismiss the evidence (such as it is) afforded by modern nomenclature, which is always open to grave suspicion, and is at best of very variable value. The Wady Retemdt, e. g., is so named from the broom plant, which is very plentiful in the peninsula, and may have lent a similar name to many another place. In favour of the western site, that of the so-called plain of Kudes, we have the following arguments in addition to the marked naturaffeatures which suggested the identification. 1. Previous mentions of Kadesh would certainly dispose us (in the absence of any indication that there was more than one place of that name) to look for it to the south of Palestine, and rather to the south-west than to the south- east. In Gen. xh•. 7 it is mentioned in connection with the "country of the Amale- kites," which was apparently between Canaan and Egypt. In the same regior, .--11  152 TIIE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cns. xm., xiv.