THE LONG HALT AT KADESH
The oasis of Kadesh where Mosheh and the ark stayed for about thirty-eight years
There were three principal breaks in the long journey of the Exodus: Sinai where the Yisraelites remained very nearly a year, as we have just seen; the oasis of Kadesh where Mosheh and the ark stayed for about thirty-eight years (if, that is, the symbolic number of ‘forty years’ for the duration of the Exodus is taken literally); Mount Nebo where Mosheh died, looking towards the Promised land which he could see in the distance, but which he was not allowed to enter. From Kadesh to Mount Nebo the journey took scarcely a year. The long halt at Kadesh is a period of considerable importance in the formative history of Yisrael.
The journey to Kadesh marred with family and complaining troubles (Bemidbar 11-12)
The journey proved long and arduous. It took eleven days to cross the wilderness of Sin and Paran. Complaints were frequent and on occasion open rebellion was very near. There was no lack of incidents.
We know only the most important halts; some of them are difficult to identify, and indeed their enumeration differs from chapter to chapter, possibly because all the tribes did not follow exactly the same route. Here the three principal stages can be mentioned (see map below).
Firstly, there was Taberah (‘burning’). The people complained bitterly of the difficulties and fatigues of the journey, a lament that was offensive to YAHWEH’s ears. One day the tents caught fire; it was seen as a manifestation of YAHWEH’s anger (Bemidbar 11:1).
At Kibroth-hattaavah (‘graves of craving’) the people began to complain about the manna of which they were growing tired. ‘Who will give us meat to eat?’ they exclaimed. ‘Think of the fish we used to eat free in Egypt the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. .. there is nothing but manna for us to look at! Fortunately it was springtime, the season for the migration of quails; a flight of these birds swooped down on the camp and enabled the Yisraelites to eat to their hearts’ content. But food-poisoning from the flesh of these birds unfortunately caused several deaths. To this baleful place the name of Kibroth-hattaavah (‘graves of craving’) was given, for it was there that were buried the people who had indulged their greed.
Greatly upset, Mosheh asked YAHWEH to relieve him of his charge: ‘I am not able to carry this nation by myself alone; the weight is too much for me. If this is how you want to deal with me, I would rather you killed me! If only I had found favour in your eyes, and not lived to see such misery as this! YAHWEH agreed to lighten the burden of his envoy; henceforth seventy elders of Yisrael would be allowed to go with Mosheh to the Tent of Meeting.
The next halt was at Hazeroth (possibly the modern ‘Ain Kudrah). The new political organization eased the burden on Mosheh, but then it was his family which began to cause him annoyance. Aaron and Miriam, his seniors, started to lead a campaign against him. They attacked him indirectly, raising the racial issue against his wife, the Midianite Zipporah who was not a Yisraelite. She was a foreigner. Between the lines we can detect the jealous hatred of Miriam, a woman of difficult character, for her sister-in-law a Kushite, a second-class Bedouin woman.
It was a quarrel between women, but the Aaron-Miriam trouble did not end there. ‘Has YAHWEH spoken to Mosheh only?’ they dared to insinuate. ‘Has he not spoken to us too?’ Quite simply it was a family plot whose purpose was clear: they desired to relieve Mosheh of his office of being the sole prophet leader of Yisrael and man of YAHWEH, and invest his brother and sister-in-law with the supreme power. YAHWEH’s response was not long in coming: Miriam was struck with leprosy and it required the intervention and prayers of Mosheh before she was cured.
Between Hazeroth and Kadesh it is a long way and fresh camps had to be established before they reached the oasis which formed the purpose of their journey. One of the chapters of Bemidbar gives us a list of these camps. The reader will find marked on the map below the few points which it has been possible to identify with any certainty, such as Rissah (el-Kuntilla) and Kehelathah. And so they came to the oasis of Kadesh.
Kadesh (Kadesh-barnea, now ‘Ain Qadeis) is an attractive oasis situated at the junction of several caravan routes leading from Egypt to Canaan or from Gaza to the oases of Arabia by way of Ezion-geber. At Kadesh were four copious springs feeding several streams on the banks of which grew small acacia trees; it was a site lending itself to cultivation on a small scale, and an obvious centre for the establishment of a sort of federal capital which could become the kernel of the political and religious organization of the Yisraelites. Mosheh therefore settled there with the Tabernacle, YAHWEH’s Dwelling.
The Yisraelite tribes were scattered about in the wilderness that is called by the Scriptures sometimes Zin and sometimes Paran; following their usual life as wandering shepherds they went from pasture to pasture, from well to well, like their ancestors for thousands of years before them. But it seems that these Yisraelite shepherds took special care to maintain contact with the centre at Kadesh where Mosheh sat as the supreme judge and representative of YAHWEH.
FROM SINAI TO THE OASIS OF KADESH-BARNEA
Yisrael tries unsuccessfully to penetrate into Canaan by the south
This section of the narrative is divided into two parts.
First there is an account of the military defeat in accordance with the rather confused explanations provided by the Scriptures. There follows an attempt to give an historical account which seems more likely in the circumstances.
It seems quite obvious that the base at Kadesh was chosen by Mosheh on account of its tactical position: the oasis and its region constituted an excellent starting point for an attack on Canaan, for it was only two or three stages away from the promised Land.
Ordinary prudence required that such an undertaking should not be entered on blindly; it was of supreme importance to discover by reconnaissance what were the prospects for a successful invasion of Canaan. For this purpose Mosheh sent into the region twelve leaders,1 one from each tribe, to carry out a thorough investigation. These scouts reconnoitered the land as far as Rehob, the Pass of Hamoth,2 Bemidbar records (13:11), a point situated at the extreme north of Palestine. They began their reconnaissance at Hebron in the southern part of Canaan. It is this last piece of information that should be borne in mind: Hebron is something like a hundred miles from their starting-point, a convenient distance from which to plan a local military action.
After a long absence (designated by the usual period of ‘forty days’) the group of scouts returned to Kadesh, where they made their report and showed the produce of the country. But they differed among themselves in the conclusions to be drawn from their expedition.
In the view of some of them an attack on Canaan would be sheer madness. They acknowledged the richness of the country which did indeed flow with milk and honey, but they had been able to observe that the men there were formidable, real giants, before whom the Yisraelites would be like grasshoppers. In addition the country bristled with enormous fortifications with very high walls.
Among those who had returned from the reconnaissance there were two who by no means shared the views of their companions; Joshua and Caleb spoke strongly against the exaggerations of the ten others and as a sign of their protestation against these pessimistic statements they publicly tore their garments. ‘The land we went to reconnoiter is a good land, an excellent land. If YAHWEH is pleased with us, HE will lead us into this land and give it to us.’ But the people began to talk of stoning them.
The narrative now assumes the epic form in conformity with the literary style of the story-tellers. ‘How long will this people insult ME?’ YAHWEH asked HIS servant Mosheh. ‘How long will they refuse to believe in ME?’ Outraged, HE spoke of destroying this ‘stiff-necked’ people. HE had made up HIS mind to disown them; Mosheh would become HIS son and of him HE would make a new nation.
Mosheh prostrated himself on the ground and once more implored YAHWEH In favour of HIS faithless people. In the end, but with great difficulty, Mosheh was successful. The righteous anger was not entirely appeased, nonetheless, as the following speech shows: ‘All the men who have seen MY splendor,’ said YAHWEH, ‘and the signs that I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, who have put ME to the test ten times already and not obeyed MY voice, not one shall see the land I swore to give to their fathers. ...In this wilderness your dead bodies will fall, all you men of the census, 3 all you who were numbered from the age of twenty years and over, you who have complained against ME. ...As for you your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. ...For forty days you reconnoitered the land. Each day shall count for a year; for forty years you shall bear the burden of your sins, and you shall learn what it means to reject ME.’
Yahshua Ben Nun and Caleb, the only two leaders prepared to carry out the invasion plan called for by YAHWEH, would one day enter the Promised Land. The ten other leaders who had turned the people away from this plan were all struck dead by YAHWEH.
‘Tomorrow, ‘ YAHWEH curtly ordered, in the obviously epic style and spirit of the narrative, ‘you will turn about and go back into the wildemess, in the direction of the Sea of Suph’ [the Red Sea].
There follows a somewhat curious episode (Bemidbar14:39-45). On one day the Yisraelite military forces refused to set off to attack Canaan. On the next, in the face of YAHWEH’s reproaches, and despite the fresh instructions ordering them to make their way to the south, the Yisraelites decided to attack the enemy -the Amalekites and Canaanites -with a firm intention of settling accounts with these peoples.
Mosheh, the Scripture tells us, tried to restrain them. ‘Why disobey the command of YAHWEH?’ he demanded. And he warned them, ‘Nothing will come of it. ...You will fall to their swords because you have turned away from YAHWEH, and YAHWEH is not with you.’
Mosheh, of course, refrained from following the madmen in the foolish adventure. He and the ark of the Covenant did not leave the camp at Kadesh. The armed column which had rushed so foolishly into battle suffered, as was to be expected, a severe defeat. They were pushed back and harried all the way to Hormah.
It is difficult to fit this scene into the epic. It seems possible, however, to attempt an historical explanation if the chapter (Bemidbar14) in which the rebellion against Mosheh is related is read in conjunction with the chapter entitled ‘the waters of Meribah’ (Bemidbar 20). The two separate episodes -abandonment of the campaign in the south of Palestine; the punishment of Mosheh -are rather difficult to grasp when they are read separately, but directly they are set side by side they shed light on each in an unexpected manner.
1 From the tribe of Ephraim Hoshea, son of Nun, was designated; he was already one of Mosheh’ most trusted and active lieutenants. On the occasion of the departure of these envoys Mosheh changed the name of Hoshea into Joshua (‘May YAHWEH save!’)
2 Rehob probably Beth-rehob (Beit-Rohob), near Laish-Dan The Pass of Hamoth by this term the scribe probably means to designate the valley of Coele-Syria in the north between Lebanon and the Anti- Lebanon.
3 This is an allusion to the census of the men able to bear arms which was taken soon after the arrival al Sinai.
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