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Kadesh Barnea

Out of the proverbial 40 years of Wandering in the Desert, almost
38 years were spent in Kadesh Barnea. Usually the place is looked
for in the Sinai Desert, and the preferred location is about 18
miles south of el-Arish on the Mediterranean coast.

As I show in another chapter, "[4]The Great and Terrible
Wilderness" was the Arabian Desert; Midian also was not in the
Negev or on the coast of the Aqaba Gulf, but where today is
Medina--the place where Moses spent years as a political emigré
from Egypt, prior to the Exodus.

The reson for the long stay of the Israelites at Kadesh Barnea was
in the existence there of sources of water, while in the Desert
most of the rare sources became bitter.

I am also helped in my identification of Kadesh Barnea with Mecca
by what I believe is the Arab autochthonous (in distinction with
stories in the Koran which were borrowed from Jewish teachings)
tradition of the passage of the Sea and wandering in the Desert
told in the story of Mosai-ka-ya and his brother (carrying a name
similar to Aaron, and a sister resembling Miriam), The lay flocks
of wanderers under the leadership of these three occupied Mecca.

Mecca was abandoned by the Amalekites following the catastrophe
that also ruined Egypt, shortly before its occupation by the
Israelites, after Mecca was shattered by earthquakes and plagued by
an invasion of vermin (ants). Israelites occupied the abandoned
place. The Amalekites, plagued also by a plague of insects, moved
toward Palestine and Egypt, and soon also built at el-Arish their
fortress-capital Avaris. The Israelites, who were unable to break
through to Palestine from the south, reached the abandoned capital
of the Amalekites. At Mecca there are sources of water, considered
sacred and many legends are preserved about them. The water sources
of Kadesh-Barnea and the legends concerning the springs of Mecca
indicate that some water springs, not destroyed in the catastrophe,
were the main incentive for the Israelites to congregate there.

More than a score of years after I came to this conclusion and the
Arab story of Mosai-ka-ya, Bar Broma, the author of Negeb published
his view that Kadesh Barnea was in the Arab Desert (but quite north
of Mecca) at Medain-Salib, formerly El-Hejr, about 450 km farther
southeast from Petra, which place he identifies as Kadesh (not
Kadesh-Barnea)--Palestine Exploration Quarterly July-December 1964.
This view was left undiscussed as far as I know.As explained above,
I identify it with Mecca, farther south.
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References

1. file://localhost/www/saturnian/files/vel-unpublished/jordan.htm
2. file://localhost/www/saturnian/files/vel-unpublished/hgdict.htm
3. file://localhost/www/saturnian/files/vel-unpublished/kadeshjudah.htm
4. file://localhost/www/saturnian/files/vel-unpublished/desert.htm
5. file://localhost/www/saturnian/files/vel-unpublished/jordan.htm
6. file://localhost/www/saturnian/files/vel-unpublished/hgdict.htm
7. file://localhost/www/saturnian/files/vel-unpublished/kadeshjudah.htm