KADESH, or Kadesh-barnea, otherwise Gen. xiv. 7. Numb. xx. 1.called the Fountain of Judgment. This City is celebrated for several Events. At Kadesh, Miriam the Sister of Moses died. Here it was that Moses and Aaron, shewing a Distrust of God’s Power, when they smote the Rock at the Waters of Strife, were condemned to dye, without having the Consolation of entring the promised Land. The Numb. xxvii. 14. Josh. xii. 22. Josh. xv. 24. Herodot. Lib. 2. Chap. 5. p. 2.King of Kadesh was one of the Princes killed by Joshua. This City was given to the Tribe of Judah. It was about eight Leagues from Hebron towards the South.
It is perhaps the same as Cadytis, mention’d by Herodotus, the Situation whereof he describes in this Manner. The Countrey of the Syrians, called Palestine, reaches from Phœnicia to the Mountains of Cadis. Now Cadis is a City, in my Opinion, not much less than Sardis. From Cadis, the trading Places which lye upon the Sea, as far as the City Jenysus, belong to Arabia. And from Jenysus to the Lake Sirbon, they again belong to Syria. Palestine extends therefore from Phœnicia, which ends about Mount Carmel, to the Mountains of Kadesh-barnea, which lye to the South of Palestine. From Kadesh to Jenysus, a Place which is unknown to us, the maritime Towns belong to the Arabians; and from Jenysus to the Lake Sirbon they again belong to the Palestines, or Syrians of Palestine. This seems to be pretty clear. Herodotus in another Herodot. Lib. 2. p. 156.Place says, that Nechos King of Egypt, having attacked the Syrians at Magdolum, defeated them, and took Cadytis from them, which is a large City in Syria. Some believe that he meant the Battle fought between Necho and Josiah King of Judah, wherein this last Prince was overcome 2 Kings xxiii. 29. 30.and wounded mortally. The Scripture says, that this battle was fought at Megiddo, which has some Resemblance to Magdolum, mentioned by Herodotus. Scaliger was of this Opinion.
Others have thought, that Cadytis signified the City of Jerusalem, called Cadyta or Cadyscha, as if it were said the holy City. But we do not read expressly in Scripture, that Necho took this City, either before or after his Expedition to Carchemish1. We were of Opinion formerly, that Cadys, See our Comment. upon 2 Kings xxiii.Cadys, which Herodotus speaks of, is the same as Kadesh or Kedesh of Nephtali, in Upper-Galilee, which Necho might have taken after his Victory over Josiah at Megiddo, near the Foot of Mount Carmel. His road to Carchemish, upon the Euphrates, lay in the Neighbourhood of Kedesh of Nephtali.
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. It is certain, notwithstanding our Author’s Assertion, and we are assured of it from Scripture, that after the Battle of Megiddo, Necho did take Jerusalem; for he was there when he made Jehoiakim King. And altho’ there is no mention of the Name Kadytis, in either the Scriptures or Josephus, yet that it was so called by the Syrians and Arabians in Herodotus’s Time, appears from this; that by them and all the Eastern Nations, it is even to this Day, called by no other Name than one of the same Original and Signification. Jerusalem is now a Name as strange to them, as Kadytis to us. They call it Al kuds, which signifies the same as Kadytis, The Holy. The Inscription on the Jewish Shekels was Jerusalem Kedushah, whence the neighbouring Nations for Brevity sake, called it Kedushah, in the Syriac Dialect Kedutha; whence Herodotus giving it a Greek Termination, called it Kadytis. See Prid. Connect, &c. Part I. Book 1. ↩