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CHAPTER 19: The Thirty-Eight Years In The Wilderness - The Sabbath-
Breaker - The Gainsaying Of Korah AndOf His Associates - Murmuring
Of The People; The Plague, & How It Was Stayed - Aakon's RodBudding,
Blossoming, And Bearing FruitNumbers F 33:19-37; 16, 17; Deuteronomy
1:46-11:15
MORE than thirty-seven years of "wanderings" were now to be passed in "the
wilderness of Paran,"until a new generation had risen to enter on possession of the
Land of Promise. Of that long periodscarcely more than one single record is left us in
Scripture. As a German writer observes, The hostof Israel, being doomed to judgment,
ceased to be the subject of sacred history, while the risinggeneration, in whom the life
and hope of Israel vow centered, had, as yet, no history of its own. Andso we mark all
this period rather by the death of the old than by the life of the new, and
thewanderings of Israel by the graves which they left behind, as their carcasses fell in
the wilderness.
Still, we may profitably gather together the various notices scattered in Scripture.
First, then, welearn that Israel "abode in Kadesh many days," (Deuteronomy 1:46) and
that thence their directionwas "towards the Red Sea." (Deuteronomy 2:1) Their
farthest halting-place from Kadesh seems tohave been Ezion-gaber, which, as we
know, lay on the so-called Elanitic Gulf of the Red Sea.Thence they returned, at the
end of the forty years wanderings, once more to "the wilderness of Zin,which is
Kadesh." (Numbers 33:36) The "stations" on their wanderings from Kadesh to Ezion-
geberare marked in Numbers 33:18-35. There are just seventeen of them, after leaving
Rithmah - a namederived from retem, a broom-bush, and which may therefore signify
the valley of the broom-bushes.If we rightly understand it, this was the original place
of the encampment of Israel near Kadesh. Inpoint of fact, there is a plain close to 'Ain
Gadis or Kadesh which to this day bears the name of AbuRetemet. As for Kadesh
itself - or the Holy Place, the place of "sanctifying" - which originally borethe name
En-Mishpat, "well of judgment," (Genesis 14:7) we imagine that it derived its peculiar
namefrom the events that there took place, the additional designation of Barnea -
Kadesh Barnea - eithermarking a former name of the place, or more probably meaning
"the land of moving to and fro."
We presume that the encampment in "the broom-valley" was in all probability
determined by theexistence and promise of vegetation there, which, no doubt, was due
to the presence ofwatercourses. Indeed, an examination of the names of the seventeen
stations occupied by Israelduring their wanderings shows, that all the encampments
were similarly selected in the neighborhoodof water and vegetation. Thus we have
Rimmon-parez, "the pomegranate breach" - perhaps theplace where Korah's rebellion
brought such terrible punishment; Libnah, "whiteness," probably fromthe white poplar
(^)