Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/365

 situation of this important place has been practically settled since the appearance of Trumbull's Kadesh-Barnea in 1884 (see Guthe, ZDPV, viii. 183 ff.). It is the spring now known as 'Ain Ḳadîs, at the head of the Wādī of the same name, "northward of the desert proper," and about 50 m. S of Beersheba (see the description by Trumbull, op. cit. 272-275). The distance in a straight line from Elath would be about 80 m., with a difficult ascent of 1500 ft. The alternative name ('Well of Judgement') is found only here. Since means 'holy' and 'judicial decision,' it is a plausible conjecture of Rob. Sm. that the name refers to an ordeal involving the use of 'holy water' (Nu. 5$17$) from the sacred well (RS$2$, 181). The sanctuary at Kadesh seems to have occupied a prominent place in the earliest Exodus tradition (We. Prol.$6$ 341 ff.); but there is no reason why the institution just alluded to should not be of much greater antiquity than the Mosaic age.— is, according to 2 Ch. 20$2$, Ēn-gĕdî (Ain Ǧidī), about the middle of the W shore of the Dead Sea. A more unsuitable approach for an army to any part of the Dead Sea basin than the precipitous descent of nearly 2000 feet at this point, could hardly be imagined: see Robinson, BR, i. 503. It is not actually said that the army made the descent there: it might again have made a detour and reached its goal by a more practicable route. But certainly the conditions of this narrative would be better satisfied by Kurnub, on the road from Hebron to Elath, about 20 m. WSW of the S end of the Dead Sea. The identification, however, requires three steps, all of which involve uncertainties: (1) that = the  of Ezk. 47$19$ 48$28$; (2) that this is the Thamara of OS (85$3$, 210$86$), the of Ptol. xvi. 8; and (3) that the ruins of this are found at Kurnub. Cf. EB, 4890; Buhl, GP, 184.

The six peoples named in vv.$5-7$ are the primitive races which, according to Heb. tradition, formerly occupied the regions traversed by Chedorlaomer. (1) The are spoken of as a giant race dwelling partly on the W (15$20$, Jos. 17$15$, 2 Sa. 21$16$, Is. 17$5$), partly on the E, of the Jordan, especially in Bashan, where Og reigned as the last of the Rephaim (Dt. 3$11$, Jos. 12$4$ etc.).—(2) The, only mentioned here, are probably the same as the Zamzummîm of Dt. 2$20$, the aborigines of the Ammonite country. The equivalence of the two forms is considered by Sayce (ZA, iv. 393) and others to be explicable only by the Babylonian confusion of m and w, and thus a proof that the narrative came ultimately from a cuneiform source.—(3) ] a kind of Rephaim, aborigines of Moab (Dt. 2$10f.$).—(4) ] the race extirpated by the Edomites (36$20ff.$, Dt. 2$12. 22$). The name has usually been understood to mean 'troglodytes' (see Dri. Deut. 38); but this is questioned by Jen. (ZA, x. 332 f., 346 f.) and Homm. (AHT, 264$2$), who identify the word with Ḫaru, the Eg. name for SW Palestine. —(5) ] the Amalekite territory, was in the Negeb, extending towards Egypt (Nu. 13$29$ 14$43. 45$, 1 Sa. 27$8$). In ancient tradition, Amalek was 'the firstling of peoples' (Nu. 24$20$), although, according to Gn. 36$12$ its ancestor was a grandson of Esau.—(6) ] see on 10$16$; and cf. Dt. 1$44$, Ju. 1$36$.—