Considerations on the Exodus Debate A possible reason why the search for evidence of the Exodus remains unsuccessful.

Kadesh Barnea - Tell Qudeirat

Problems with Mecca/Kadesh Barnea Out of the proverbial 40 years of Wandering in the Desert, almost 38 years were spent in Kadesh Barnea.1) 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, however, we show that Nuweiba Beach is where Israel crossed the Red Sea. As I show in another chapter, "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. 1) For an image of the valley thought by Leonard Wooley to have been near `Ain el-Qudeirat', the location for the Kadesh Barnea in the Sinai, on the basis of an ancient fortress located there, which Wooley thought, dated to the time of Moses, see BAR, Vol. 23, Sep/Oct 1997, p. 47. See also Itzhaq Beit-Arieh, The Route Through Sinai', BAR, Vol. XV, May 1988, p. 28-37. (Shows good aerial view of Tell Ein el-Qudeirat; Ignores parting of the sea); C. Meyers, `Kadesh Barnea' in BA, Vol. 39, Dec 1976, p. 148-151. The reason 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. To that we might add a desire to stay out of harms way from possible future Amalekite attacks. Moses knew that his desert period would be lengthy [Exodus 16:35; Numbers 14: 28-33] and therefore decided the place vacated by the Amalekites would be best suited for his purposes. 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.

Some Israeli archaeologists seem to engage in wanting to put their discipline into the driver seat for any knowledge of the past of their people and country. Not having found archaeological evidence for the Exodus in the Sinai, they discount this pivotal event as ever having happened at all. But again, we would like to point out that not all options have been seriously considered for as far as we know the region of Mecca has never entered the discussion as a possible center for the majority of time Israel spent in the Desert. For this reason we present this short view paper by Immanuel Velikovsky on the subject matter.

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