CADES (CADESBARNE). - A locality situated at the extreme southern limit of the Promised Land, previously called 'En Mishpash (Gen. 14:7) or "spring of judgment." Etymologically from Qādhēsh "holy" or Qādhēsh-Barnēa (the meaning of the second term is unknown: Num. 20:14; 32:8, etc.). Already famous in the time of the patriarch Abraham (Gen. 14:7; 16:14; 20:1), K. became the camping place of the Israelites, after the exodus from Egypt, for a period of 38 years (Num. 20:1; Deut. 1:46; 2:14); from there the twelve spies set out to visit the Promised Land (Num. 13); there the people quarreled with Moses and Aaron over the lack of water (whence the name Mē Mēribhath Qādhēsh, that is, "water of the contention of K.," given to the same locality (Num. 20:2-13; 27:14; Deut. 32:51); there too Miriam, sister of Moses, died (Num. 20:1), and finally it was also from there that Moses sent ambassadors to the king of Edom (Num. 20:14-21).
Numerous texts describe the site of K. with sufficient precision: it was on the road that leads from Horeb (Sinai) to the mountain of the Amorites (Deut. 1:19), that is, to the land of Canaan (Num. 13:30), south of the Negeb (Num. 13:17), in the desert of Pharan, the present-day Badjed et-Tih, or "desert of solitude" (Num. 13:4), or also in the desert of Sin (Num. 13:22; 20:1; 27:14; 33:36; Deut. 32:51) — the boundaries between the two deserts were not clearly determined, unless indeed one wishes to consider the desert of Sin as the northern part of the desert of Pharan — near the border of Edom (Num. 20:16; 34:3); according to Num. 34:3-5, K. was situated at the apex of the angle formed by the eastern line Dead Sea-Acrabbim-Sin-Kadesh, and by the western line Kadesh-Addar-'Asmona-Torrent of Egypt (= Wādi el-'Arīsh). All these data, coordinated among themselves, agree in placing ancient K. at the site of the present-day 'Ajn Qedejs (= "spring of K."). Such is the opinion commonly accepted today.