Refusal at Kadesh
Deuteronomy · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 4530326a76cf2c7f · No editorial review date recorded
Date: c. 1406 BC · Year 40, month 11 (Deuteronomy 1:3). Dated from 1 Kings 6:1 (the Exodus c. 1446 BC). Many scholars instead date the Exodus to about 1260 BC, placing these speeches about 1220 BC.
Moses recalls the journey through the great and terrible wilderness to Kadesh-barnea. The scouts brought back good fruit, but the people refused to go up and said the LORD hated them, though he had carried them as a father carries his son. That generation was barred from the land, except Caleb and Joshua; when they then went up against the LORD’s word, the Amorites chased them like bees.
Deuteronomy records Moses’ last speeches to the new generation of Israel on the plains of Moab, in the fortieth year after the Exodus (1:3). It looks back over the journey from Egypt and Horeb and forward to life in the land, calling Israel to love the LORD and remember what he has done. Each section below lists what Moses recalls, with links to those events on the timeline, and where the rest of Scripture takes up the passage.
Moses retells the journey from Horeb to Moab and calls Israel to hold fast to the LORD (1:6–4:43).
Primary Scripture
1:19 And just as the LORD our God had commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites, through all the vast and terrifying wilderness you have seen. When we reached Kadesh-barnea,
1:20 I said: “You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us.
1:21 See, the LORD your God has placed the land before you. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”
1:22 Then all of you approached me and said, “Let us send men ahead of us to search out the land and bring us word of what route to follow and which cities to enter.”
1:23 The plan seemed good to me, so I selected twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.
1:24 They left and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied out the land.
1:25 They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us word: “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.”
1:26 But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God.
1:27 You grumbled in your tents and said, “Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to be annihilated.
1:28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying: ‘The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the heavens. We even saw the descendants of the Anakim there.’”
1:29 So I said to you: “Do not be terrified or afraid of them!
1:30 The LORD your God, who goes before you, will fight for you, just as you saw Him do for you in Egypt
1:31 and in the wilderness, where the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way by which you traveled until you reached this place.”
1:32 But in spite of all this, you did not trust the LORD your God,
1:33 who went before you on the journey, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day, to seek out a place for you to camp and to show you the road to travel.
1:34 When the LORD heard your words, He grew angry and swore an oath, saying,
1:35 “Not one of the men of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your fathers,
1:36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land on which he has set foot, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly.”
1:37 The LORD was also angry with me on your account, and He said, “Not even you shall enter the land.
1:38 Joshua son of Nun, who stands before you, will enter it. Encourage him, for he will enable Israel to inherit the land.
1:39 And the little ones you said would become captives—your children who on that day did not know good from evil—will enter the land that I will give them, and they will possess it.
1:40 But you are to turn back and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”
1:41 “We have sinned against the LORD,” you replied. “We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God has commanded us.” Then each of you put on his weapons of war, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country.
1:42 But the LORD said to me, “Tell them not to go up and fight, for I am not with you to keep you from defeat by your enemies.”
1:43 So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the LORD and presumptuously went up into the hill country.
1:44 Then the Amorites who lived in the hills came out against you and chased you like a swarm of bees. They routed you from Seir all the way to Hormah.
1:45 And you returned and wept before the LORD, but He would not listen to your voice or give ear to you.
1:46 For this reason you stayed in Kadesh for a long time—a very long time.
Moses looks back
The scouts and the refusal (Numbers 13–14).
Moses says the LORD was angry with him also because of them.
Water at Meribah; Moses’ failure
Where Scripture takes it up
Hebrews: they could not enter because of unbelief.
Location evidence
Plains of Moab: Approximate region. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.64, 31.85]. Classification source: editorial.
Illustrative regional extent: [[35.56,31.77],[35.7,31.91]]; not a measured confidence interval.
Numbers 33:48–49 · extent of the camp
For the class
Moses says God carried them like a father. Why did they still refuse?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial
Study guide: original editorial writing for Scripture Atlas.
Place coordinates: OpenBible.info, CC BY 4.0.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm