KADESH ON THE ORONTES

o-ron'-tez (in Massoretic Text of 2 Samuel 24:6, under the corrupt form tachtim chodhshi, which should be corrected from the Septuagint (Luc.) reading: eis ten genitive Chettieim Kades, "to the land of the Hittites unto Kadesh," into 'erets ha-chittim qadheshah. Ewald and others, fixing the northern ideal boundary of Israel at the sources of the Jordan, would read "Hermon" for chodhshi, but the conjectures of Thenius and Hitzig of a reference to the northern Kadesh are fully confirmed by the reading given): Kadesh was the southern capital of the Hittites, and was situated on the upper waters of the Orontes, 80 miles North of Damascus. It is now represented by a large mound 5 miles South of what, till the Middle Ages, was called the Lake of Kades, but now the Lake of Homs. Here Thothmes III of Egypt (flourished circa 1650 B.C.), after the battle of Megiddo, met and received hostages from the Assyrians, and here too Rameses II defeated Hatesar, king of the Hittites (circa 1320 B.C.), and concluded with him a treaty, which was formally inscribed on a disk of silver. The incidents of the battle are depicted on the walls of the Ramesseum, and an Egyptian epic records the heroic deeds of Rameses. Under the name Kadytis, it is mentioned as being taken by Pharaoh-necoh (Herodotus ii.159) in 609 B.C. In the only Bible reference (2 Samuel 24:6), it is named as the northern limit of the census made by David.

W. M. Christie

Canaan
... Here, too, we are told that Kadesh on the Orontes, the Hittite capital, was "in
the land of the Amorites." It was, in fact, on the shores of the Lake of Homs ...
/.../sayce/early israel and the surrounding nations/chapter ii canaan.htm

The Nations of the North-East
... From their southern capital at Kadesh on the Orontes their armies had gone forth
to contend on equal terms with the forces of the Nile, and after twenty-one ...
/.../sayce/early israel and the surrounding nations/chapter iv the nations of.htm

Egypt
... They had established themselves at Kadesh on the Orontes, and a long war of
twenty-one years ended at last in a treaty of peace in which the two combatants ...
/.../sayce/early israel and the surrounding nations/chapter v egypt.htm

Appendices
... Thou hast not taken thy road to Kadesh (on the Orontes) and Tubikhi (the Tibhath
of 1 Chronicles 18:8), neither hast thou gone to the Shasu (Bedawin) with ...
/.../sayce/early israel and the surrounding nations/appendices.htm

Syria at the Beginning of the Egyptian Conquest
... The reading Kedesh, Kadesh, Qodshu, the result of the observations of Lepsius, has
finally ... in the Middle Ages to the lake through which the Orontes flows, and ...
/.../chapter iisyria at the beginning.htm

The Reaction against Egypt
... Repulsed on this side, they fell back upon that part of Naharaim lying between the
Euphrates and Orontes, and made themselves masters of one town after another ...
/.../chapter iithe reaction against egypt.htm

The Hebrews and the Philistines --Damascus
... After reaching Kadesh-barnea, the Israelites in their wanderings had come into contact ...
positions they had formerly occupied on the banks of the Orontes and the ...
/.../chapter iiithe hebrews and the.htm