In all probability their
stay at Kadesh was no involuntary detention; rather was it this
locality they had more immediately had in view in setting out.
For a civilised community of from two to three millions such a
settlement would, of course, have been impossible; but it was
quite sufficient for the immediate requirements of the Goshen
shepherds, few in number as they were and inured to the life of
the desert. That attempts may have been made by them to obtain
possession of the more fertile country to the north is very likely;
but that from the outset they contemplated the conquest of the
whole of Palestine proper, and that it was only in expiation of
a fault that they were held back at the gate of the promised land
until the whole generation of the disobedient had died out, is not
historically probable.
We can assign a definite reason for their final departure from
Kadesh. In the district to the east of Jordan the (Canaanite)
Amorites had, sometime previously, driven the Ammonites from the
lower Jabbok and deprived the Moabites of all their territory to
the north of the Arnon; on the plateau opposite Jericho Heshbon
had become the capital of Sihon, the Amorite king.
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