Bible Encyclopedias
Kadesh On the Orontes

　　ṓ - ron´tēz (in Massoretic Text of 2 Samuel 24:6 , under the corrupt form תּחתּים חדשׁי , taḥtı̄m ḥodhshı̄ , which should be corrected from the Septuagint (Luc.) reading: εἰς τὴν γὴν Χεττιεὶμ Καδής , eis tḗn gḗ Chettieı́m Kadḗs , "to the land of the Hittites unto Kadesh," into ארץ קרשׁה החתּיס , 'erec ha -ḥittı̄m ḳādhēshāh . Ewald and others, fixing the northern ideal boundary of Israel at the sources of the Jordan, would read "Hermon" for ḥodhshı̄ , 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 BC), 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 BC), 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 BC. In the only Bible reference (2 Samuel 24:6 ), it is named as the northern limit of the census made by David.