Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 1:46
For this reason you stayed in Kadesh for a long time—a very long time.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites at the plains of Moab, recounting their history immediately after their refusal to enter the Promised Land and their subsequent weeping before God. He explains that their prolonged delay at Kadesh was the direct consequence of that rebellion.
The words — The Hebrew terms וַתֵּשְׁבוּ (vattešəḇū) and יָמִים רַבִּים (yāmîm rabîm) literally mean "you remained" and "many days." The text states this duration by repeating the act of staying, declaring they remained in Kadesh for a long time—a very long time.
The thread — This extended stay at Kadesh appears in Numbers 20:1 as the congregation's arrival in the Wilderness of Zin and in Numbers 20:22 as their eventual departure for Mount Hor. The narrative in Numbers 14:25 also records the command to turn back into the wilderness following the rebellion.
Why it lands — The verse demands acknowledgment that disobedience produces measurable delays and that divine hearing is not guaranteed by emotional displays. It requires the reader to confront the actual length of their stagnation without spiritualizing or minimizing it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.
Cross-references
- Numbers 20:1 In the first month, the whole congregation of Israel entered the Wilderness of Zin and stayed in Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
- Numbers 20:22 After they had set out from Kadesh, the whole congregation of Israel came to Mount Hor.
- Numbers 14:25 Now since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”
- Numbers 14:34 In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.
- Judges 11:16 But when Israel came up out of Egypt, they traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.