פירוש על דברים 1:46

ותשבו בקדש ימים רבים SO YE ABODE IN KADESH MANY DAYS — viz., nineteen years, as it is said here כימים אשר ישבתם, ACCORDING TO THE DAYS THAT YE ABODE, i.e. abode at all the other stations. They (the total years) were thirtyeight years; nineteen of them they spent at Kadesh, and nineteen years they went moving about aimlessly, and then they returned to Kadesh, as it is said, (Numbers 32:13) “And he made them move about in the wilderness”. — Thus have I found in Seder Olam 8.

כימים אשר ישבתם, another way of saying: “as you are well aware.”

ותשבו בקדש ימים רבים, “you remained in Kadesh for many years.” A total of 19 years. The words כימים אשר ישבתם mean as the total number of years you stayed in all the other locations. The subject is repeated in chapter 2 verse 14, where the number of years it took to get from Kadesh Barnea to the river Zered is given as 38 years. This number is confirmed in the Book called Seder Olam — "Nineteen years they spent in Kadesh and nineteen years they wandered the desert."

Which totaled thirty-eight years, etc. The spies were sent during the second year after leaving Egypt; and in the beginning of the fortieth year they came to the Land, for a partial year is counted as an entire year. If so, they traveled for only thirty-eight years.

V. 46. בימים אשר ישבתם, lange Zeit, so viele Tage, als sie, ohne weiter zu ziehen, an einem Orte, und zwar in Kadesch, an dem Grenzorte der Wüste, von wo aus sie in kurzem Wege hätten ins Land ziehen können, an demselben Orte still zu verweilen hatten, an welchem sie sich jetzt nach vierzig, richtiger nach achtunddreißig Jahren, wieder befanden. Dieses "Stillsitzen" an dem Grenzorte war die herbste und eindringlichste Buße für die auf ihnen lastende Verschuldung. Nach סדר עולם (Kap. 8) hatten sie neunzehn Jahre dort zuzubringen. Und als sie nun, wie im folgenden Verse erwähnt wird, aufbrachen, da hatten sie nicht vorwärts dem Lande zu, sondern rückwärts in die Wüste hineinzuziehen, auf dem Wege, der wieder zurück zum Schilfmeer führt.

ותשבו בקדש ימים רבים, “you remained in Kadesh for many years.” Here we are told by Moses that they stayed at Kadesh Barnea for a long time, something that had not been spelled out in Numbers chapter 14.