1‘Then we turned left and [traveled] through the desert, following the Red Sea, just as Jehovah told me, and we circled Mount Seir for many days. 2And finally, Jehovah said to me: 3You have circled this Mountain long enough; now turn and head north. 4Tell the people that you’re going to cross the borders of your brothers, the children of Esau who live in Seir, and that will really make them fear you. 5But don’t fight against [the children of Esau], because I won’t give you enough of their land to stand on. For, I have given Mount Seir to the children of Esau as their inheritance. 6You may buy food from them with money and eat it, and you will have to pay for any water that you drink. 7‘Yet, Jehovah our God has blest you in everything that you’ve done. Just think of how you went through that great and terrible desert. {Look!} During those forty years under Jehovah your God, you haven’t lacked anything! 8‘Then we passed by our brothers, the children of Esau who lived in Seir, walking through the Araba, from AiLon to Gesion Gaber, and we turned and walked through the desert of Moab. 9It was then that Jehovah said to me, Don’t argue with the Moabites and don’t war against them, for I won’t give you their land as an inheritance, since I have given AroEr to the children of Lot as their inheritance. 10The Ommin, a nation that was as large and powerful as the Enakim, used to live there. 11They are also called the Raphain, as were the Enakim, but the Moabites call them the Ommin. 12The ChorRhites also lived in Seir before the sons of Esau destroyed them and wiped them out; and then they took possession of the land, as Israel will take possession of the land that Jehovah is giving them as an inheritance. 13‘Then I told them to leave and cross the Valley of Zaret. 14And we spent the next thirty-eight years traveling between Kadesh Barne and the Zaret Valley, until the whole generation of the men of war had died (as Jehovah God swore to them). 15For, it was the hand of Jehovah that destroyed them from among the camp, until they were all gone. 16‘It was after all the men of war had died 17that Jehovah spoke to me and said, 18Now cross the borders of Moab and go on to AroEr today. 19But don’t go near the children of Amman… don’t argue with them or war with them, for I won’t give you the children of Amman’s land as an inheritance, because I’ve given it to the children of Lot as their inheritance. 20It is also called the land of Raphain, because the Raphain (who the AmMonites call the Zochommin) also used to live there. 21They were once a great nation. They had more people and they were mightier than you are (as were the Enakim). But Jehovah destroyed them and [the AmMonites] inherited the land, where they live to this day, 22[in the same way that] the children of Esau who live in Seir destroyed the ChorRhites and inherited their land, where they live to this day, 23and the Evites (who lived between AsedOth and Gaza) were conquered by the Cappadocians, they came from Cappadocia to destroy them and live in their property. 24‘Now, get up and cross the Arnon Valley, for {Look!} I have given Seon (the Amorite king of Hesh-Eboneh) and his land into your hands. War with him and inherit his land today. 25Start putting fear and terror into the faces of all the nations under heaven, for they will be disturbed whenever they hear your name, and they will become very sad when you’re heading toward them. 26‘Then I sent ambassadors (from the KedamOth Desert) to Seon the king of Hesh-Eboneh, with words of peace, saying, 27I wish to pass through your land. I will just travel along the road and I won’t turn to the right or to the left. 28We will pay for any food that we eat with money, and we will pay for any water that we drink. We will pass through on foot, 29as we did with the sons of Esau who lived in Seir, and with the Moabites who lived in AroEr, until we reach the Jordan and the land that Jehovah our God is giving us. 30‘But Seon (the king of Hesh-Eboneh) wouldn’t allow us to pass through his land, because Jehovah our God hardened his spirit and gave him a stubborn heart, so he would be delivered into our hands that day. 31‘Jehovah said to me, Look! I’m putting Seon (the Amorite king of Hesh-Eboneh) and his land into your hands. Now inherit his land! 32‘Then Seon (the king of Hesh-Eboneh) came out with all his people to fight against us at JasSa. 33But our God Jehovah handed him over to us and we cut them all down (him, his sons, and all of his people). 34Then we took over all of his cities, and we destroyed each city in succession, along with their wives and children… we left no one alive. 35However, we took their cattle and looted the cities. 36And all the way from AroEr (which lies at the edge of the brook of Arnon, and its city in the valley) to Mount Gilead, there was not a town that escaped us. Jehovah our God gave them all into our hands. 37However, following Jehovah’s instructions, we didn’t go near the children of Amman or even close to its border at the Jaboc Brook and their cities in the mountains.’
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 THE STORY IS CONTINUED. (Deu. 2:1-37)
Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea--After their unsuccessful attack upon the Canaanites, the Israelites broke up their encampment at Kadesh, and journeying southward over the west desert of Tih as well as through the great valley of the Ghor and Arabah, they extended their removals as far as the gulf of Akaba.
we compassed mount Seir many days--In these few words Moses comprised the whole of that wandering nomadic life through which they passed during thirty-eight years, shifting from place to place, and regulating their stations by the prospect of pasturage and water. Within the interval they went northward a second time to Kadesh, but being refused a passage through Edom and opposed by the Canaanites and Amalekites, they again had no alternative but to traverse once more the great Arabah southwards to the Red Sea, where turning to the left and crossing the long, lofty mountain chain to the eastward of Ezion-geber (
Num 21:4-
Num 21:5), they issued into the great and elevated plains, which are still traversed by the Syrian pilgrims in their way to Mecca. They appear to have followed northward nearly the same route, which is now taken by the Syrian hadji, along the western skirts of this great desert, near the mountains of Edom [ROBINSON]. It was on entering these plains they received the command, "Ye have compassed this mountain (this hilly tract, now Jebel Shera) long enough, turn ye northward" [
Deut 2:3].
4 the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir . . . shall be afraid of you--The same people who had haughtily repelled the approach of the Israelites from the western frontier were alarmed now that they had come round upon the weak side of their country.
5 Meddle not with them--that is, "which dwell in Seir" (
Deut 2:4) --for there was another branch of Esau's posterity, namely, the Amalekites, who were to be fought against and destroyed (
Gen 36:12;
Exod 17:14;
Deut 25:17). But the people of Edom were not to be injured, either in their persons or property. And although the approach of so vast a nomadic horde as the Israelites naturally created apprehension, they were to take no advantage of the prevailing terror to compel the Edomites to accept whatever terms they imposed. They were merely to pass "through" or along their border, and to buy meat and water of them for money (
Deut 2:6). The people, kinder than their king, did sell them bread, meat, fruits, and water in their passage along their border (
Deut 2:29), in the same manner as the Syrian caravan of Mecca is now supplied by the people of the same mountains, who meet the pilgrims as at a fair or market on the hadji route [ROBINSON]. Although the Israelites still enjoyed a daily supply of the manna, there was no prohibition against their eating other food when opportunity afforded. Only they were not to cherish an inordinate desire for it. Water is a scarce commodity and is often paid for by travellers in those parts. It was the more incumbent on the Israelites to do so, as, by the blessing of God, they possessed plenty of means to purchase, and the long-continued experience of the extraordinary goodness of God to them, should inspire such confidence in Him as would suppress the smallest thought of resorting to fraud or violence in supplying their wants.
8 we passed . . . through the way of the plain--the Arabah or great valley, from Elath ("trees") (the Ailah of the Greeks and Romans). The site of it is marked by extensive mounds of rubbish.
Ezion-geber--now Akaba, both were within the territory of Edom; and after making a circuit of its southeastern boundary, the Israelites reached the border of Moab on the southeast of the Salt Sea. They had been forbidden by divine command to molest the Moabites in any way; and this special honor was conferred on that people not on their own account, for they were very wicked, but in virtue of their descent from Lot. (See on
Deut 23:3). Their territory comprised the fine country on the south, and partly on the north of the Arnon. They had won it by their arms from the original inhabitants, the Emims, a race, terrible, as their name imports, for physical power and stature (
Gen 14:5), in like manner as the Edomites had obtained their settlement by the overthrow of the original occupiers of Seir, the Horims (
Gen 14:6), who were troglodytes, or dwellers in caves. Moses alluded to these circumstances to encourage his countrymen to believe that God would much more enable them to expel the wicked and accursed Canaanites. At that time, however, the Moabites, having lost the greater part of their possessions through the usurpations of Sihon, were reduced to the small but fertile region between the Zered and the Arnon.
13 Now rise up, and get you over the brook Zered--The southern border of Moab, Zered ("woody"), now Wady Ahsy, separates the modern district of Kerak from Jebal, and, indeed, forms a natural division of the country between the north and south. Ar, called in later times Rabbah, was the capital of Moab and situated twenty-five miles south of the Arnon on the banks of a small but shady stream, the Beni Hamed. It is here mentioned as representative of the country dependent on it, a rich and well-cultivated country, as appears from the numerous ruins of cities, as well as from the traces of tillage still visible on the fields.
16 all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people--The outbreak at Kadesh on the false report of the spies had been the occasion of the fatal decree by which God doomed the whole grown-up population to die in the wilderness [
Num 14:29]; but that outbreak only filled up the measure of their iniquities. For that generation, though not universally abandoned to heathenish and idolatrous practices, yet had all along displayed a fearful amount of ungodliness in the desert, which this history only hints at obscurely, but which is expressly asserted elsewhere (
Ezek 20:25-
Ezek 20:26;
Amos 5:25,
Amos 5:27;
Acts 7:42-
Acts 7:43).
19 when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them--The Ammonites, being kindred to the Moabites, were, from regard to the memory of their common ancestor, to remain undisturbed by the Israelites. The territory of this people had been directly north from that of Moab. It extended as far as the Jabbok, having been taken by them from a number of small Canaanitish tribes, namely, the Zamzummins, a bullying, presumptuous band of giants, as their name indicates; and the Avims, the aborigines of the district extending from Hazerim or Hazeroth (El Hudhera) even unto Azzah (Gaza), but of which they had been dispossessed by the Caphtorim (Philistines), who came out of Caphtor (Lower Egypt) and settled in the western coast of Palestine. The limits of the Ammonites were now compressed; but they still possessed the mountainous region beyond the Jabbok (
Josh 11:2). What a strange insight does this parenthesis of four verses give into the early history of Palestine! How many successive wars of conquest had swept over its early state--what changes of dynasty among the Canaanitish tribes had taken place long prior to the transactions recorded in this history!
24 Rise ye up . . . and pass over the river Arnon--At its mouth, this stream is eighty-two feet wide and four deep. It flows in a channel banked by perpendicular cliffs of sandstone. At the date of the Israelitish migration to the east of the Jordan, the whole of the fine country lying between the Arnon and the Jabbok including the mountainous tract of Gilead, had been seized by the Amorites, who, being one of the nations doomed to destruction (see
Deut 7:2;
Deut 20:16), were utterly exterminated. Their country fell by right of conquest into the hands of the Israelites. Moses, however, considering this doom as referring solely to the Amorite possessions west of Jordan, sent a pacific message to Sihon, requesting permission to go through his territories, which lay on the east of that river. It is always customary to send messengers before to prepare the way; but the rejection of Moses' request by Sihon and his opposition to the advance of the Israelites (
Num 21:23;
Judg 11:26) drew down on himself and his Amorite subjects the predicted doom on the first pitched battlefield with the Canaanites. It secured to Israel not only the possession of a fine and pastoral country, but, what was of more importance to them, a free access to the Jordan on the east.
