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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Deuteronomy 2:1 - 2:15
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From Kadesh to the Brook Zered
v. 1. Then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, that is, in the direction toward the Red Sea, Num_14:25, as the Lord spake unto me; and we compassed Mount Seir many days, ever moving around in the neighborhood of this mountain range, in the Wilderness of Paran, down to the Elanitic Gulf.
v. 2. And the Lord spake unto me, saying,
v. 3. Ye have compassed this mountain long enough, after they had been journeying back and forth some thirty-seven years; turn you northward, back once more to the edge of the Wilderness of Paran.
v. 4. And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast (boundary)of your brethren, the children of Esau, the half-brother of Isaac, which dwell in Seir, in the country south of the Dead Sea; and they shall be afraid of you, since the fear of the Lord had fallen upon all the nations round about; take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore;
v. 5. meddle not with them, that is, do not attack them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot-breadth; because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. It was for this reason that Israel did not react to the challenge of the king of Edom with an attack, Num_20:14-21, when the latter refused them passage through his land.
v. 6. Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that is, something to eat, food, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink.
v. 7. For the Lord, thy God, hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand, not only in their herds and their flocks, but in whatever industry they found occasion to carry on in the wilderness; He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness, and his knowing involved care and protection. These forty years the Lord, thy God, hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing, the Lord had supplied everything, Pro_27:23; Psa_1:6.
v. 8. And when we passed by from our brethren, the children of Esau, which they did by marching around their country, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath, on the shore of the Elanitic Gulf, and from Ezion-gaber, later the harbor of Solomon at the head of this body of water, we turned, to the west and north, and passed by the way of the Wilderness of Moab, the Plains of Moab being the present end of that journey.
v. 9. And the Lord said unto me, Distress not, use no hostile attitude toward, do not attack, the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar, a city near the boundary of Moab and here representative of the entire country, unto the children of Lot for a possession, the Moabites being descendants of Lot, Gen_19:37.
v. 10. The Emims dwelt therein in times past, in the land now occupied by Moab, a people great, and many, and tall as the Anakims;
v. 11. which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims.
v. 12. The Horims, or Horites, Gen_14:6; Gen_36:20, also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead, in the land formerly occupied by the cliff-dwellers; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, the country east of the Jordan, which the Lord gave unto them.
v. 13. Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered, the stream which formed the general southern border of Moabitis, Num_21:12. And we went over the brook Zered.
v. 14. And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, after the return of the spies, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years, until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, Num_26:65, as the Lord sware unto them.
v. 15. For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed. The judgment of the Lord was carried out with unrelenting severity. He is a jealous God even today, and often strikes down the mockers in fury as a warning to all men.