Deuteronomy 2:8

8 So we passed by our brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned away from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion-geber, and traveled along the road of the Wilderness of Moab.

Deuteronomy 2:8 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 2:8

And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau,
which dwelt in Self
Along their coasts, by the borders of their country:

through the way of the plain;
the wilderness of Zin, where Kadesh was:

from Elath and Eziongeber;
the two ports on the shore of the Red sea in the land of Edom; it was from the latter they came to Kadesh; see ( Numbers 33:35 Numbers 33:36 ) . Elath was ten miles from Petra, the metropolis of Edom, to the east of it, as Jerom says ^F26; it is by Josephus ^F1 called Aelana, and by the Septuagint here Ailon; from whence the Elanitic bay has its name; he speaks of it as not far from Eziongeber, which he says was then called Berenice:

we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab;
the wilderness which is before Moab, towards the sun rising or the east, ( Numbers 21:11 ) .

---

FOOTNOTES:

F26 De loc. Heb. fol. 91. E.
F1 Antiqu. l. 8. c. 6. sect. 4.

Deuteronomy 2:8 In-Context

6 You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.’”

7 Indeed, the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. The LORD your God has been with you these forty years, and you have lacked nothing.

8 So we passed by our brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned away from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion-geber, and traveled along the road of the Wilderness of Moab.

9 Then the LORD said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their possession.”

10 (The Emites used to live there, a people great and many, as tall as the Anakites.