Deuteronomy 2:8

8 So we detoured around our brothers, the People of Esau who live in Seir, avoiding the Arabah Road that comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber; instead we used the road through 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 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Deuteronomy 2:8 In-Context

6 Pay them up front for any food or water you get from them."

7 God, your God, has blessed you in everything you have done. He has guarded you in your travels through this immense wilderness. For forty years now, God, your God, has been right here with you. You haven't lacked one thing.

8 So we detoured around our brothers, the People of Esau who live in Seir, avoiding the Arabah Road that comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber; instead we used the road through the Wilderness of Moab.

9 God told me, "And don't try to pick a fight with the Moabites. I am not giving you any of their land. I've given ownership of Ar to the People of Lot."

10 The Emites (Monsters) used to live there - mobs of hulking giants, like Anakites.