EXPOSITION. while the rest remained there, so that no CHAPTER II. entire depe.rture of Israel from Kadesh ever Vere. 1-23.-THE NEW DEGINNINO AMD took place-a. notion which the whole tenor REVIEW OF THE JOURNEYINGS OF ISRAEL of the subsequent narrative contradicts. In FROM KADESH TO THE RIVER ARN0N, THE obedience to the Divine comme.nd (oh. i. -10), FRONTIER OF THE AMORITES. At this point the people, after te.rrying for a while at the language of address is exchanged for Kadesh, took their departure o.nd marel.ie<l that of norrative. The change of subject in the direction of the Yam-suph (Numb. from "ye abode" to "we turned," became xiv. 25). necessary when Moses passed from exhorting Ver. 1.-And we comp888ed mo=t Seir and warning the people to nturating what many de.ye. These " me.ny de.ys" are the thirty-eight years during which the people happened after they resumed their journey- wandered in the wilderness before they ings; nnd gives no support to the notion of camped the second time at Klldesh; their some recent German critics, that Moses left going ronncl Mount Seir, which was in Edom lCadesb with only II portion of the people, (Gen. x.uvi. S, 9, 20), is descriptive of their 30 THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [en. n. 1-37,
nomnclic wanclcrings in Vl\rioue directions, dig wells in the country of tho Edomites to WCFt, sout.h, and aouth-cnst of thnt mount:1tin supply themsclrns with wntet· ns they pnsscd (Numh. xxi. 4.). "Crossing the long. lofty 11long; this, however, docs not neocssnrily moun1nin chnin to the oostwe.rcl of Ezion- follow from tho use of this word, for it Ima geher (Numb. xxi. 4, 5), the lsrAolitoe issnecl also the me1tning lo buy (comp. Hos. iii. into the ,::rent nnd cle1•atecl plnins which 2, 11nd tho corresponding Arabio verb, lcard. Are eiill trn vC'rscd by the Syrie.n pilgrims which in cert11in conjugations lms tho menu, on their way to Meece.; nncl nppcar to hn1·0 ing to borrow or hire). folln,.-c>d 71nrl/11rord ne11rlv the snme route Ver. 7.-They wore enabled to buy whnt which is now token by tho Syrinn Hndgi they required-For the Lord thy God he.th Along the wcstem skirts of this grc>nt desert bleBBed thee in all the works of thy hnnd • • near the mountoins of Edom" (Robinson, their flocks and herds ho.d inoroosed during • Bih. Rc>s.,' i. 253, 559). Mount Seir is their wanderings (Numb. xxxii. 1); o.nd they now ,Jduil and e~h-Slwrah. This mountain may have gained we11lth by cultivating tho rang-e is n continuation of thnt which sur- soil at plilcea where they h11,d m:ide 11, roun<ls the e:i,tcrn side of the Dead Sc.a. lenglhened sojourn, or by tndllc with the The details of this protracted wandering are tribes of the desert with whom they came in 1msspe\ ornr by Moses ns not required by hi.:3 contact. Jehovnh their God had known- purpose hero. had noted, observed, h11d regard to, had Y ers. 2, 3.-When Ism cl, 11ftcr their long cared for (comp. Gen. xxxix. 6; Pa. i. (.i; and di,hcartcning wandering-, were at tho Pro'I'. xxvii. 23)-their walking-thtir pere- south-ea.stern end of the 'Arabah, God gave grinntions-thron!l'h this great wilderness; them the word to turn their march north- he had been theu· Le11der, had chosen for ward towards Cana11n. The route they tliem places to rest in, had provided food pursued wo.s along the eastern boundary of for them, nnd hnd been their .Protector and Eclom (comp. Numb. xxi. 10, etc.). G unrdian all through the forty years of their Ver. 4.-lt would appear that the Edom- pilgrimage, 60 that they hatl wanted for itcs mncle preparations to resist the pas- nothing (eh. i. 33; viii. 2, 3, 15, 16; conip. sag-e of the Israelites through their territory Ps. xxiii. 1-6). "He sufficiently supplied (Numb xx. l S-20). As the Israelites, how- what was needful for thee when thou ever, kept on the outskirts of their country, walkedst through this grent wilderness; for nnd did not attempt to penetrate into the these forty years tho Word of Jah thy God interior, the Edomitcs did not nttack them bath sustained thee; nor bath anything or seek to hinder their progress. The been wanting to thee" (Ch11ldee Pnrn- Israelites, on the other hand, were strictly phro.se). Forty years (Numb. xiv. 33). forbidden to invade that country in n hostile "From the fifteenth day of the first monlh manner; they were to watch 0'l'er them- in which their fathers came out of Egypt selves, sons not to be tempted to make war (Numb. xxxiii. 3), to the tenth day of the on the Edowites, wLo \'\'ere their brethren; same month in which they went over Jordan as God would not give them any part, not into Canaan (Josh. iv. 19), there were but so much as n foot-breadth, of that land, for five days W!I.Jlting of complete forty years" he had given Esau !i.e. the race descended (Patrick). from Esau, the Edomites-LXX, .,-o,s v/o'is Yer. 8.-And when we paBBed by from our 'Huaii) Mount Seir for a po86ession. They brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt shall be afraid of you (see Exod. xv. 15). in Seir, through the way of the plain fro111 Yer. 5.-lleddle not with them; literally, Ela.th, a.nd from Ezion-ge.ber, we, etc. Rather, &cite not your•elJ against them, i.e. so 88 to And we passed by from (away from) our strive in battle with them; comp. the use brethren the so.ns of Esau; who dwelt in Seir, of the rnrb in Jer. 1. 2-1, "hast striven" from (off from, i.e. alongside, but at some (Authorized Yersion); Dan. xi. 25 (11here distance from) the way of the 'Arabah, from ~c'.??;:, war, is added), "shall be stirred up (off from) Elath and from Ezion-geber. And to. batt.Je" (Authorized Version). Accord- so, in obedieuce to the Divine command, the ingly, they were enjoined to buy from them Israelites passed from the territory of tho for money food and water as they required. Edomites without entering it, and went by their border on the east side of the 'Ara.bah, Two diiferent words in the H~brew are and from beside Elath and Ezion-geber, n,udered here by "1.iuy" in the Authorized both ports at the northern extremity of the Yer,ion; the former. -or;-, n denominative Elanitic Gulf of the Red Sen (Numb. xxxiii. fru1u ,:ii?!', grain, properly me:i.ns to deal in 35). Thus they came to where they were 1,,•T11in, ~iietlu::r as buyer or seller, and 60 to tlien encamped, in the steppes of Moab. 1,uy food; the, latter, n:1f, means primarily "Probably they followed the still used to dig (a well, e.g. Gen. :nvi. 25), and, 1111 caravan route to Damascus, betw~n the lli!OO here, probably conveys the idea that ea.st side of the cultivated land, nnd the the lsraelit.cs v.ere to pay for permission to west sitle of Arabia Deseit11," (Schroeder). cu. ([. 1-37.] Tlrn BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. 31