Then we turned back and headed for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea, as the LORD had instructed me, and for many days we wandered around Mount Seir.
1. Then we turned and took our journey. The time in which they struck their camp is not stated in the book of Numbers. This verse, therefore, will aptly connect the history, since otherwise there would be an abruptness in what immediately follows, he then briefly indicates what was the nature of their journeying until the time appointed; viz., that, by wearying themselves in vain...
Here is, I. A short account of the long stay of Israel in the wilderness: We compassed Mount Seir many days, Deu 2:1. Nearly thirty-eight years they wandered in the deserts of Seir; probably in some of their rests they staid several years, and never stirred; God by this not only chastised them for their murmuring and unbelief, but, 1.
Commenting on Deuteronomy 2:1-7
Then we turned,.... From Kadesh, where they had been many days, and so also their backs on the land of Canaan, on the borders of which they had been: and took our journey into the wilderness, by the way of the Red sea, as the Lord spake unto me; Deu 1:40.