and command the people: ‘You will pass through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so you must be very careful.
4. And they shall be afraid of you. This temptation was the more provoking, when they heard not only that the embassy would be vain, but that although Edom should receive them with injustice and hostility, they were still to abstain from violence and arms.
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
And command thou the people,.... Give them a strict charge: saying, ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children or Esau: not through the midst of their country, for that the king of Edom would not admit of, but by or on the border of it: and they shall be afraid of you; lest such a numerous body of people as...