Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from a well. We will go along the King’s Highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.”
We have here the application made by Israel to the Edomites. The nearest way to Canaan from the place where Israel now lay encamped was through the country of Edom. Now, I. Moses sends ambassadors to treat with the king of Edom for leave to pass through his country, and gives them instructions what to say, Num 20:14-17. 1.
Commenting on Numbers 20:14-21
And Edom said unto him,.... The king of Edom replied to Israel, represented by the messengers sent in their name: thou shall not pass by me; through my country: lest I come out against thee with the sword; or with those that use the sword, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; that is, with an army of soldiers with their drawn swords in their...
we will go by the king's highway--probably Wady-el-Ghuweir [ROBERTS], through which ran one of the great lines of road, constructed for commercial caravans, as well as for the progress of armies. The engineering necessary for carrying them over marshes or mountains, and the care requisite for protecting them from the shifting sands, led to their being under the special care of the state.