Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 2:1-7
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. Prepared them for Canaan, by humbling them for sin, teaching them to mortify their lusts, to follow God, and to comfort themselves in him. It is a work of time to make souls meet for heaven, and it must be done by a long train of exercises. 2. He prepared the Canaanites for destruction. All this time the measure of their iniquity was filling up; and, though it…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Deuteronomy 2:4
the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir . . . shall be afraid of you--The same people who had haughtily repelled the approach of the Israelites from the western frontier were alarmed now that they had come round upon the weak side of their country.
John Gill on Deuteronomy 2:4
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 Israel were should seize upon their country, and dispossess them of it, they having been so long, wanderers in a wilderness near them:
take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore; that they did not take any advantage of their fears, and fall upon them, and do them mischief, or that they did not provoke them to battle and overcome them.
John Calvin on Deuteronomy 2:2-6
Deuteronomy 2:2-8
2. And the Lord spoke unto me, saying,
2. Postea loquutus est ad me Jehova, dicendo:
3. Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.
3. Sufficit vobis circuisse montem istum: convertite vos ad aquilonem.
4. And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Self, and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore.
4. Populo autem praecipe dicendo, Vos nunc transituri estis per terminum fratrum vestrorum filiorum Esau qui habitabant in Seir: timebunt autem a vobis, cavete diligenter:
5. Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their laud, no,…
