Deuteronomy 2:1-25--The Wilderness Years

Deuteronomy 2:1-25
English Standard Version

The Wilderness Years
2 “Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as the LORD told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir. 2 Then the LORD said to me, 3 ‘You have been traveling around this mountain country long enough. Turn northward 4 and command the people, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. 5 Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6 You shall purchase food from them with money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink. 7 For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’ 8 So we went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road from Elath and Ezion-geber.

“And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. 9 And the LORD said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the people of Lot for a possession.’ 10 (The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. 11 Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. 12 The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the LORD gave to them.) 13 ‘Now rise up and go over the brook Zered.’ So we went over the brook Zered. 14 And the time from our leaving Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them. 15 For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.

​16 “So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, 17 the LORD said to me, 18 ‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. 19 And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.’ 20 (It is also counted as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there—but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim-- 21 a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the LORD destroyed them before the Ammonites, and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, 22 as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. 23 As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.) 24 ‘Rise up, set out on your journey and go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle. 25 This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

---

This passage is a summary of the boundaries of land that the LORD had given to other people groups that the Israelites were not to interfere with, for it was not yet their time to come under judgment and the LORD still blessed those people for the sake of their connection to Abraham (Esau was Abraham's other grandson besides Jacob and Lot was Abraham's nephew).  The Israelites were therefore not to try to wage war with or take any land from Edom or Moab (at least not now).

Thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness after the rebellion until all from that generation died is summarized in just a few short verses here.  Since it took them 40 years after Passover to get to the time and place where Moses died (he was 40 at the time of the Exodus and 80 when he died), that means it took them two years to get from Egypt to the time of the rebellion, which corresponds with what we see in the book of Exodus and Numbers with how many Passovers they celebrated.

There is also a record here of all the ancient peoples who used to posses the lands that the Moabites and Ammonites and Edomites had dispossessed.  We don't typically argue that these conquests by Edom or Ammon or Moab were somehow illegitimate, but yet we allow arguments somehow that when Israel did exactly the same thing to take the land that the LORD had given to them (in the same way that the LORD had given land to Edom, Moab, and Ammon), their claim to their land is somehow now illegitimate.  It's an obvious double-standard and this passage exposes that better than many others and makes the point in verse 12, "...but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the LORD gave to them."

Then the LORD told the people to get up and head out for battle to conquer the Amorite people and to go to war with King Sihon (and later King Og).  This land would be the land given as an inheritance to the tribes that stayed on the east side of the Jorden River--that is Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, but the LORD did not give them any of the land that belong to the Edomites, Moabite, or Ammonites because this land was promised to other by covenant.