Moses, in this chapter, proceeds in the rehearsal of God’s providences concerning Israel in their way to Canaan, yet preserves not the record of any thing that happened during their tedious march back to the Red Sea, in which they wore out almost thirty-eight years, but passes that over in silence…

Here is, I. A short account of the long stay of Israel in the wilderness: We compassed Mount Seir many days, Deut. 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…

It is observable here that Moses, speaking of the Edomites , calls them, ” our brethren, the children of Esau. ” Though they had been unkind to Israel, in refusing them a peaceable passage through their country, yet he calls them brethren.

God having tried the self-denial of his people in forbidding them to meddle with the Moabites and Ammonites, and they having quietly passed by those rich countries, and, though superior in number, not made any attack upon them, here he recompenses them for their obedience by giving them possession…