Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 2:17
That the LORD spoke unto me, saying,
8-18. we passed . . . through theway of the plainthe Arabah or great valley, from Elath(“trees”) (the Ailah of the Greeks and Romans). The site ofit is marked by extensive mounds of rubbish.
Ezion-gebernow Akaba,both were within the territory of Edom; and after making a circuit ofits southeastern boundary, the Israelites reached the border of Moabon the southeast of the Salt Sea. They had been forbidden by divinecommand to molest the Moabites in any way; and this special honor wasconferred on that people not on their own account, for they were verywicked, but in virtue of their descent from Lot. (See on De23:3). Their territory comprised the fine country on the south,and partly on the north of the Arnon. They had won it by their armsfrom the original inhabitants, the Emims, a race, terrible, as theirname imports, for physical power and stature (Ge14:5), in like manner as the Edomites had obtained theirsettlement by the overthrow of the original occupiers of Seir, theHorims (Ge 14:6), who weretroglodytes, or dwellers in caves. Moses alluded to thesecircumstances to encourage his countrymen to believe that God wouldmuch more enable them to expel the wicked and accursed Canaanites. Atthat time, however, the Moabites, having lost the greater part oftheir possessions through the usurpations of Sihon, were reduced tothe small but fertile region between the Zered and the Arnon.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
That the Lord spoke unto me,…. At the brook Zered, having passed that, or at Dibongad, which was their next station:
saying; as follows.