We have no way of retracing with certainty the details of the route Israel took from their departure from Kadesh Barnea to their arrival on the plains of Moab. Did they transit into the Transjordan when they were still in the far south after they had been instructed to "turned back and set out towards the desert along the route to the Red Sea" (Deut 2:1), say somewhere just north of modern Elath? Or did they they turn back north again before crossing over to the east somewhere along the Arabah? Whatever may be the answer, the thrust of Deuteronomy's narrative is that, during those 38 years, everyone of the older generation of Israelites who left Egypt as adults (what we have called in our commentary on Deuteronomy, GenA) had died. The book is emphatic that until "the last of these fighting men among the people had died" (2:16) Yahweh would not initiate any new move towards territorial conquest for Israel. In fact, the first two chapters of the book is emphatic that Yahweh had given lands to other peoples and they had gotten their lands because they were prepared to face the giants that Israel was not. These peoples, the book emphasizes, were not to be harassed or molested; whatever Israel took from them must be paid for. In this way they made their way, not always without incidents, through Edom, Moab and Ammon, until the last of the fighting men had died. Then the fight for land begins, starting with the land of Sihon, king at Heshbon, and then Og king of Bashan. With land they could call their own for the first time in her history, Israel now stood confident that they can conquer Canaan. Yet, at the moment when they were most confedent, they needed most to hear the word of God. Here then on the plains of Moab in the Transjordan, Moses began to expound to them the word of God that would become the book of Deuteronomy.
©ALBERITH
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