Audio-Visual Reading of Deuteronomy 2

Deuteronomy 2

Deuteronomy 2 details Moses’ recollection of the Israelites’ journey from Kadesh-barnea to Abel-shittim, where they were now waiting to enter the Promised Land of Canaan. See below for additional information about why certain decisions have been made regarding the identification of ancient locations or stretches of the journey to Abel-shittim.

Four separate passages of Scripture recount the Israelites’ journey from Kadesh-barnea to Abel-shittim (Numbers 20:14-21:20; 33:37-49; Deuteronomy 2:1-23; Judges 11:14-27), but the difficulty of determining the exact route can be seen by the wide variety of routes that have been proposed by scholars over the past several decades. In general, the proposed route in this work most closely aligns with information provided by Numbers 20:14-21:20; 33:37-49; and Deuteronomy 2:1-23, but its differences with Judges 11:14-27 are by no means irreconcilable. In addition, Jephthah’s account appears to be most concerned with making the case that the Israelites did not encroach on Ammonite land as they journeyed to Canaan, so his description appears to give more of a loose summarization of the Exodus route and the journey to Abel-shittim. Thus, Jephthah does not burden his account with specific details such as the apparent change of plans to travel through Edom instead of going around it (compare Numbers 33:42-43 and Deuteronomy 2:2-6 with Judges 11:18).

Following are additional comments regarding why certain decisions have been made regarding the journey to Abel-shittim and the identification of various ancient locations.

After being refused permission from the king of Edom to take (apparently) a more direct route through his territory, the Israelites “turned back” while they were at Kadesh-barnea on the edge of Edom’s territory (Numbers 20:14-21), thus leading them to head toward the Red Sea (Deuteronomy 2:1).

Regarding the location of Seir, see Edom and the Land of Seir.

Regarding the location of Mount Hor, see The Israelites’ Journeys in the Wilderness. This article also addresses one of the more challenging elements to reconcile with other passages’ accounts of route: the location of the king of Arad’s attack on the Israelites.

As noted earlier, after the Israelites passed by Mount Seir, it appears that the Lord directed the Israelites to change their plans to circumvent Edom and instead directed them to pass through it (compare Numbers 33:42-43 and Deuteronomy 2:2-6 with Judges 11:18). See The Israelites’ Journeys in the Wilderness.

Regarding turning north at Zalmonah, this fits well with Scripture’s account that, after passing by the Edomites in Seir, the Israelites “turned away from the Arabah road that comes up from Elath and Ezion-geber” (Deuteronomy 2:8), and it also fits very well with Numbers 33:42, which records Punon as the next stop after Zalmonah.

Regarding the verses that require a route that avoids Moab (Deuteronomy 2:9; Judges 11:18) while at the same time making sense of the assertion that the Israelites camped “at Iye-abarim in the territory of Moab” (Numbers 33:44), the location of Khirbat `Aiy in the southwest corner of Moab fulfills these requirements well (The Journey to Abel-shittim). This location is also appropriately situated among the Abarim Mountains (as the predicate “-abarim” seems to indicate), which ran along the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The Medeba Map clearly identifies a town named Ai (a variant spelling of Iye) at the exact location of Khirbat `Aiy. (The stream depicted just south of Ai on the Medeba Map is likely Wadi en Numeirah [identified as the “waters of Nimrim”], not Wadi al-Hasa.) Though many translations understand Numbers 21:11 (“Iye-abarim, in the wilderness bordering Moab toward the sunrise”) as placing Iye-abarim in the wilderness that is east of Moab, this author is convinced that it is saying instead that Iye-abarim is in the wilderness that faces (Hebrew panim) Moab when looking eastward. Other examples of the use of the word faces to place something in a non-eastern position relative to another object by indicating the point of view of the reader include Joshua 13:24-25 (Gad’s boundary could not have included a town that was east of Rabbah) and Joshua 18:14 (it seems to make the most sense that the hill in view is probably the prominent hill to the north of Beth-horon–that is, before it when looking southward).

Regarding the location of the Zered Brook, Numbers 21:11-12 makes it difficult to identify it with Wadi al-Hasa, as the nearly universal scholarly consensus does. The Israelites had just camped at Iye-abarim, north of Wadi al-Hasa, and now they are said to have camped in in the Zered Brook as they made their way north. Even if one locates Iye-abarim at El Medeiyineh, that location is itself located in the middle of Wadi al-Hasa, so why would the text then say they camped next in the Zered Brook? Instead, it makes better sense to place the Zered Brook at Wadi e-Tarfawiya (see article at https://www.thetorah.com/article/wadi-zered). (Wadi al-Hasa instead makes a better candidate for the Brook of the Willows, mentioned in Isaiah 15:7.)

Regarding the location of Ar, see article at https://www.thetorah.com/article/ar-moab. Additionally, this author suggests Qasr el-‘Al as a good candidate for the site of the fortress of Ar, which likely gave its name to the greater region that lay south of the fortress. Based on Scripture’s multi-faceted portrayal of Ar, this fortress and region appear to have been considered at the same time Moabite yet to some degree distinct from the Moabites.