Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 2:1 
Context2:1 Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea 1 just as the Lord told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time.
Deuteronomy 2:8
Context2:8 So we turned away from our relatives 2 the descendants of Esau, the inhabitants of Seir, turning from the desert route, 3 from Elat 4 and Ezion Geber, 5 and traveling the way of the Moab wastelands.
1 tn Heb “Reed Sea.” See note on the term “Red Sea” in Deut 1:40.
2 tn Or “brothers”; NRSV “our kin.”
3 tn Heb “the way of the Arabah” (so ASV); NASB, NIV “the Arabah road.”
4 sn Elat was a port city at the head of the eastern arm of the Red Sea, that is, the Gulf of Aqaba (or Gulf of Eilat). Solomon (1 Kgs 9:28), Uzziah (2 Kgs 14:22), and Ahaz (2 Kgs 16:5-6) used it as a port but eventually it became permanently part of Edom. It may be what is known today as Tell el-Kheleifeh. Modern Eilat is located further west along the northern coast. See G. Pratico, “Nelson Glueck’s 1938-1940 Excavations at Tell el-Kheleifeh: A Reappraisal,” BASOR 259 (1985): 1-32.
5 sn Ezion Geber. A place near the Gulf of Aqaba, Ezion-geber must be distinguished from Elat (cf. 1 Kgs 9:26-28; 2 Chr 8:17-18). It was, however, also a port city (1 Kgs 22:48-49). It may be the same as the modern site Gezirat al-Fauran, 15 mi (24 km) south-southwest from Tell el-Kheleifah.
