Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 2:12-22 
Context2:12 Previously the Horites 1 lived in Seir but the descendants of Esau dispossessed and destroyed them and settled in their place, just as Israel did to the land it came to possess, the land the Lord gave them.) 2 2:13 Now, get up and cross the Wadi Zered.” 3 So we did so. 4 2:14 Now the length of time it took for us to go from Kadesh Barnea to the crossing of Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, time for all the military men of that generation to die, just as the Lord had vowed to them. 2:15 Indeed, it was the very hand of the Lord that eliminated them from within 5 the camp until they were all gone.
2:16 So it was that after all the military men had been eliminated from the community, 6 2:17 the Lord said to me, 2:18 “Today you are going to cross the border of Moab, that is, of Ar. 7 2:19 But when you come close to the Ammonites, do not harass or provoke them because I am not giving you any of the Ammonites’ land as your possession; I have already given it to Lot’s descendants 8 as their possession.
2:20 (That also is considered to be a land of the Rephaites. 9 The Rephaites lived there originally; the Ammonites call them Zamzummites. 10 2:21 They are a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites. But the Lord destroyed the Rephaites 11 in advance of the Ammonites, 12 so they dispossessed them and settled down in their place. 2:22 This is exactly what he did for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir when he destroyed the Horites before them so that they could dispossess them and settle in their area to this very day.
1 sn Horites. Most likely these are the same as the well-known people of ancient Near Eastern texts described as Hurrians. They were geographically widespread and probably non-Semitic. Genesis speaks of them as the indigenous peoples of Edom that Esau expelled (Gen 36:8-19, 31-43) and also as among those who confronted the kings of the east (Gen 14:6).
2 tn Most modern English versions, beginning with the ASV (1901), regard vv. 10-12 as parenthetical to the narrative.
3 sn Wadi Zered. Now known as Wadi el-H£esa, this valley marked the boundary between Moab to the north and Edom to the south.
4 tn Heb “we crossed the Wadi Zered.” This has been translated as “we did so” for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.
5 tn Heb “from the middle of.” Although many recent English versions leave this expression untranslated, the point seems to be that these soldiers did not die in battle but “within the camp.”
6 tn Heb “and it was when they were eliminated, all the men of war, to die from the midst of the people.”
7 sn Ar. See note on this word in Deut 2:9.
8 sn Lot’s descendants. See note on this phrase in Deut 2:9.
9 sn Rephaites. See note on this word in Deut 2:11.
10 sn Zamzummites. Just as the Moabites called Rephaites by the name Emites, the Ammonites called them Zamzummites (or Zazites; Gen 14:5).
11 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the Rephaites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the Ammonites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
