Deuteronomy 2 · a question people ask

Numbers says Edom refused to let Israel through. In Deuteronomy the LORD tells Israel to pass through their border and buy food from them. How do the two fit?

In the text

Here is what each passage says. Numbers tells of messengers sent "from Kadesh to the king of Edom" (Numbers 20:14): "Please let us pass through your land… We will go along the king’s highway" (20:17). Edom answered, "You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against you" (20:18), and came out "with many people, and with a strong hand" (20:20), "so Israel turned away from him" (20:21) and traveled "to go around the land of Edom" (21:4). Deuteronomy tells the LORD's command: "You are to pass through the border of your brothers, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore be careful" (2:4), "You shall purchase food from them for money" (2:6), and then "we passed by from our brothers, the children of Esau" (2:8). Later Moses tells Sihon, "Just let me pass through on my feet, as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar, did to me" (2:28-29); the verse doesn't say which part of that request they granted. Other passages add more: the law says Ammonites and Moabites "didn’t meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt" (23:4), and Jephthah, telling the same journey, says that "the king of Edom didn’t listen", that Israel "sent to the king of Moab, but he refused" (Judges 11:17), and that Israel then "went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab" (Judges 11:18). Neither Numbers nor Deuteronomy says how its account fits with the other. Each is given here as it stands.

The verses

“They traveled from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. The soul of the people was very discouraged because of the journey.”
Numbers 21:4 · World English Bible
“You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink. Just let me pass through on my feet, as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar, did to me, until I pass over the Jordan into the land which the LORD our God gives us.””
Deuteronomy 2:28-29 · World English Bible
“because they didn’t meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.”
Deuteronomy 23:4 · World English Bible
“then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let me pass through your land;’ but the king of Edom didn’t listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab, but he refused; so Israel stayed in Kadesh. Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn’t come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.”
Judges 11:17-18 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Deuteronomy 2

Deuteronomy 2: You have lacked nothing

Before the LORD said, "I have given into your hand Sihon" (2:24), he told Israel three times he had given land to others: Mount Seir to Esau, Ar and Ammon's land to Lot's children (2:5, 2:9, 2:19). Israel was to pay for its food and water (2:6), and Moses could say of forty years in the wilderness, "You have lacked nothing" (2:7).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions