Num 20:14-21 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 14. Sent messengers-unto the king of Edom ] Archbishop Usher supposes that the king now reigning in Edom was Hadar , mentioned . Thus saith thy brother Israel ] The Edomites were the descendants of Edom or Esau, the brother of Jacob or Israel, from whom the Israelites were descended.

‏ Numbers 20:14-21

Verse 14. Sent messengers-unto the king of Edom] Archbishop Usher supposes that the king now reigning in Edom was Hadar, mentioned Ge 36:39.

Thus saith thy brother Israel] The Edomites were the descendants of Edom or Esau, the brother of Jacob or Israel, from whom the Israelites were descended.

Verse 17. We will go by the king's high-way] This is the first time this phrase occurs; it appears to have been a public road made by the king's authority at the expense of the state.

Verse 21. Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border] Though every king has a right to refuse passage through his territories to any strangers; yet in a case like this, and in a time also in which emigrations were frequent and universally allowed, it was both cruelty and oppression in Edom to refuse a passage to a comparatively unarmed and inoffensive multitude, who were all their own near kinsmen. It appears however that it was only the Edomites of Kadesh that were thus unfriendly and cruel; for from De 2:29 we learn that the Edomites who dwelt in Mount Seir treated them in a hospitable manner. This cruelty in the Edomites of Kadesh is strongly reprehended, and threatened by the Prophet Obadiah, Ob 1:10, &c.