translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: DEU

label: NET study note

text: The descendants of Esau ( Heb “sons of Esau”; the phrase also occurs in 2:8, 12, 22, 29 ). These are the inhabitants of the land otherwise known as Edom, south and east of the Dead Sea. Jacob’s brother Esau had settled there after his bitter strife with Jacob ( Gen 36:1-8 ). “Edom” means “reddish,” probably because of the red sandstone of the region, but also by popular etymology because Esau, at birth, was reddish ( Gen 25:25 ).


text: Mount Seir is synonymous with Edom.


text: 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.


text: 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 .


text: Ar was a Moabite city on the Arnon River east of the Dead Sea. It is mentioned elsewhere in the “Book of the Wars of Yahweh” ( Num 21:15 ; cf. 21:28 ; Isa 15:1 ). Here it is synonymous with the whole land of Moab.


text: The descendants of Lot . Following the destruction of the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah, as God’s judgment, Lot fathered two sons by his two daughters, namely, Moab and Ammon ( Gen 19:30-38 ). Thus, these descendants of Lot in and around Ar were the Moabites.


text: Emites . These giant people, like the Anakites ( Deut 1:28 ), were also known as Rephaites (v. 11 ). They appear elsewhere in the narrative of the invasion of the kings of the east where they are said to have lived around Shaveh Kiriathaim, perhaps 9 to 11 mi (15 to 18 km) east of the north end of the Dead Sea ( Gen 14:5 ).


text: Rephaites . The earliest reference to this infamous giant race is, again, in the story of the invasion of the eastern kings ( Gen 14:5 ). They lived around Ashteroth Karnaim, probably modern Tell Ashtarah (cf. Deut 1:4 ), in the Bashan plateau east of the Sea of Galilee. Og, king of Bashan, was a Rephaite ( Deut 3:11 ; Josh 12:4; 13:12 ). Other texts speak of them or their kinfolk in both Transjordan ( Deut 2:20; 3:13 ) and Canaan ( Josh 11:21-22; 14:12, 15; 15:13-14 ; Judg 1:20 ; 1 Sam 17:4 ; 1 Chr 20:4-8 ). They also appear in extra-biblical literature, especially in connection with the city state of Ugarit. See C. L’Heureux, “Ugaritic and Biblical Rephaim,” HTR 67 (1974): 265-74.


text: 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 ).


text: Wadi Zered . Now known as Wadi el-H£esa , this valley marked the boundary between Moab to the north and Edom to the south.


text: Ar . See note on this word in Deut 2:9 .


text: Lot’s descendants . See note on this phrase in Deut 2:9 .


text: Rephaites . See note on this word in Deut 2:11 .


text: Zamzummites . Just as the Moabites called Rephaites by the name Emites, the Ammonites called them Zamzummites (or Zazites; Gen 14:5 ).


text: Avvites . Otherwise unknown, these people were probably also Anakite (or Rephaite) giants who lived in the lower Mediterranean coastal plain until they were expelled by the Caphtorites.


text: Caphtorites . These peoples are familiar from both the OT ( Gen 10:14 ; 1 Chr 1:12 ; Jer 47:4 ; Amos 9:7 ) and ancient Near Eastern texts (Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature , 2:37-38; ANET 138). They originated in Crete (OT “Caphtor”) and are identified as the ancestors of the Philistines ( Gen 10:14 ; Jer 47:4 ).


text: Heshbon is the name of a prominent site (now Tell Hesba„n , about 7.5 mi [12 km] south southwest of Amman, Jordan). Sihon made it his capital after having driven Moab from the area and forced them south to the Arnon ( Num 21:26-30 ). Heshbon is also mentioned in Deut 1:4 .


text: Kedemoth . This is probably Aleiyan , about 8 mi (13 km) north of the Arnon and between Dibon and Mattanah.


text: Jahaz . This is probably Khirbet el-Medeiyineh. See J. Dearman, “The Levitical Cities of Reuben and Moabite Toponymy,” BASOR 276 (1984): 55-57.


text: Aroer . Now known as àAraáir on the northern edge of the Arnon river, Aroer marked the southern limit of Moab and, later, of the allotment of the tribe of Reuben ( Josh 13:9, 16 ).


text: Wadi Jabbok . Now known as the Zerqa River, this is a major tributary of the Jordan that normally served as a boundary between Ammon and Gad ( Deut 3:16 ).