(4) Ye are to pass through the coast.--Literally, Ye are passing through the border. This was apparently said before the permission was asked, and in view of the request made for it (Numbers 20:17). But Edom refused to let Israel pass through his coast or border (Numbers 20:21).

They shall be afraid of you.--According to the prophecy in the song of Moses (Exodus 15:15), "Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed."

Verse 4. - It would appear that the Edomites made preparations to resist the passage of the Israelites through their territory (Numbers 20:18-20). As the Israelites, however, kept on the outskirts of their country, and did not attempt to penetrate into the interior, the Edomites did not attack them or seek to hinder their progress. The Israelites, on the other hand, were strictly forbidden to invade that country in a hostile manner; they were to watch over themselves, so as not to be tempted to make war on the Edomites, who were their brethren; as God would not give them any part, not so much as a foot-breadth, of that laud, for he had given Esau (i.e. the race descended from Esau, the Edomites - LXX, τοῖς υἱοῖς Ησαῦ) Mount Seir for a possession. They shall be afraid of you (see Exodus 15:15).

2:1-7 Only a short account of the long stay of Israel in the wilderness is given. God not only chastised them for their murmuring and unbelief, but prepared them for Canaan; by humbling them for sin, teaching them to mortify their lusts, to follow God, and to comfort themselves in him. Though Israel may be long kept waiting for deliverance and enlargement, it will come at last. Before God brought Israel to destroy their enemies in Canaan, he taught them to forgive their enemies in Edom. They must not, under pretence of God's covenant and conduct, think to seize all they could lay hands on. Dominion is not founded in grace. God's Israel shall be well placed, but must not expect to be placed alone in the midst of the earth. Religion must never be made a cloak for injustice. Scorn to be beholden to Edomites, when thou hast an all-sufficient God to depend upon. Use what thou hast, use it cheerfully. Thou hast experienced the care of the Divine providence, never use any crooked methods for thy supply. All this is equally to be applied to the experience of the believer.And command thou the people,.... Give them a strict charge:

saying, ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children or Esau: not through the midst of their country, for that the king of Edom would not admit of, but by or on the border of it:

and they shall be afraid of you; lest such a numerous body of people as Israel were should seize upon their country, and dispossess them of it, they having been so long, wanderers in a wilderness near them:

take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore; that they did not take any advantage of their fears, and fall upon them, and do them mischief, or that they did not provoke them to battle and overcome them.