Essay for Deuteronomy 2:1

Moshe’s narrative moves the people toward their present location, east of Jericho, detailing their disappointments and triumphs in meetings with the indigenous peoples of the area. The account begins tentatively, with Israel warned not to antagonize their “cousins,” the Children of Esav, but ends with a foreshadowing of the conquest of Canaan—the successful war-making of the two and a half tribes (cf. Num. 32) that received land east of the Jordan.