And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the LORD thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt,
From a very far country ... because of the name of the Lord thy God. They pretended to be actuated by religious motives in seeking to be allied with His people. But their studied address is worthy of notice in appealing to instances of God's miraculous doings at a distance, while they pass by those done in Canaan, as if the report of these had not yet reached their ears. It has been supposed that they had a deep impelling motive for taking a course which they alone of all the Canaanite tribes adopted, and to which they would not, but for a very powerful reason, have resorted. That reason was, that having been expelled from mount Seir, to make way for the tribe of Esau, and having obtained a settlement in the four cities of Canaan, they foresaw the certainty of their being again dispossessed by the descendants of Jacob, Esau's brother.