(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.
Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley - i:e., on the other side of the Idumean mountain at whose base they were then encamped. Those nomad tribes had at that time occupied it with a determination to oppose the further progress of the Hebrew people. Hence, the command to seek a safe and timely retreat into the desert, to escape the pursuit of those resolute enemies, to whom, with their wives and children, they would fall a helpless prey, because they had forfeited the presence and protection of God. The 25th verse, forming an important part of the narrative, should be freed from the parenthetical form which our English translators have given it, and the verb should be rendered in the present tense, 'dwell' х yowsheeb (H3427) baa`eemeq (H6010); Septuagint, katoikousin en tee koiladi, sojourn in the plain]. The import of the statement is, that the enemy were lying in wait for them at the foot of the mountain on the other side (see the note at Numbers 14:40-45).