Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king's high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders.
We will go by the king's high way - probably Wady el-Ghuweir (Robinson), through which ran one of the great lines of road, constructed for commercial caravans, as well as for the progress of armies. The engineering necessary for carrying this road over marshes or mountains, and the care requisite for protecting it from the shifting sands, led to its being under the special care of the state. Hence, the expression, "the king's highway," which is of great antiquity (Numbers 21:22; Isaiah 40:3-4; Isaiah 62:10: cf. Josephus' 'Antiquities,' b. 8:, ch.
vii., sec. 4; Layard's 'Nineveh and Babylon,' p, 535, also plates 76, 81; refers to Strabo, lib. 16:, p. 1061; 'Institutes of Menu,' 9:, 282). 'The Israelites could not ascend the steep pass in opposition to the armed force of Edom, and his opposition was natural enough, since if their request had been granted, their way would have led them close by Bozrah, the chief city of his kingdom. For, though Petra was now inhabited, Bozrah, about 30 miles on the north of it, appears to have been the capital' (cf. Isaiah 63:1: Drew 'Scripture Lands,' p. 82).