Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.
Edom refused to give Israel ... - a churlish refusal obliged them to take another route, and in submitting, instead of attempting, like a military chief bent on plunder and conquest, to force a passage through the Edomite territory, Moses acted in accordance with the peaceful genius of the dispensation he was commissioned to introduce (see the notes at Numbers 21:4; Deuteronomy 2:4; Judges 11:18; see also 1 Samuel 14:47; 2 Samuel 8:14, which describes the retribution that was taken).