The Geneva Bible Translation Notes, [1599], at sacred-texts.com
(a) They obeyed, after God had chastised them.
(b) Eight and thirty years, as in (Deu 2:14).
And command thou the people, saying, Ye [are] to pass through the (c) coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore:
(c) This was the second time, before they had caused the Israelites to return, (Num 20:21).
For the LORD thy God hath (d) blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God [hath been] with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.
(d) And given you means, with which you may make recompence: also God will direct you by his providence, as he has done.
And the LORD said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land [for] a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children (e) of Lot [for] a possession.
(e) Which were the Moabites and Ammonites.
The (f) Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;
(f) Signifying that as these giants were driven out for their sins: so the wicked when their sins are ripe, cannot avoid God's plagues.
And the (g) space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, [was] thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD sware unto them.
(g) He shows by this, that as God is true in his promise, so his threatenings are not in vain.
For indeed the (h) hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed.
(h) His plague and punishment to destroy all that were twenty years old and above.
(That also was accounted a land (i) of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims;
(i) Who called themselves Rephaims: that is, preservers, or physicians to heal and reform vices: but were indeed Zamzummims, that is, wicked and abominable.
Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the (k) Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess [it], and contend with him in battle.
(k) According to his promise made to Abraham, (Gen 15:16).
This day will I (l) begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations [that are] under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.
(l) This declares that the hearts of men are in God's hands either to be made faint, or bold.
(As the (m) children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites which dwell in Ar, did unto me;) until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the LORD our God giveth us.
(m) Because neither intreaty nor examples or others could move him, he could not complain of his just destruction.
But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God (n) hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as [appeareth] this day.
(n) God in his election and reprobation not only appoints the ends, but the means tending to the same.
And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the (o) women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain:
(o) God had cursed Canaan, and therefore he did not want any of the wicked race to be preserved.