Deuteronomy 2:8

Summary

The verse narrates a stage of the journey where the Israelites moved on from the territory of their relatives, the descendants of Esau, who lived in Seir. They left the road of the Arabah — coming from Elath and Ezion-Geber — turned, and proceeded along the road toward the wilderness of Moab.

Key words

• na'avor ("we passed away/along", H5674A) — qal narrative form, first person plural; it opens the verse and reappears near the end, framing the whole movement as two stages of "passing."
• 'achei-nu ("our relatives", H0251I + suffix) — plural construct noun with a first-person plural pronominal suffix, marking the sons of Esau as kin ("brothers of us").
• ha-yoshvim ("the ones dwelling", H3427) — qal participle, masculine plural, with the definite article; it functions as a relative clause describing where the relatives currently live (Seir), not a completed action.
• nefen ("we turned", H6437G) — qal narrative verb, first person plural, marking a change of direction between the first "passing" and the second.
• derekh ("way of", H1870) — masculine singular construct noun, used three times in the verse (of the Arabah, and twice of the wilderness of Moab), structuring the itinerary as a sequence of named "roads."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs: na'avor ("we passed"), then later nefen ("we turned") and again na'avor ("we passed"). This chain gives the verse a step-by-step itinerary structure rather than a single summary statement: first movement away from the brothers in Seir, then a turn, then a second movement toward the Moab wilderness. The construct chains ('achei-nu bene-Esav, "our relatives, the sons of Esau") and the repeated use of derekh ("way of") to introduce each geographic marker (the Arabah, Elath, Ezion-Geber, the wilderness of Moab) give the verse a geographical-log quality, listing waypoints along the route without extra narrative elaboration. The participle ha-yoshvim ("the ones dwelling") describes the Edomites' location as an ongoing state at the time of the events, not a one-time fact.

Differences between versions

The LXX reads "τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ὑμῶν" ("your brothers") where the Hebrew has 'achei-nu ("our brothers/relatives"), shifting the pronoun from first to second person plural. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew sense of "our brothers" ("fratres nostros"). The Vulgate also restructures the itinerary, saying they "came to the road" ("venimus ad iter") leading to the Moab wilderness, rather than rendering the two-verb Hebrew sequence "we turned... we passed" as two distinct actions.