2:1 Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea 4 just as the Lord told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time.
1 sn Avvites. Otherwise unknown, these people were probably also Anakite (or Rephaite) giants who lived in the lower Mediterranean coastal plain until they were expelled by the Caphtorites.
2 sn Caphtorites. These peoples are familiar from both the OT (Gen 10:14; 1 Chr 1:12; Jer 47:4; Amos 9:7) and ancient Near Eastern texts (Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 2:37-38; ANET 138). They originated in Crete (OT “Caphtor”) and are identified as the ancestors of the Philistines (Gen 10:14; Jer 47:4).
3 tn Heb “Caphtor”; the modern name of the island of Crete is used in the translation for clarity (cf. NCV, TEV, NLT).
4 tn Heb “Reed Sea.” See note on the term “Red Sea” in Deut 1:40.