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The list of stopping places Moses recorded here differs from the one in 33:41-49. Apparently neither list is complete but both are selective. Archaeologists have not yet identified most of the sites Moses mentioned here. The route of the Israelites was around Edom in a counter-clockwise direction until they came to the Wadi Zered (v. 12).191A wadi (Arabic, Heb. nahal) was a river or stream bed that was dry during most of the year but became a rushing torrent during the rainy season. The Israelites took the Way of the Wilderness, a route that ran generally parallel to but east of the King's Highway (20:17, 19).
The Zered flowed westward, in the rainy season, into the Arabah near the south end of the Dead Sea. It constituted the boundary between Edom and Moab.
Moving farther north, through Moab, the nation crossed the Arnon Wadi that feeds into the east side of the Dead Sea about at its mid-point north to south. This river was the border between the Moabites and the Amorites (v. 13). This crossing brought Israel to the threshold of the Promised Land.
The Amorites were, ". . . the mightiest of all the tribes of the Canaanites."192
Here the Israelites received direction from God to make war with Sihon, a king of the Amorites, and to possess his land. God promised them that they would be victorious (Deut. 2:24-25). This revelation filled the Israelites with joy and courage.
The "Book of the Wars of the Lord"(v. 14) was a collection of songs that commemorated God's glorious acts on behalf of the Israelites. Apparently Moses or one of his contemporaries wrote or edited it. The fragment of one of these songs that the writer included here (vv. 14-15) describes the Arnon. The fact that Moses inserted this strophe reflects the joy that the Israelites felt on this occasion.
At Beer (lit. Well) God provided water for the people by instructing them to dig wells (vv. 16-18). This proved to be another occasion of great rejoicing as God provided for His needy people.
Moses mentioned several other sites as camping places before the nation settled down on the tableland of the Pisgah range of mountains. This area lay east of the place where the Jordan River empties into the Dead Sea. The "wasteland"(Jeshimon) is the desert directly to the northeast of the Dead Sea.
