2:4 your brothers, the people of Esau. As explained in v. 8 and in Num. 20:14–21, the Edomites refused peaceful passage, so Israel went around their territory. Deuteronomy adds to the Numbers account that this was the Lord’s command. In Moses’ day, the Edomites, according to archaeological study, were apparently not living in fixed locations. They were brothers to Israel in nomadic life as well as in ancestry (Gen. 25:25, 26).