Deuteronomy 2:3

Ye have compassed this mountain long enough For the idiom see on Deuteronomy 1:6.

turn you northward Marching from Ḳadesh down the W. of Mt Se-îr, Israel had now reached not the sea, but probably the mouth of the W. el "Ithm (or Yitm), which opens N.E. from the -Arabah across or round the S. end of Mt Se-îr. By this natural avenue, along which the Hajj road from Damascus to Mecca runs, they would reach the plateau E. of Mt Se-îr on their way to the Moab frontier. The W. el "Ithm, opening from the -Arabah about 8 hours N. of the sea, cuts upwards through the southmost of the modern divisions into which the country anciently inhabited by Edom is divided, el-Ḥisma or Ḥesma. (See Doughty Ar. Des.i. 45; Musil, Edom, i. 2, 265, 270, etc.)