C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Deuteronomy 2:13-15

Deu 2:13-15

For this reason Israel was to remove from the desert of Moab (i.e., the desert which bounded Moabitis on the east), and to cross over the brook Zered, to advance against the country of the Amorites (see at Num 21:12-13). This occurred thirty-eight years after the condemnation of the people at Kadesh (Num 14:23, Num 14:29), when the generation rejected by God had entirely died out (תּמם, to be all gone, to disappear), so that not one of them saw the promised land. They did not all die a natural death, however, but “the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them” (המם, lit., to throw into confusion, then used with special reference to the terrors with which Jehovah destroyed His enemies; Exo 14:24; Exo 23:27, etc.), sc., by extraordinary judgments (as in Num 16:35; Num 18:1; Num 21:6; Num 25:9).