C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Numbers 20:20-21

Num 20:20-21

To give emphasis to his refusal, Edom went against Israel “with much people and with a strong hand,” sc., when they approached its borders. This statement, as well as the one in Num 20:21, that Israel turned away before Edom, anticipates the historical order; for, as a matter of course, the Edomites cannot have come at once with an army on the track of the messengers, for the purpose of blocking up the road through the Wady Murreh, which runs along the border of its territory to the west of the Arabah.