That great and terrible wilderness - Compare Deuteronomy 8:15. This language is such as people would use after having passed with t…

By the way of the mountain of the Amorites. —Rather, in the direction of the mount. They did not pass the Mount …

And when we departed from Horeb
As the Lord commanded them to do, when they were obedient:

we wen…

Moses reminds the Israelites of their march from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea, through that great and terrible wilderness. He shows how near they were to…