John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 2:10

"(The Emim dwelt therein aforetime, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim:" — Deuteronomy 2:10 (ASV)

The Emims dwelt therein in times past. This is a confirmation of the preceding declaration, which is, however, inserted as a parenthesis by Moses himself; for the ninth verse, which I have just expounded, is followed regularly by the thirteenth, Now rise up, etc.

For, after God had turned away the people from the borders of Moab, He shows them in what direction they must pass over. Moses, interrupting the address of God, explains how the Moabites had obtained that territory, though they were strangers and had no land of their own on which they might set their foot. For Lot was no less an alien than Abraham; Moses, therefore, states how by special privilege the posterity of Lot became masters of that land which giants had previously possessed.

For it was not by human means that, having driven out the giants, who were formidable to all men, they had obtained the peaceful occupation and even the dominion of that land, which might have seemed invincible due to the valor and strength of its inhabitants. He says, therefore, that the giants dwelt there, as also in Mount Seir, and that both were overcome and destroyed not so much by the hand and arms of men as by the power of God, so that their land might be cleared for possession as well for the children of Esau as for those of Lot.

Now, since God elsewhere declares that He had given Mount Seir to Esau as an inheritance, as He had promised to his father Isaac, it follows that the Moabites had obtained their land also by the same Divine authority. The comparison made between Edom and the Israelites, however, does not hold good in all respects. For, although Esau was sustained by this consolation, that his inheritance should be of the fatness of the earth (Genesis 27:39), it might still be the case that with regard to himself and his posterity, their possession should not be legitimate; whereas God so promised the land of Canaan to the race of Abraham that the Israelites received the dominion over it, as if from His own hand, as it is said in Psalm 136:21.

In this respect, too, there was a difference, because the land of Canaan was chosen as that in which God should gather His Church, in which He should be purely worshipped, and which should be an earnest to the faithful of the heavenly and eternal rest. But, as elsewhere, the distinction between the sons of Esau and Jacob is marked, so now Moses¹²⁶ magnifies God’s special blessing towards them both.

¹²⁶ “Moyse dit ici qu’ils ont eu cela de commun, que Dieu les a voulu loger;” Moses says here that they had this in common, that God had chosen to give them their dwelling-places. — Fr..