Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan with the coasts thereof:)
Then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and your south border shall be the outmost coast of the salt sea eastward:
And your border shall turn from the south to the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass on to Zin: and the going forth thereof shall be from the south to Kadeshbarnea, and shall go on to Hazaraddar, and pass on to Azmon:
And the coast shall go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and the border shall descend, and shall reach unto the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward:
And the border shall go down to Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea: this shall be your land with the coasts thereof round about.
And Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying, This is the land which ye shall inherit by lot, which the LORD commanded to give unto the nine tribes, and to the half tribe:
For the tribe of the children of Reuben according to the house of their fathers, and the tribe of the children of Gad according to the house of their fathers, have received their inheritance; and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance:
These are they whom the LORD commanded to divide the inheritance unto the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Numbers 34
Verse 2
shall fall unto you for an inheritance — ‘Fall’ is naphal, the language of the lot; in Josh 23:4 the same verb, in its causative form, is ‘I have divided unto you by lot’. The land is the one first promised to Abraham, ‘all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession’ (Gen 17:8), ‘the lot of your inheritance’ in Ps 105:11.
Verse 3
the outmost coast of the salt sea — The southern line begins at the wilderness of Zin, ‘which is Kadesh’ (Num 33:36), runs by the border of Edom, and reaches the salt sea eastward. Gen 14:3 identifies the salt sea with the vale of Siddim. Judah’s lot repeats the line: ‘to the border of Edom the wilderness of Zin southward’ (Josh 15:1).
Verse 5
the river of Egypt — The Hebrew is nachal, a stream-bed or wadi, the word of ‘the stream of Egypt’ in Isa 27:12. Gen 15:18 states the same boundary with nahar, ‘river’. Josh 15:4 repeats the line from Azmon: ‘went out unto the river of Egypt; and the goings out of that coast were at the sea’.
Verse 7
mount Hor — The Hebrew is Hor ha-har, ‘Hor the mountain’. It is taken to be a different mountain from the Mount Hor where Aaron died ‘in the edge of the land of Edom’ (Num 33:37; 20:28), since Edom marks the southern side (v.3) and this line runs north from ‘the great sea’. ‘Point out’ is ta’ah, to mark off, a verb found only in vv.7–8; v.10 uses avah.
Verse 11
the sea of Chinnereth — The eastern line comes down to the side of this sea and on to the Jordan (v.12). Deut 3:17 names the Jordan’s course ‘from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea’. The same water is the ‘lake of Gennesaret’ in Luke 5:1 and ‘the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias’ in John 6:1.
Verse 13
by lot — Goral, the lot, was the means named for dividing the land in Num 26:55, and ‘the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD’ (Prov 16:33). It covers the nine tribes and the half tribe, since Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh had already received their inheritance across the Jordan (vv.14–15; Num 32).
Verse 17
Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun — Eleazar took Aaron’s garments (Num 20:28) and Joshua was appointed to follow Moses, standing ‘before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim’ (Num 27:21). They carry out the division in Josh 14:1 and 19:51. Joshua’s name is Jesus in the KJV of Heb 4:8.
Verse 19
Caleb the son of Jephunneh — Caleb, of Judah, with Joshua (v.17) is one of the two men left of those numbered at Sinai: ‘there was not left a man of them, save Caleb … and Joshua’ (Num 26:65). The LORD said he ‘hath followed me fully’ (Num 14:24), and Hebron became his inheritance ‘because that he wholly followed the LORD’ (Josh 14:14).
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