Numberschapter 34
29 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
“Command the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, it will be allotted to you as an inheritance with these boundaries:
It stands in The borders of your inheritance, verses 1 to 12.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The boundaries of Canaan and the men who will divide it. The south border from the wilderness of Zin along Edom; the western border the great sea; the northern border from Mount Hor to the entering of Hamath, Zedad, Ziphron, Hazar-enan; the east border from Hazar-enan to Shepham, Riblah, the Sea of Chinnereth, the Jordan, and the Salt Sea. Eleazar and Joshua and a prince of every tribe will divide it. The chapter is a geography map drawn before the people cross. The land bounded and bordered before a single spear has been thrown. Gill: faith sees the fence before the field.
Context
Law · Moses · Numbers overview
The world behind this chapter
Numbers 34The history
The chapter is the LORD's word through Moses, given in the fortieth year in the camp on the plains of Moab. It follows directly on the order to cross and take the land at Numbers 33:51. The occasion is the division that will follow the crossing, and verse 13 says the land inside these lines goes to nine and a half tribes. Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh have already taken their inheritance east of the Jordan under chapter 32. Verses 17 to 28 name the one leader from each remaining tribe who will divide it, with Eleazar the priest and Joshua over them. A first hearer followed the border by landmarks rather than by a map. The southern line runs from the Salt Sea past the Ascent of Akrabbim and Kadesh-barnea to the Brook of Egypt and the sea. The west is the coast of the Great Sea, and the east comes down past the Sea of Chinnereth along the Jordan. He also knew Caleb son of Jephunneh, named first among the twelve at verse 19, as one of the two men who brought back a good report from this land. Yohanan Aharoni notes that these boundaries follow the lines of the Egyptian province of Canaan as the Late Bronze Age records describe it.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
What it meant to them
The borders turned a promise into a survey. Abraham had been told his descendants would have a land, and this chapter told his descendants where its corners were. Naming the twelve men in advance did the same work for the division itself. The allotment would be carried out by known representatives of each tribe under the priest and the commander, so every tribe had a voice in it.
Sources cited
- Yohanan Aharoni, The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography , 1967
- Jacob Milgrom, Numbers , The JPS Torah Commentary, 1990
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments , 1832 to 1869, on Numbers 34
Where the chapter sits
Numbers 34 falls in Second census and preparations (chapters 26–36). A new generation numbered; inheritance laws; Joshua commissioned; cities of refuge and tribal boundaries.
Before it: Approach to Moab, chapters 21–25.
The whole shape of Numbers→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. The borders of your inheritance
1. (vv. 1-5)
Numbers 34:1
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... At the same time that he ordered him to direct the children of Israel, when they had passed over Jordan, to drive out the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, and divide their land among them, he proceeded to give the limits and boundaries of the land: saying; as follows.”
Numbers 34:2
“Coasts - Or limits or bounds, to wit, of the land beyond Jordan. Which are here particularly described, 1. to direct and bound them in their wars and conquests, that they might not seek the enlargement of their empire, after the manner of other nations, but be contented with their own portion.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 34:3
“The southern boundary commenced at the Dead Sea. The broad and desolate valley by which the depressed bed of that sea is protected toward the south, is called the Ghor. A deep narrow glen enters it at its southwest corner; it is called Wady-el-Fikreh, and is continued in the same southwestern direction, under the name of Wady el-Marrah; a wady which loses itself among the hills belonging to “the wilderness of Zin;” and Kadesh-barnea (see Num 13:26 note), which is “in the wilderness of Zin,” will be, as the text implies, the southernmost point of the southern boundary.”
Numbers 34:5
“The river of Egypt - Called Sihor, Josh. xiii, 3, which divided Egypt from Canaan. The sea - The midland sea, called the sea emphatically, whereas the other seas, as they are called, are indeed but lakes.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 34:5
“The river of Egypt - The eastern branch of the river Nile; or, according to others, a river which is south of the land of the Philistines, and fails into the gulf or bay near Calieh.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The borders are drawn before a single field is taken, and the land is said to fall unto Israel for an inheritance, which is the language of the lot that verse 13 states outright. The south line runs from the wilderness of Zin past Kadesh-barnea to the river of Egypt, so the edge of the inheritance touches the place where the spies came back and the sentence of chapter 14 was passed. Abram was promised ground reaching to the Euphrates at Genesis 15:18, and the lines given here stop well short of it.
2. (vv. 6-9)
Numbers 34:6
“Ye shall even have the great sea for a border - The Mediterranean Sea, called here the Great Sea, to distinguish it from the Dead Sea, the Sea of Tiberias, etc., which were only a sort of lakes. In Hebrew there is properly but one term, ים yam, which is applied to all collections of water apparently stagnant, and which is generally translated sea. The Greek of the New Testament follows the Hebrew, and employs, in general, the word θαλασσα, Sea, whether it speaks of the Mediterranean, or of the sea or lake of Galilee.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Numbers 34:7
“Hor - Not that Hor where Aaron died, which was southward, and bordering upon Edom, but another mountain, and, as it is conceived, the mountain of Libanus, which is elsewhere mentioned as the northern border of the land, and which, in regard of divers parts, or by divers people, is called by divers names, and here Hor, which signifies a mountain, by way of eminency.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 34:7
“The Hebrew words, however, Hor-ha-Hor, properly signify "the mountain of the mountain," or "the high double mountain," which, from the situation, can mean nothing else than the mountain Amana (So 4:8), a member of the great Lebanon range (Jos 13:5).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 34:8
“From Mount Hor ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath,.... Antiochia, as Jarchi; or rather Epiphania, as Jerom (r); the former being described by Hemath the great, Amo 6:2, this entrance was a narrow pass leading from the land of Canaan to Syria, through the valley which lies between Lebanon and Antilibanus: and the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad; the same boundary as here is given in Eze 47:15. (r) Comment. in Ezek. 47. 16.”
Numbers 34:9
“Hazar-enan--("village of fountains"); but the places are unknown. "An imaginary line from mount Cassius, on the coast along the northern base of Lebanon to the entering into the Bekaa (Valley of Lebanon) at the Kamosa Hermel," must be regarded as the frontier that is meant [VAN DE VELDE].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Each border is fixed to something that does not move, the great sea on the west and a mountain and a mountain pass on the north. The mount Hor of verse 7 is a different mountain from the mount Hor where Aaron died in chapter 20, which stood south by Edom; Barnes reads this one as the western crest of Lebanon, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the doubled Hebrew name as a high double mountain in the same range. Zedad and Hazar-enan are named again in Ezekiel 47:15-17, where the same northern line is drawn for a division of the land still to come.
3. (vv. 10-12)
Numbers 34:10
“Shepham, the first point after Hazar-enan, is unknown. The name Riblah is by some read Har-bel, i. e., “the Mountain of Bel;” the Har-baal-Hermon of Jdg 3:3. No more striking landmark could be set forth than the summit of Hermon, the southernmost and by far the loftiest peak of the whole Antilibanus range, rising to a height of 10,000 feet, and overtopping every other mountain in the Holy land.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 34:10
“And ye shall point out your east border from Hazarenan to Shepham. From the place where the northern border ended, which Jerom says (u) the Hebrews call Apamia, as both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem do here. Shepham was a city between Hazarenan and Riblah in the tribe of Naphtali, where Adrichomius (w) places it. (u) Comment. ut supra. (cf. ver. 15.) (w) Theatrum Terrae Sanct. p. 114.”
Numbers 34:11
“And the coast shall go down from Shepham to Riblah,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 34:11
“The sea of Chinnereth - The same as the sea of Galilee, sea of Tiberias, and sea of Gennesareth.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Numbers 34:12
“The border shall go down to Jordan - This river is famous both in the Old and New Testaments. It takes its rise at the foot of Mount Libanus, passes through the sea of Chinnereth or Tiberias, and empties itself into the lake Asphaltites or Dead Sea, from which it has no outlet. In and by it God wrought many miracles. God cut off the waters of this river as he did those of the Red Sea, so that they stood on a heap on each side, and the people passed over on dry ground.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 34:12
“This was part of their border, that it might be a constant warning to them to take heed of those sins which had been the ruin of Sodom; yet the iniquity of Sodom was afterwards found in Israel ( Ezek. xvi. 49 ), for which Canaan was made, though not a salt sea as Sodom, yet a barren soil, and continues so to this day.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 34:10-16
The east line comes down past the sea of Chinnereth, which the Gospels call the sea of Galilee, then follows Jordan to the salt sea where the south line began. Everything inside those four borders is Canaan, and verse 13 gives it to nine tribes and a half, because Reuben, Gad and half Manasseh had asked in chapter 32 for the pasture on the far side of Jordan. Joshua 22:24-25 records the fear those tribes carried afterward, that Jordan had been made a border and their children would be told they had no part in the LORD.
B. Two tribes and a half already settledvv. 13-15
Numbers 34:13
“This is the land which ye shall inherit by lot - Much of what is said concerning this land is peculiarly emphatic. It is a land that contains a multitude of advantages in its climate, its soil, situation, etc. It is bounded on the south by a ridge of mountains, which separate it from Arabia, and screen it from the burning and often pestiferous winds which blow over the desert from that quarter.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 34:13
“That it lay comparatively in a very little compass: as it is here bounded, it is reckoned to be but about 160 miles in length and about fifty in breadth; perhaps it did not contain more than half as much ground as England, and yet this is the country which was promised to the father of the faithful and was the possession of the seed of Israel.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 34:14
“For the tribe of the children of Reuben, according to the house of their fathers,.... That tribe, and all the families belonging to it: have received their inheritance, and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance; that is, it was agreed they should have it on condition of their going along with the other tribes over Jordan into the land of Canaan, and assist them in the conquest of it, Num 32:1.”
Numbers 34:15
“The two tribes and the half tribe,.... The tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh: have received their inheritance on this side Jordan near Jericho, eastward, toward the sun rising; that is, they received the grant of it there, even in the plains of Moab, opposite Jericho, which lay to the east of the land of Canaan.”
C. One prince from each tribe to divide it
1. (v. 16)
Numbers 34:16
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... At the same time that he gave him the bounds of the land of Canaan, which was to be divided between the nine tribes and a half; and that this might be done in the most impartial manner, and to the satisfaction of them all, he gave orders to Moses: saying; as follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 34:16
“God directs Moses to settle it here, not as a geographer in his map, merely to please the curious, but as a prince in his grant, that it may be certainly known what passes, and is conveyed, by the grant. There was a much larger possession promised them, which in due time they would have possessed if they had been obedient, reaching even to the river Euphrates, Deut. xi.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 17-20)
Numbers 34:17
“He places the priest before the leader, since the priest comes closer to God.”
Procopius of Gaza· written before 528· CATENA ON THE OCTATEUCH, ON NUMBERS 34:17patristic
Numbers 34:18
“Of the representatives now selected through Moses beforehand, who were all princes, i. e. heads of chief families, in their respective tribes (see Num 13:2), Caleb alone, of the tribe of Judah, is otherwise known to us (see Num 13:4 ff). The order in which the tribes are named is peculiar to this passage.”
Numbers 34:19
“Judah - The order of the tribes is here different from that, chap. i, 7, 26, and in other places, being conformed to the order of their several inheritances, which afterwards fell to them by lots. Which is an evident demonstration of the infinite wisdom of God's providence, and of his peculiar care over his people.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The dividing is put into the hands of two men, and Eleazar the priest is named before Joshua the captain. Joshua and Caleb are the only men of the first census whom the sentence at 14:29-30 left alive, which 26:65 states again, so the two who said the land could be taken are the two set over its dividing, Joshua at the head of the work and Caleb first among the princes. One prince comes from each tribe that will receive ground, which is why ten names follow for nine tribes and a half, and why Levi is absent, holding no inheritance by 18:20.
3. (vv. 21-29)
Numbers 34:29
“These are they whom the Lord commanded,.... Not only named and appointed them, but laid his commands upon them, and obliged them: to divide the inheritance unto the children of Israel; even this order was made before the land was conquered by them, so sure and certain was it unto them; and accordingly they did divide it, and that in Shiloh, before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, as in the presence of God, doing it in the most impartial and solemn manner; see Jos 19:51.”
The order of the tribes in this list matches none of the other lists in the book, not chapter 1, not chapter 2 and not chapter 26. Clarke reads it as the order in which the tribes came to hold their ground, running from Judah in the south to Naphtali in the north, while Barnes says only that the arrangement belongs to this passage alone. Apart from Caleb, none of these ten men is heard of again in Scripture, and every prince who served in chapter 1 has died under the sentence of 14:29. Verse 29 closes with a commission to divide land none of them had yet stood on, and Joshua 19:51 records Eleazar, Joshua and the heads of the tribes doing it at Shiloh.
This page carries no textual note on Numbers 34. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.