Numberschapter 34
29 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
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:)
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Numbers Overview.
This chapter draws the map of the land Israel was about to enter. It was given on the plains of Moab, before a single tribe had crossed the Jordan. A people who had lived in tents for forty years were told where their borders would run and who would divide the ground. The land had been promised to Abraham centuries before, and here the promise is traced on the earth. Listen for the four sides of the border named in turn, from the south around to the east, and for the men chosen from each tribe to share it out. The chapter turns a promise into a map.
Context
- Who
- The nine and a half tribes who would draw lots for this land, and the twelve men named to divide it for them
- What
- The four borders of the land of Canaan and the list of leaders appointed to divide it among the nine and a half western tribes.
- Where
- The plains of Moab, describing the land west of the Jordan from the wilderness of Zin to the approach of Hamath and from the Great Sea to the Jordan.
- When
- In the fortieth year after the Exodus, about 1406 BC on the traditional dating, between Aaron's death in the fifth month and Moses' last addresses in the eleventh, while other scholars date the writing of the book later.
- Why
- To define the inheritance before the crossing, so that the division would follow the LORD's lines rather than the strength of each tribe.
Historical context
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.
Significance
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
Rashi states why the borders are drawn at such length, and the answer is practice. Many commandments are kept in the land of Canaan and are not kept outside it, so Scripture has to fix the line on every side. Inside that line the commandments are in force (Rashi on Numbers 34:2:1, citing Gittin 8a). The commandments he has in view are the ones tied to the soil, and the tractates the corpus links on this chapter turn on the same question. The Jerusalem Talmud is cited here at Sheviit 6:1:1, 6:1:12, 6:1:14 and 6:1:22, and at Challah 2:1:7 and 4:4:6.
How it is read
Rashi reads the word for the land falling to Israel in two ways. In the plain sense it falls because the land is divided by lot. In the midrashic reading God cast down the guardian angels of the seven nations of Canaan and set them in fetters before Moses (Rashi on Numbers 34:2:2, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Masei 4).
Most of his work on this chapter is the tracing of the line itself. He takes the southern side as running east to west. The three lands he names to the south of Israel are part of Egypt, the whole of Edom and the whole of Moab (Rashi on Numbers 34:3:1 and 34:3:2). He reads the verbs of turning and going out as marks of a line that bends rather than runs straight. From each of them he works out which places fall inside the border (Rashi on Numbers 34:4:1 and 34:8:2). The ascent of Akrabbim falls inside on that reading, and so does Ain (Rashi on Numbers 34:4:1 and 34:11:1). He identifies the entrance of Hamath at the north-east as Antioch (Rashi on Numbers 34:8:1). Hazar-enan he places at the north-east corner, where the northern border ends and the eastern begins (Rashi on Numbers 34:9:1). He also explains the Hebrew habit of naming directions from a man facing east, so that the south is on his right and the north on his left (Rashi on Numbers 34:15:1).
The princes named at the end of the chapter are read as agents rather than owners. Rashi holds that each prince divided his own tribe's inheritance among the families and the men, choosing a portion fitting for each. What they did stood in law as though the tribe had appointed them (Rashi on Numbers 34:17:1, citing Kiddushin 42b). He rests the reading on the form of the verb, which says that they take possession for the tribe rather than give possession to it.
Ibn Ezra comments at two places here and the corpus carries neither text, because the licence Sefaria reports for it does not permit keeping it. He stands cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Numbers 34:5:1 and 34:28:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Twenty-seven of them are midrashic and thirteen are Talmudic. Bamidbar Rabbah stands at 15:19, 19:32, 19:33, 23:5, 23:6, 23:7, 23:10 and 23:11. Otzar Midrashim stands at Sefer Tagin 5:305, 5:306, 5:307, 5:308 and 24:143. Midrash Tanchuma Buber stands at Masei 3:1 and 3:2, at Beha'alotcha 22:2 and at Chukat 55:1. The Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai stands at 13:11 and 23:16.
The rest of the midrashic locators sit in eight works. Midrash Lekach Tov stands at Numbers 34:1:1, Bereshit Rabbati at Parashat Toldot 17, and Ein Yaakov at Gittin 1:6. Shir HaShirim Rabbah stands at 4:8:2, Midrash Aggadah at Genesis 49:26:2, Midrash Sekhel Tov at Bereshit 49:26:2, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah at 787:5, and Pesikta DeRav Kahana at 5:9. The Talmudic locators gather on the law of the land. The Jerusalem Talmud stands at Sheviit 6:1:1, 6:1:12, 6:1:14 and 6:1:22, at Challah 2:1:7 and 4:4:6, at Makkot 2:6:12 and at Kiddushin 3:3:2. Bekhorot stands at 55a:10 and 55a:14, Kiddushin at 42a:6 and 42a:8, and Gittin at 8a:5. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text, because the corpus holds these locators without it.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Numbers 34:2:1 to 34:29:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary translated by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Numbers 34:5:1 and 34:28:1, cited by ref because the licence the corpus reports does not permit keeping the text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/numbers/34.json, the 27 Midrash and 13 Talmud locators of this chapter, fetched 2026-09-19.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The borders of your inheritance
Numbers 34:1-5
The borders are drawn before a single field is taken, and the land "will be allotted to you as an inheritance", the language of the lot that verse 13 states outright. The south line runs past Kadesh-barnea, where the spies came back and the sentence of chapter 14 was passed. Genesis 15:18 promised Abram ground reaching to the Euphrates, and these lines stop well short of it.
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.”
Albert Barnes notes that the name Canaan is here limited to the land west of the Jordan. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that Israel never held all the ground inside these lines, even under David and Solomon. The boundaries describe what was given.
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
Albert Barnes starts the southern line at the Dead Sea and makes Kadesh-barnea, in the Wilderness of Zin, its southernmost point. Numbers 20:16 places Kadesh on the edge of Edom. John Wesley explains the Salt Sea's name by the salt and sulphurous taste of its water.
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.”
Joshua 15:3-4 repeats this line almost word for word as the southern border of Judah, from Akrabbim past Kadesh-barnea to Azmon and the Brook of Egypt. Albert Barnes follows the line through the valleys running southwest from the Dead Sea into the Wilderness of Zin. Hazar-addar and Azmon remain unlocated.
John Wesley takes the Brook of Egypt as the Shihor of Joshua 13:3, the stream dividing Egypt from Canaan. Adam Clarke gives two views, the eastern branch of the Nile or a stream south of the Philistine country. Wesley calls the Sea the midland sea, the Mediterranean.
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
Numbers 34:6-9
The Mount Hor of verse 7 is a different mountain from the one by Edom where Aaron died, and Barnes reads it as the western crest of Lebanon. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the doubled Hebrew name as a high double mountain in that range. Zedad and Hazar-enan return in Ezekiel 47:15-17, where the same northern line is drawn for a division of the land still to come.
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
John Wesley takes this Mount Hor for Lebanon, the name meaning the mountain, and Albert Barnes reads it as the whole western crest of Lebanon, about 80 miles long. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown narrow it to the Amana of Song of Songs 4:8. All three place it in the Lebanon range.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
John Gill describes the entrance of Hamath as a narrow pass from Canaan into Syria, between Lebanon and Antilebanon. The spies of Numbers 13:21 went toward Lebo-hamath, so the border reaches the northern limit of their search. Zedad returns in Ezekiel's border at 47:15-16.
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.”
Albert Barnes places Ziphron at Zifran, about 40 miles northeast of Damascus. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown render Hazar-enan as village of fountains and call its site unknown. Ezekiel 47:17 ends its northern boundary there too.
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
Numbers 34:10-16
The east line passes the sea of verse 11, which the Gospels call Galilee, then follows the Jordan to the Salt Sea. Verse 13 gives it to "the nine and a half tribes", since Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh took pasture across the Jordan in chapter 32. Joshua 22:24-25 records their fear that, with the Jordan a border, their children would hear "You have no share in the LORD".
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.”
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain: Albert Barnes reports that some read Riblah as Har-bel, the mountain of Bel, and take it for the Baal-hermon of Judges 3:3, the summit of Hermon. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown put Shepham and Riblah in the valley of Lebanon. Ain remains unlocated.
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
Adam Clarke traces the Jordan from the foot of Lebanon through the Sea of Chinnereth into the Dead Sea, which has no outlet. God cut its waters off for Israel at Joshua 3:16. Matthew Henry reads the Salt Sea on the border as a standing warning against the sins of Sodom.
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
Two tribes and a half already settled
Matthew Henry reckons the land within these borders at about 160 miles long and fifty broad, perhaps half the size of England. Joshua 14:1-2 records the lot cast for the nine and a half tribes, as the LORD commanded through Moses. The command here is carried out there.
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
The grant of chapter 32 still hung on a condition, yet the verse counts it received. John Gill explains that it was agreed they should have it once they crossed and helped conquer Canaan. Their land lies outside this lot.
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.”
John Gill places the grant in the plains of Moab, opposite Jericho, which lay east of Canaan. Jericho is the first city Israel will take. Joshua 13:8 describes the same land as beyond the Jordan to the east.
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.”
One prince from each tribe to divide it
A new speech begins with the dividers. Matthew Henry says God fixes the borders as a prince fixes a grant, so that it is known what passes to whom. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that naming the dividers before the crossing strengthened faith and headed off later disputes.
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
Numbers 34:17-20
These are the names of the men: Two men hold the dividing, and "Eleazar the priest" is named before Joshua. Joshua and Caleb alone of the first census outlived the sentence of 14:29-30, as 26:65 repeats, so the two who said the land could be taken now lead its dividing. One leader comes from each tribe receiving ground, so ten names serve nine and a half tribes, and Levi, holding no inheritance by 18:20, is absent.
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 13:2 sent one leader from each tribe to spy out the land, and the same pattern now sends one to divide it. Albert Barnes notes that all these men were heads of chief families. He adds that only Caleb is known elsewhere.
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.”
Caleb is the only prince here who was also among the spies of Numbers 13, where at verse 6 he also stood for Judah. Adam Clarke and John Wesley both read the order of the tribes as the order in which they came to hold the land. Joshua 14:13 gives Caleb Hebron.
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
Simeon stands second, beside Judah, in the order Adam Clarke reads as the order of possession. Joshua 19:9 shows why the two sit together. Simeon's inheritance was taken from within Judah's portion, because Judah's share was too large for it.
Numbers 34:21-29
No other list in the book gives the tribes in this order, and Barnes says only that it belongs to this passage. Clarke reads it as the order in which the tribes settled, from Judah in the south to Naphtali in the north. Apart from Caleb these ten men are never heard of again, and Joshua 19:51 records Eleazar, Joshua and the tribal heads dividing the land at Shiloh.
From Dan onward each man is called a leader of his tribe, a title the first three names lack. Dan is fourth in Adam Clarke's order. Its lot at Joshua 19:40-47 was later lost, and the Danites took Leshem in the north and renamed it Dan.
Hanniel stands for the half of Manasseh that will settle west of the Jordan, since verse 14 has already placed the other half on the east. Manasseh comes before Ephraim here. Jacob had set Ephraim first at Genesis 48:20, and Adam Clarke reads this order as the order of possession.
Ephraim is Joshua's own tribe, since Numbers 13:8 lists Hoshea son of Nun for Ephraim among the spies. Joshua stands over the whole division at verse 17, and Ephraim still receives its own prince in Kemuel. Joshua 19:50 later gives Joshua a town in Ephraim's hill country.
The name Elizaphan was already borne by the leader of the Kohathite families at Numbers 3:30, a different man of Levi. This one leads Zebulun. Zebulun's lot is the third drawn at Joshua 19:10, and Adam Clarke places the tribe seventh in this list.
Issachar follows Zebulun here, as it does in the blessing of Moses at Deuteronomy 33:18. Their lots follow one another too. Joshua 19:10 and 19:17 record the third lot for Zebulun and the fourth for Issachar.
Asher received the fifth lot at Joshua 19:24. Judges 1:31 records that Asher failed to drive out the people of Acco, Sidon and other towns inside its share. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe at verse 2 that Israel never held all the land within these borders.
Naphtali closes the list, and its fortified cities at Joshua 19:35 include a Chinnereth, the name the eastern border gives the lake at verse 11. His father's name, Ammihud, is also borne by Shemuel's father at verse 20. Numbers 1:10 names an Ammihud of Ephraim too.
Matthew Henry remarks that the conquest is taken for granted, though no blow had yet been struck. John Gill notes that the order came before the land was won and was carried out at Shiloh "at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting", as Joshua 19:51 records. Joshua 14:1 names the same three parties at work.
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.”
How this psalm is built
The form: A boundary description followed by a list of the men appointed to apportion the land, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The border walked in a circuit | The boundary is given in one direction and closes where it started. The south runs at verses 3 to 5 and the west at verse 6. The north runs at verses 7 to 9 and the east at verses 10 to 12, ending again at the Salt Sea where the south began. | Numbers 34:3-5, Numbers 34:6, Numbers 34:7-9, Numbers 34:10-12 |
| This will be your land, defined by its borders | Verse 2 says the land will be allotted with these boundaries, and verse 12 closes by saying this will be your land, defined by its borders on all sides. The description stands inside those two statements. | Numbers 34:2, Numbers 34:12 |
| One leader from each tribe | The twelve men are listed by name and father at verses 19 to 28, each with his tribe. John Wesley observes that the order of the tribes here differs from the order at chapter 1, and that it follows instead the order of the inheritances that later fell to them by lot.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Numbers 34:19. | Numbers 34:19-28 |
The Mount Hor of this chapter
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 7 puts a Mount Hor on the northern border, and the commentators agree it is a different place from the mountain where Aaron died.
Albert Barnes takes the name here to denote the whole western crest of Mount Lebanon, about eighty miles in length, beginning east of Sidon and ending above the entrance of Hamath.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown work from the Hebrew, which they read as the mountain of the mountain or the high double mountain, and identify it with Amana in the great Lebanon range.
John Wesley states the distinction directly. The Hor where Aaron died lay southward on the border of Edom, and this is another mountain, which he takes to be Lebanon, named elsewhere as the northern border of the land.
The shape of the territory
Yohanan Aharoni observes that the boundaries drawn in this chapter follow the lines of the Egyptian province of Canaan as the Late Bronze Age records describe it. The land Israel was told to take had a known administrative shape before Israel entered it.
Why the twelve were named in advance
John Wesley explains the office given to Eleazar at verse 17. He was to act in God's name, to cast lots, to prevent contentions, to consult God in cases of difficulty, and to conduct the whole business in a solemn and religious manner.
John Wesley also reads the order of the tribes at verses 19 to 28 as a sign of design, since it matches the order of the inheritances that afterwards fell to them by lot.
A name a reader meets again
Caleb son of Jephunneh stands first among the twelve at verse 19. He is one of the two men of the older generation who brought back a good report of this same land in Numbers 13 and 14.
Keep studying
Studies1
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 form and classifications
Albert Barnes and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Numbers 34:2.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; MannaFest exposition and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.