Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
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Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
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And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
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And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying:
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John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... At the same…
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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Directions concerning the bounds of Canaan, ver. 1-15. Concerning…
Directions concerning the bounds of Canaan, ver. 1-15. Concerning the division of it, ver. 16-29.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The land of Canaan is described, 1, 2.
CHAPTER XXXIV
The land of Canaan is described, 1, 2.
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The south quarter, 3-5.
The western border, 6.
The north border, 7-9.
The east border, 10-12.
This land to be divided by lot among the nine tribes and half,
13;
two tribes and half, Reuben and Gad, and the half of Manasseh,
having already got their inheritance on the east side of Jordan,
14, 15.
Eleazar the priest, and Joshua, to assist in dividing the land,
16, 17;
and with them a chief out of every tribe, 18.
The names of the twelve chiefs, 19-29.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXIV
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Num 34:1-2. God here directs Moses, and he is…
Num 34:1-2. God here directs Moses, and he is ordered to direct Israel, concerning the line by which the land of Canaan was to be bounded on all sides. Its limits, or bounds, are described, 1st, To guide 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. 2d, To encourage them in their attempt upon Canaan, and assure them of their success. There was a much larger possession promised them, if they were obedient, even to the river Euphrates; and even so far the dominions of Israel did extend in David’s and Solomon’s time, 2Ch 9:26. But this, which is properly Canaan, lay in a very little compass. It is but about a hundred and sixty miles in length, and about fifty in breadth. This was that little spot of ground, in which alone, for many ages, God was known! But its littleness was abundantly compensated by its fruitfulness; otherwise it could not have sustained so numerous a nation.
See how little a share of the world God often gives to his own people! But they that have their portion in heaven, can be content with a small pittance of this earth.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Determination of the Boundaries of the Land of Israel.…
TWELFTH SECTION
Determination of the Boundaries of the Land of Israel. List of the Men appointed to Distribute it for the Individual Tribes
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Num_34:1-29
1And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2Command 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:) 3Then 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: 4And your border shall turn from the south to the ascent of1 Akrabbim, and pass on to Zin: and the going forth thereof shall be from the south to Kadesh-barnea, and shall go on to Hazar-addar, and pass on to Azmon: 5And the border shall fetch a compass from Azmon unto the river of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at 6the sea. And as for the western border, ye shall even have the great sea for a border: this shall be your west border: 7And this shall be your north border: from the great sea ye shall point out for you mount Hor: 8From mount Hor ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath; and the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad:
9And the border shall go on to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be at Hazar-enan: this shall be your north border. 10And ye shall point out your east border from Hazar-enan to Shepham: 11And 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 2side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward: 12And 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. 13And 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: 14For 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: 15The two tribes and the half tribe have received their inheritance on this side Jordan near Jericho eastward, toward 16, 17the sunrising. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, These are the names of the men which shall divide the land unto you: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun. 18And ye shall take one prince of every tribe, to divide the land by inheritance. 19And the names of the men are these: Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. 20And of the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Amihud. 21Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon. 22And the prince of the tribe of the children of Dan, Bukki the son of Jogli. 23The prince of the children of Joseph, for the tribe of the children of Manasseh, Hanniel the son of Ephod. 24And the prince of the tribe of the children of Ephraim, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan. 25And the prince of the tribe of the children of Zebulun, Elizaphan the son of Parnach. 26And the prince of the tribe of the children of Issachar, Paltiel the son of Azzan. 27And the prince of the tribe of the children of Asher, Ahihud the son of Shelomi. 28And the prince of the tribe of the 29children of Naphtali, Pedahel the son of Ammihud. These are they whom the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance unto the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Num_34:3. The מ denotes the starting point, from the extreme point of the salt sea.—A. G.]
[Num_34:5. נסב, turned.—A. G.]
[Num_34:7. תְּתָאוּ, from תָּאָח, to mark or delineate, but with the added idea of irregularity. The wavy, shaken line reaching from one point to another. הר הָהָר. Sept.: τὸ ὅρος τὸ ὅρος—the mountain of the mountain, i.e., the great mountain.—A. G.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The lawgiver now passes in the most logical method, to define the limits of the land which Israel should regard as its inheritance, so that it should not seek to go out beyond these limits and found a world empire (2 Samuel 24), nor rest within these boundaries until it has acquired and occupied all the territory within them. The foundation for this direction is contained in Gen_15:18-21; Exo_23:31—and their actual application of them is related in Joshua 13. sqq. It is assumed that the east Jordan region belongs within these limits.
1. Num_34:2. The inheritance is defined generally as the land of Canaan with the coasts thereof, or according to its boundaries.
2. Num_34:3-5. The southern boundary. The general description. The southern limit is the wilderness of Zin. The added clause along by the coast (side) of Edom represents this line as a somewhat extended one, which, like the desert of Zin itself, stretches by the side of Edom southwards below the Dead Sea. The more detailed description indicates a line drawn from the east to the west, beginning at the southern point of the eastern salt or dead sea, and from this point bending southwards in Israel’s favor (לָכֵס) to the heights of Akrabbim, thence inward in a curve through the wilderness of Zin, enclosing Kadesh-Barnea (the thirty-eight years’ camping ground), stretching onwards by the unknown places, Addar and Azmon, turns to the river of Egypt (Rhinocolura), and down this to the Mediterranean sea. Keil holds that the border turned (נָסַב, Num_34:4) at the heights of Akrabbim and then went in a straight line from east to west. The line seems to be more fully described in Joshua 15. (from Kadesh-Barnea to Hezron, ascending farther to Addar, Karkan, Azmon). For the brook of Egypt see 1Ki_8:65; 2Ki_24:7; 2Ch_7:8; Isa_27:12. [While we cannot identify certainly all the localities here mentioned, the general direction of the south border, and even its more special features as here defined “are in strict accordance,” as Palmer (The Desert of the Exodus) says, “with the natural geographical limits of the country.” The Edom along which the border lay is plainly not the Edom east of the Arabah, but the region south of the wilderness of Zin, and which still bears the name of Seir or Sen among the Arabs. The limits of the south quarter which reached to the wilderness of Zin were defined by a line starting from “the southern extremity of the Dead sea, and running southwards up the Ascent from the Ghor”—whether this ascent was up the Wady El-Fikreh, which opens into the Ghor nearly at its south-west corner, or a pass opening into the Arabah still lower down, perhaps the wady Murreh, is uncertain—“along the Arabah to the south of the Azazimeh mountains, turning to Gadis (Kadesh), round the south-east of that mountain plateau, from the west of which it shall extend (taking in all the fertile valleys at the foot) as far as wady El Arish,(the brook of Egypt), running northward to the Mediterranean. The Hazar-Addar here corresponds probably to Hezron and Addar in Jos_15:3-4, the two places lying so close to each other that they are here named together. Hazar-Addar is probably, though from geographical rather than etymological considerations, to be sought in Ain-el-Kudeirat on the northern side of the ridge which here forms the natural demarcation between Canaan and the Desert. The fountain is still the source of fertility to the neighboring fields.” Bib. Com.—A. G.]
3. The western border, Num_34:6. The great sea, Deu_3:16 and Joshua. But it was the sea with its border or territory set over against Canaan, so that this did not reach throughout to the sea.
4. The northern limit, Num_34:7-9. The general description. A line was to be drawn—somewhat undefined, however—from the sea on the west to Mount Hor on the east. That this mountain cannot lie in northern Phœnicia, as Knobel thinks, perhaps Mount Casius to the southwest of Antioch on the Orontes, is evident from the fact, that on that supposition a line would have to be drawn northwards, and not from west to east. Mount Hor therefore must be sought to the eastward. It is more probably a western spur of Anti Lebanon than of Lebanon, and is perhaps Hermon. From Mount Hor onwards the line is more exactly defined. At first it crosses obliquely the repeatedly mentioned way to Hamath, in the direction of Zedad. That לבא חֲמָת cannot mean until one comes to the town Hamath, is clear, as Keil holds from the fact that Hamath (the present Epiphanius on the Orontes) never belonged to Canaan. [Keil holds “that in all the passages in which Hamath is so referred to, Jos_13:5; Jdg_3:3; 1Ki_8:65; 2Ki_14:25, etc., it denotes not the town, but the kingdom of Hamath named from its capital, and refers to 2Ch_8:4, where Solomon is said to have built store cities in Hamath as the proof of his position. How far this kingdom may have extended southward in the time of Moses, we do not know.”—A. G.] Zedad lies southward from Hums or Emesa, or between Hums and Damascus. This description involves an important curve northward in the boundary, since it passes over the scarcely known Ziphron (Eze_47:16, Zifran) to Hazar-Enan, the fountain-court, which some conjecture is found in Bekaa. This character of the boundary seems to be intimated in the תּוֹצְאוֹת. The boundary crosses the roadway from Hamath to Ziphron, and then goes from Ziphron to Hazar-Enan. The whole description would thus seem to show that the line ran far up into the region of Anti-Libanus, while the main part of the line from the sea to Mount Hor is not more clearly defined. Jos_11:17 names besides as of special importance “Baal-gad,” which lay in the valley of Lebanon at the foot of Mount Hermon. We may observe that Moses probably did not possess the most exact knowledge of these northern regions. [It is much better to acknowledge our own ignorance, and wait for the light which geographical researches are sure to cast upon these questions than to impute ignorance to Moses.—A. G.] The main line from the sea to the mountain lay clearly in his mind; and besides, the special places in Anti-Lebanon along the great caravan mountain were known to him. [The northern border, especially in its northeastern portion, is involved in some obscurity, which, however, is fast disappearing. It is well nigh certain that the Mount Hor here referred to cannot be, as Lange conjectures, Hermon. The name denotes the whole western crest of Lebanon, to some point of which the line from the sea would be drawn. Porter, Giant Cities of Bashan, pp. 307–324. “Standing on the top of the ruined citadel at Hums, I saw on the western side of the plain a great opening or pass through the mountains. On its southern side the ridge of Lebanon rises abruptly to a height of ten thousand feet, and on its northern the lower ridge of Bargylus terminates in a bluff-promontory. Between the two lies the only opening from the land of Hamath to the coast of the Mediterranean. This is unquestionably the entrance of Hamath. From Mount Hor ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath. Afterwards, both when sailing along the Syrian coast, and when standing on the plain of Phœnicia, I saw with still more distinctness this remarkable pass. I saw then how graphic was the description of Moses. From the great sea ye shall point out for you Mount Hor. It was there before me—the majestic northern peak of Lebanon, the loftiest mountain in Syria, its glittering crown encircled by a halo of silvery clouds. The pass between Lebanon and Bargylus is the only opening from the coast into the land of Hamath.” From the entrance the border-line was drawn northeast to Hamath, then south-east by Ziphron about three miles east of Aretheusa, through Zedad, the present Sudud, about eight hours east of Hums, to Hazar-Enan.” This place, which was the northeastern point in the land, must have been a place marked by abundant springs. It was a village of fountains. Porter identifies this place with the present Kuryetein, lying about six miles southeast from Sudud, and about midway between Palmyra and Damascus. “Here are copious fountains—the only ones of any note in the whole of that vast arid region.” Keil places Hazar Enan near the fountain of Lebweh, at what Robinson regards as the water-shed between the Orontes and the Leontes. The fountain is large, and furnishes the finest water, springing at different points from underneath a broad piece of coarse gravel. He urges in favor of this locality, that it is incredible that the line should have run so far to the north, embracing a country which never really belonged to the kingdom of Israel, and that the more southern line agrees better with the eastern boundary. It is no real objection, however, to the larger limits, that they were actually never reached permanently by the Israelitish power, since the original grant extends even to the Euphrates, Gen_15:18; Exo_23:31, on condition that the people should be faithful and obedient. The conditions were not fulfilled, and hence the whole land granted was not occupied. So far, therefore, we may take Porter’s location of the northern boundary as the correct one.—A. G.]
5. The eastern border, Num_34:10-12. From Hazar-Enan to Shepham. From that point the line descends from the mountains southwards to Riblah to the east of Ain, and going down still further, strikes the east side of the sea of Chinnereth. Still further it runs down to the Jordan, and thence along that river to the Dead Sea. Shepham and Riblah (to be distinguished from the Riblah in the land of Hamath) cannot be precisely located. But Riblah lies east of Ain, and is supposed to have been brought to light in the great fountain Neba Anjar at the foot of Anti Lebanon (Robinson, Researches, Vol. IV., p. 498). [Robinson, however, identifies Riblah here with the Riblah in Hamath and which appears in the later history. Porter also: “Has my reader ever remarked the accuracy of Biblical topography even in the minutest details? Moses speaks of Riblah on the east side of Ain, or of the fountain. Ten miles west of Riblah is the great fountain of the Orontes, which I also visited, and which is to this day called by all the people in the neighborhood El Ain, ‘the fountain.’ ” For the opposite side, see the Bib. Com., which, however, to sustain its theory, resorts to the violent supposition, that there is no Riblah in the text; and laying aside the Masoretic pointing, constructs a word which will favor its theory, p. 782.—A. G.] It is noteworthy that the sea of Galilee is not the boundary, but is enclosed within it, as belonging to the Holy Land, as even the Jordan also. [The description, however—pressed upon the shoulder of the sea—seems to imply that while the border had not run along the Jordan previously, it now rested upon the north-eastern shore of the sea of Galilee, and then skirted that sea, and so down the Jordan. The heritage of the two tribes and a half belonged to the Holy Land, though not included within these bounds. We are not to limit the land to less than that which was actually occupied, nor are we to exclude from it regions which may never have been permanently occupied.—A. G.] This land of Canaan was still now to be distributed by lot, as the land of the inheritance in the narrower and stricter sense. Still the inheritance of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, the east Jordan region, was included. For here it treats specially of that part of the inheritance which was yet to be conquered and distributed.
[Num_34:15. On this side Jordan near Jericho, literally, on this side of the Jericho Jordan. The expression here is remarkable, because applied here, not as elsewhere to a limited space, but to the whole territory of the two and a half tribes. It is, too, geographically more accurate than would have been the simple phrase: “on this side of the Jordan,” for the Jordan did not divide the western and eastern tribes throughout the whole of its course. That the inheritance of the tribe of Naphtali was not bounded by the Jordan on the east may be inferred from the sites of some of the Naphtalite cities (Jos_19:36; Jos_19:38), as well as from the assertion of Josephus (Antiq. V. 22).” Bib. Com., p. 783.—A. G.]
Num_34:16-29. The appointment to distribute the land. To the two leaders of the people and who therefore represented the people, a prince from each of the tribes was added, to whom the special interests of the tribes were entrusted. [“The positions of the several inheritances seem to be determined by lot; but their dimensions were proportioned to the wants of the tribes to which they fell.” Keil, p. 258. The list of tribes in the order named corresponds, with some exceptions, to the situation of the territory which the tribes received in Canaan, reckoning from the south to the north.” There are some singular omissions in the enumeration. The phrase of the children, or sons, does not occur with reference to Judah and Benjamin; and the word prince, which describes the distributors chosen from the several tribes, does not appear with reference to Judah, Simeon and Benjamin. Hirsch suggests as an explanation, “that as the phrase ‘tribe of the children’ represents the idea of the unity of the tribe as composed of the individual בני, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, on whose borders the national sanctuary was to be established, are not thought of as a unity made up of the individual members of the tribe, but as belonging to the entire community, a branch of the whole nation, and so representing its unity. So also as the sanctuary represented the dominion of God and His law, no prince appears for these tribes, nor even for Simeon, whose inheritance lay enclosed in that of Judah.”—A. G.] The names of those appointed—all of them unknown to us save Caleb—are Caleb, attacker, seizer; Furst, Ges., dog-barker; Shemuel, heard of God, asked; Elidad, loved of God (Theophilus); Bukki, reverer of Jehovah [Ges. poured out of Jehovah]; Hanniel, grace of God; Kemuel, assembly of God; Elizaphan, whom God shields or hides; Paltiel, whom God rescues; Ahihud, friend of union [brother, friend of Jews]; Pedahel, whom God redeems or saves.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The pre-determination of the boundaries of Canaan in a certain measure reflects the limitations of the Old Testament. In this narrow, consecrated space, should the people attain its full greatness, not with faint hearts neglect the possession granted to them, but also not to overleap its bounds and seek to found a world-empire (2 Samuel 24). The division of the land among the tribes is so ordered that it is partly to be decided by lot or the decree of God, and partly by the considerations of human righteousness, the sense of duty, as these are always the two factors which work and secure a righteous distribution of human property.
[The distinction between the grant and the actual possession, and that distinction as grounded, not in any failure on the part of God, nor in any want of power on the part of Israel, to subdue and occupy the land to its widest limit, but to the want of obedience, Jdg_2:20-23; Jos_23:13-16; Lev_26:32-34. The geographical and historical relations of the land.—A. G.]
HOMILETICAL HINTS
Arrangements for the land of Canaan. Its division. The Mosaic system has imprinted itself upon the land of Canaan. The indefiniteness of the northern and eastern boundaries may be regarded as an evidence of the Mosaic antiquity of the narrative. Israel itself must restrict itself and its outlines within the most determinate limits externally, in order to its spiritual conquest of the world. This self-restriction re-appears in the New Testament directions in a spiritual sense. The evil condition of a church, which seeks to extend itself indefinitely as to its outward size and numbers, while as to its inward qualities, its spiritual life, it is dead, and indeed falling into dissolution. How indeed in the last instance what purports to be an angelic renunciation of the world, becomes truly a demonic seeking of the world. The executors of the Mosaic testament with respect to Canaan: all is clear, definite, public, righteous. The confessional legacy-hunting of every kind is directly the contrary.
[Wordsworth: “Almighty God describes the limits of the promised land, and thus declares that it is He who is the Lord of all the earth; that all nations are His feudatories and vassals, and hold their territories from Him who sets the borders of the earth, and determines the bounds of their habitations (Act_17:26).” Henry: “Their borders are set then 1. That they might know whom they were to dispossess, and how far the commission given them (Num_33:53) extended. 2. That they might know what to expect, the possession of themselves. How little a share of the world God often gives to His own people! Public affairs should be so managed as not only to give their right to all, but if possible, to give satisfaction to all that they have right done them.”—A. G.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain THE BOUNDARIES ON THE PROMISED LAND, Num_34:1-15.
THE BOUNDARIES ON THE PROMISED LAND, Num_34:1-15.
2. With the coasts thereof — Literally, according to its boundaries.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain Numbers 33 - 34
Numbers 33 - 34
The first of these sections gives us a wonderfully minute description of the desert wanderings of the people of God. It is impossible to read it without being deeply moved by the tender love and care of God so signally displayed throughout the whole. To think of His deigning to keep such a record of the journeyings of His poor people, from the moment they marched out of Egypt until they crossed the Jordan - from the land of death and darkness to the land flowing with milk and honey. "He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing." He went before them, every step of the way; He travelled over every stage of the wilderness; in all their afflictions He was afflicted. He took care of them like a tender nurse. He suffered not their garments to wax old, or their feet to swell, for these forty years; and here He retraces the entire way by which His hand had led them, carefully noting down each successive stage of that marvellous pilgrimage, and every spot in the desert at which they had halted. What a journey! What a travelling companion!
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It is very consolatory to the heart of the poor, weary pilgrim to be assured that every stage of his wilderness journey is marked out by the infinite love and unerring wisdom of God. He is leading His people by a right way, home to Himself; and there is not a single circumstance in their lot, or a single ingredient in their cup, which is not carefully ordered by Himself, with direct reference to their present profit and their everlasting felicity. Let it only be our care to walk with Him, day by day, in simple confidence, casting all our care upon Him, and leaving ourselves and all our belongings absolutely in His hands. This is the true source of peace and blessedness, all the journey through. And then, when our desert wanderings are over - when the last stage of the wilderness has been trodden, He will take us home to be with Himself for ever.
"There with what joy reviewing
Past conflicts, dangers, fears-
Thy hand our foes subduing,
And drying all our tears-
Our hearts with rapture burning,
The path we shall retrace,
where now our souls are learning,
The riches of Thy grace."
Numbers 34 gives the boundaries of the inheritance, as drawn by the hand of Jehovah. The selfsame hand which had guided their wanderings here fixes the bounds of their habitation. Alas! they never took possession of the land as given of God. He gave them the whole land, and gave it for ever. They took but a part, and that for a time. But, blessed be God, the moment is approaching when the seed of Abraham shall enter upon the full and everlasting possession Of that fair inheritance, from which they are for the present excluded. Jehovah will assuredly accomplish all His promises, and lead His people into all the blessings secured to them in the everlasting covenant - that covenant which has been ratified by the blood of the Lamb. Not one jot or tittle. shall fail of all that He has spoken. His promises are all Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. All praise to the father, and unto the Son, and to the holy Spirit!
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain When ye come into the land of Canaan.
Num_34:1-15
When ye come into the land of Canaan.
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The Promised Land
I. The boundaries of this land were determined by God.
1. A reason for contentment.
2. A rebuke of selfish greed, whether on the part of individuals or of nations.
II. The extent of this land was small. Mr. Grove thus speaks of its size, and briefly sets forth its boundaries: The Holy Land is not in size or physical characteristics proportioned to its moral and historical position, as the theatre of the most momentous events in the worlds history. It is but a strip of country about the size of Wales, less than a hundred and forty miles in length and barely forty in average breadth, on the very frontier of the East, hemmed in between the Mediterranean Sea on the one hand and the enormous trench of the Jordan valley on the other, by which it is effectually cut off from the mainland of Asia behind it. On the north it is shut in by the high ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and by the chasm of the Litany, which runs at their feet, and forms the main drain of their southern slope. On the south it is no less enclosed by the arid and inhospitable deserts of the upper part of the peninsula of Sinai, whose undulating wastes melt imperceptibly into the southern hills of Judea.
III. The position of this land was secure. It was surrounded by natural fortifications. In one particular only was the position of this land perilous. The only road by which the two great rivals of the ancient world could approach one another--by which alone Egypt could go to Assyria and Assyria to Egypt--lay along the broad fiat strip of coast which formed the maritime portion of the Holy Land, and thence by the plain of the Lebanon to the Euphrates. This road was undoubtedly a dangerous one for the Israelites. And through this channel the destruction of the nation came at length. But, with this exception, this land was naturally surrounded by almost impregnable defences.
IV. The soil of this land was fertile. At present the face of the country presents a rocky and barren aspect. For this there are two causes. The first is the destruction of the timber in that long series of sieges and invasions which began with the invasion of Shishak (B.C. circa 970), and has not yet come to an end. This, by depriving the soil and streams of shelter from the burning sun, at once made, as it invariably does, the climate more arid than before, and doubtless diminished the rainfall. The second is the decay of the terraces necessary to retain the soil on the steep slopes of the round hills. This decay is owing to the general unsettlement and insecurity which have been the lot of this poor little country almost ever since the Babylonian conquest. The terraces once gone, there was nothing to prevent the soil which they supported being washed away by the heavy rains of winter; and it is hopeless to look for a renewal of the wood, or for any real improvement in the general face of the country, until they have been first re-established.
V. The Israelites failed to take possession of the whole of this land assigned to them by God. (W. Jones.)
Boundaries
Life is marked all over with boundary lines. Two different views may be taken of such lines--that is to say, in the first place they may be regarded as limitations and partial impoverishments, or, in the next place, they may be regarded as defining rights and liberties, possessions and authorities. Very subtle and delicate things are boundaries oftentimes. They are invisible. Are not all the greatest things invisible, as well as the best and most delicate and tender? Show the line of love. There is no line to show. It is at this point that conscience comes into active play. Where the conscience is dull, or imperfectly educated, or selfish, there will be much dispute about boundaries; but where the conscience is sanctified by the power of the Cross and is alive with the righteousness of God, there will be no controversy, but large concession, noble interpretation, willingness to give, to take, to arrange and settle, without the severity of the law or the cruelty of the sword. What differences there are in boundaries! We read of one, in the seventh verse, whose boundary was from the great sea; in the twelfth verse, the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea. There is so much sea in some peoples limited possession. What a boundary is the inhospitable sea! We cannot cut it up into acres, and lay it out; we cannot sow it with wheat, and reap the harvest, and enjoy the bread; it is to most of us but a spectacle--great, melancholy, unresponsive, pitiless; a liquid emblem of cruel death. Is not this the case with many men? They know they have great possessions, but their greatness is not the measure of their value. A little garden-plot would be to some men more valuable, for purposes of living, than the freehold of the Atlantic. Sometimes men are born to great estates that have nothing in them--boundless nothings; a proprietorship of infinite bogs and wastes and unanswering sterilities; sand that cannot be ploughed, water that cannot be sown with seed, and bogs that cannot be built upon. Contrast with such allotments the words of music which you find in the fifteenth verse: toward the sunrising. That is an inheritance worth having! The morning sun blesses it: early in the morning all heavens glory is poured out upon it with the hospitality of God; whatever is planted in it grows almost instantly; the flowers love to be planted there; all the roots of the earth would say, Put us in this place of the morning sun, and we will show you what we can do in growth and fruitfulness; give us the chance of the sun, and then say what we really are. We cannot all have our estates toward the sunrising; we cannot wholly cut off the north and the northeast--the shady side of the bill: somebody must be there. Does God plant a tabernacle in such sunless districts? Is there any temple of God in the northlands, where the storm blows with a will and the tempests seem to have it all their own way, rioting in their tumultuous strength, and, as it were, accosting one another in reduplications of infinite thunderings and roarings of whirlwinds? Even there Gods footprint may be found. Even a little may be so held as to he much. Quite a small garden may grow stuff enough for a whole household. Look for the bright spots; add up all the excellences; totalise the attractions of the situation; and it is wonderful how things add up when you know how to add them. Boundary is disciplinary. Who would not like to add just one more shelf to his library, and could do it if he were at liberty to take the books from another mans study? Who does not desire to have just the corner plot to make the estate geometrically complete, and would do it if the owner of the plot were not looking? But to retire within your own boundary!--to have nothing but a ditch between you and the vineyard you covet! Who is stopped by a ditch? To have nothing but one thin, green hedge between proprietorship actual and proprietorship desired! Why not burn the hedge, or transfer it? Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him, saith the proverbs of Solomon. To be kept within our own lines, to build our altar steadily there, and to bow down at that altar and confess that The earth is the Lords, and the fulness thereof, and that, whether a man has much or little, he may be Gods child, Gods servant, and Christs apostle--that is the highest discipline, and it is possible to every man. Boundaries are suggestive. Every boundary, rightly interpreted, means, Your last estate will be a very little one--a grave in the cemetery, a tomb in the silent place. Does it come to this, that the man who wanted acres a thousand in number doubled lies down in six feet, or seven, by four? Can a carpenter measure him for his last house? Does there ,come a time when a man steals quietly upstairs with a two-foot measure, and afterwards hurries out to build for him in the eventide his last dwelling-place? It is impossible to exclude this thought from all our best reasoning. There is no need to be mawkish, sentimental, foolishly melancholy about it; but there is the fact that there is an appointed time to man upon the earth as well as an appointed place to man upon the earth, and that he is the wise man who looks at that certain fact and conducts himself wisely in relation to it. Men have the power of closing their eyes and not seeing the end; but to close the eves is not to destroy the inevitable boundary. Even the grave can be made beautiful. A man may so live that when he is laid in his grave other men may go to see the tomb and bedew it with tears, and even stoop down and touch it with a loving hand as if it were a living thing. (J. Parker, D. D.)
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The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain This chapter consists of two portions:
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
This chapter consists of two portions:
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(1) the boundaries of the Promised Land (Num_34:1-15), and
(2) the names of the persons who were appointed to distribute the land (Num_34:16-29).
Num_34:2. Canaan with the coasts thereof. Keil and Del.: “Canaan according to its boundaries.”
Num_34:3-5. “Render: ‘Then your south quarter shall extend from the wilderness of Zin which resteth upon the side of Edom. And your south border shall start from the extremity of the salt sea on the east; and your border shall turn on the south to Maaleh-akrabbim, and shall pass on toward Zin, and the extent of its reach on the south shall be to Kadesh-barnea; and it shall reach forth thence to Hazar-addar, and shall pass on to Azmon, and from Azmon the border shall turn to the river of Egypt, and its reach shall be to the sea.’ ”—Speaker’s Comm.
Num_34:3. In the former part of this verse we have a general description of the southern boundary, which is afterwards more particularly defined.
The wilderness of Zin. See on Num_12:16; Num_13:21.
The utmost coast of the Salt Sea, &c.; i.e. from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea in a south-westerly direction.
Num_34:4. The ascent of Akrabbim, or Maaleh-akrabbim, the ascent of scorpions, or “the scorpion pass.” Probably the pass of Sâfeh. So Stanley, Robinson, Grove. Scorpions abound in the whole of this district.
Kadesh-barnea. See on Num_13:26.
Hazar-addar = village of Addar. In Jos_15:3, it is mentioned as two places, “Hezron and Adar.” The former was probably “the general name of a district of Hazers, or nomad hamlets, of which Addar was one.” The site of neither of them has been discovered as yet. Azmon also has not yet been identified.
Num_34:5. The river of Egypt. The brook of Egypt is the Wady el Arish, which is about seventy miles distant in a westerly direction from Kadesh.
Num_34:6. The great sea, i.e., the Mediterranean.
For a border. Lit., “with its border,” i.e., “with the border which it makes.”—Speaker’s Comm.
Num_34:7-9. “The northern boundary cannot be determined with certainty.”—Keil and Del.
Num_34:7. Mount Hor. This is quite distinct from the Mount Hor upon which Aaron died (see p. 363). “The northern boundary started from the sea. Since Sidon was subsequently allotted to the most northern tribe—Asher (Jos_19:28), and was, so far as we know, the most northern town so allotted, it would seem probable that the northern boundary would commence at about that point; that is, opposite to where the great range of Lebanon breaks down to the sea. The next landmark, the entrance to Hamath, seems to have been determined by Dr. Porter as the pass at Kalat el-Husn, close to Hums, the ancient Hamath—at the other end of the range of Lebanon. Surely Mount Hor, then, can be nothing else than the great chain of Lebanon itself.”—Bibl. Dict.
Num_34:8. The entrance of Hamath. Hamath here is the kingdom of Hamath, which was named after its chief city. “By ‘the entrance of Hamath,’ is to be understood the southern approach to Hamath, from the plain of Cœle Syria, lying between those two ranges of Lebanon, called Libanus and Antilibanus. Robinson and Porter understand it of the western approach to Hamath, from the Mediterranean.”—Speaker’s Comm. See on Num_13:21, p. 228.
“Zedad, now a large village, still bearing its ancient name (Sadad), about thirty miles east of the entrance of Hamath.”—Ibid.
Num_34:9. “Ziphron, now Zifrân, has not been as yet visited by modern travellers, but is reported to lie about forty miles north-east of Damascus, near the road to Palmyra, and to contain extensive ruins.”—Ibid.
Hazar-enan,—“the fountain village.” Probably “Ayûn ed-Dara, a fountain situate in the very heart of the great central chain of Antilibanus.”—Ibid. Most, if not all, of these conjectures or conclusions concerning the northern frontier are, however, disputed.
Num_34:10-12. The eastern boundary.
Num_34:10. Shepham. The site of this place has not been identified.
Num_34:11. Riblah, on the east tide of Ain. Not Riblah in the land of Hamath. Its exact site is unknown.
Sea of Chinnereth, i.e., Sea of Gennesaret, or of Galilee.
Num_34:12. Down to Jordan, &c. From the sea of Gennesaret the boundary was the Jordan and the Dead Sea.
Num_34:13-15. Unto the nine tribes, &c. Comp. Num_32:20-33.
Num_34:16-29. Names of the men appointed to distribute the land. Of these, three only are known, viz., Eleazar, the high priest, head of the religious orders; Joshua, the general, head of the military order; and Caleb, the representative prince of the tribe of Judah.
Num_34:18. One prince of every tribe. These princes were “the heads of the fathers of the tribes” (Jos_14:1), not heads of tribes (see on Num_13:2; p. 228).
THE PROMISED LAND
(Num_34:1-15)
Let us consider the following facts which are here either suggested or stated concerning the Promised Land.
I. The boundaries of this land were determined by God.
He here directs His servant Moses in this matter. “The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel,” &c. We have in this an illustration of His providential ordering of human life. “He hath determined the bounds of their habitation.” “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” This may be regarded as—
1. A reason for contentment.—He shall choose our inheritance for us.” “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.” (a)
2. A rebuke of selfish greed, whether on the part of individuals or of nations. (b)
II. The extent of this land was small.
Authorities are not agreed as to its extent; but even if we take the largest estimate, it was a small land, and remarkably narrow. Mr. Grove thus speaks of its size, and briefly sets forth its boundaries: “The Holy Land is not in size or physical characteristics proportioned to its moral and historical position, as the theatre of the most momentous events in the world’s history. It is but a strip of country about the size of Wales, less than 140 miles in length, and barely 40 in average breadth, on the very frontier of the East, hemmed in between the Mediterranean Sea on the one hand, and the enormous trench of the Jordan valley on the other, by which it is effectually cut off from the mainland of Asia behind it. On the north it is shut in by the high ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and by the chasm of the Litâny, which runs at their feet, and forms the main drain of their southern slope. On the south it is no less enclosed by the arid and inhospitable deserts of the upper part of the peninsula of Sinai, whose undulating wastes melt imperceptibly into the southern hills of Judea.… The country thus roughly portrayed, and which, as before stated, is less than 140 miles in length, and not more than 40 in average breadth, is to all intents and purposes the whole Land of Israel. The northern portion is Galilee; the centre, Samaria; the south, Judea. This is the Land of Canaan which was bestowed on Abraham; the covenanted home of his descendants.” (Bibl. Dict.) Dean Stanley, however, makes it to be larger than this. “The breadth of the country from the Jordan to the sea, is rarely more than 50 miles. Its length, from Dan to Beersheba, is about 180 miles.” But, whatever may be its measurements, the glory of this land consists in its having been the theatre of the most marvellous and momentous events in the history of the world, and is in inverse ratio to its size. (c)
III. The position of this land was secure.
An examination of its boundaries as they are here laid down, shows that it was surrounded by natural fortifications. In one particular only was the position of this land perilous. “The only road by which the two great rivals of the ancient world could approach one another—by which alone Egypt could go to Assyria, and Assyria to Egypt—lay along the broad flat strip of coast which formed the maritime portion of the Holy Land, and thence by the plain of the Lebanon to the Euphrates.” This road was undoubtedly a dangerous one for the Israelites. And through this channel the destruction of the nation came at length. But, with this exception, this land was naturally surrounded by almost impregnable defences. (d)
IV. The soil of this land was fertile.
Its present condition is not to be regarded as a representation of its condition when it was inhabited and cultivated. At present the face of the country presents a rocky and barren aspect. For this there are two causes. “The first is the destruction of the timber in that long series of sieges and invasions which began with the invasion of Shishak (B.C. circa 970), and has not yet come to an end. This, by depriving the soil and the streams of shelter from the burning sun, at once made, as it invariably does, the climate more arid than before, and doubtless diminished the rainfall. The second is the decay of the terraces necessary to retain the soil on the steep slopes of the round hills. This decay is owing to the general unsettlement and insecurity which have been the lot of this poor little country almost ever since the Babylonian conquest. The terraces once gone, there was nothing to prevent the soil which they supported being washed away by the heavy rains of winter; and it is hopeless to look for a renewal of the wood, or for any real improvement in the general face of the country, until they have been first reestablished.”—Grove. Its condition in ancient times is thus portrayed by the inspired lawgiver: “A good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains,” &c. (Deu_8:7-9). “The land whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt,” &c. (Deu_11:10-12). (e)
V. The Israelites failed to take possession of the whole of this land assigned to them by God.
The territory here marked out for them greatly exceeded that which they actually conquered. For example, it appears that the north-western boundary was to reach “unto great Zidon” (Jos_19:28), but neither that city nor even Tyre, which is about 20 English miles further south, was ever acquired by Israel. Accho was “the northernmost city of the Holy Land on the western coast.” In order to discover the difference between the extent of the territory allotted and that actually taken, in this district of the land, contrast Jos_19:24-31, and Jdg_1:31-32. Other instances of the failure of the Israelites to take possession of the territory given to them by God are recounted in Jdg_1:27-36. From this failure arose many of the sins and sufferings of their subsequent history. In this we have an illustration of the failure of the people of God in this day to rise to the height of their Christian calling, or to realise the fulness and wealth of their Christian privileges. The treasures of the Divine blessing immeasurably exceed our aspiration and faith, and consequently, our realization of them. Comp. Psa_81:13-16; Isa_48:17-19.
In conclusion, the subject presents an impressive illustration of the great goodness of God to His people. And His goodness is even more manifest in the spiritual privileges and possessions to which He calls us in Jesus Christ. Let us show our appreciation of His goodness by striving to attain unto our high calling.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) On this point we have given illustrations on pp. 43, 70.
(b) The ambition and insatiable greediness of great men hath put all out of order, and nothing is so holy which can stay them creeping and encroaching upon the bounds and borders of their neighbours. Thus they break the law of God and nature, in seeking to enlarge and increase their own dominions. These justly incur the curse of the prophet, Woe unto them that join house to house, and lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth” (Isa_5:8; Hab_2:9-12; Jer_22:23; Mic_2:2). For wherefore hath God separated nation from nation, and one kingdom from another people, but that all should live quietly and communicate one with another, and that there might be no confusion or divisions? And, therefore, ought all to be contented with their own bounds. God hath made them great, but they always seek to make themselves greater: He hath set them bounds, but they will know no bounds. So, then, from thence we may gather that the wars which are taken in hand upon ambition, and the enlarging of the bounds of their empire only, are a despiting of God, a shedding of innocent blood, and a perverting of the order which He hath set in nature and nations. Every man therefore, ought to abide in his own possession and inheritance, and not to trouble or molest one another.…
This reproveth the greedy and covetous affections of private new that covet to be rich, they care not by what means. But as soon as the desire of getting gain is settled in them, they are inflamed to rake to themselves by hook or by crook. “He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live.” Covetousness is a corrupt affection of the mind, greedily desiring, and too much gaping after, the riches of this life. They dream of long life, forgetting that no man’s life consisteth in the abundance of his riches (Luk_12:15). They think they shall exceedingly profit them, but by the just judgment of God they turn to their hurt. They think they will be as a shield or buckler to defend them from the injuries of this life, but they are turned into swords whereby they are wounded or destroyed. They have conceived a strong opinion that they will be as a wall on every side to underprop the house, but they prove as a double cannon to cast it down to the ground. As then, he that eateth moderately is nourished by the meat, and it abideth in the stomach, but when it is taken immoderately the stomach is choked, and it is vomited up again; so he that greedily heapeth up riches shall be constrained to “vomit them up again” (Job_20:15). Covetousness, therefore, is a sin, when a man is discontented with the estate wherein God hath set him, and with those things that God hath given for the sustenance of this present life; when he murmureth against God, and the more he hath, the more he desireth; when he heapeth them up and keepeth them, and bringeth them not forth to any godly or necessary uses; but he distrusteth the Providence of God, and putteth his trust and confidence in his riches, as if he could not live without abundance of them, neither be sustained by the hand of God.—W. Attersoll.
(c) In Palestine, as in Greece, every traveller is struck with the smallness of the territory. He is surprised, even after all that he has heard, in passing, in one long day, from the capital of Judea to that of Samaria; or at seeing, within eight hours, three such spots as Hebron, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem. The breadth of the country from the Jordan to the sea is rarely more than fifty miles. Its length from Dan to Beersheba is about a hundred and fifty miles. The time is now gone by when the grandeur of a country is measured by its size, or the diminutive extent of an illustrious people can otherwise than enhance the magnitude of what they have done. The ancient taunt, however, and the facts which suggested it, may still illustrate the feeling which appears in their own records. The contrast between the littleness of Palestine, and the vast extent of the empires which hung upon its northern and southern skirts, is rarely absent from the mind of the Prophets and Psalmists. It helps them to exalt their sense of the favour of God towards their land, by magnifying their little hills and dry torrent beds into an equality with the giant hills of Lebanon and Hermon, and the sea-like rivers of Mesopotamia. It also fosters the consciousness that they were not always to be retrained within these earthly barriers, “The place is too strait for me; give me place where I may dwell” (Isa_49:20). Nor is it only the smallness, but the narrowness, of the territory which is remarkable. From almost every high point in the country its whole breadth is visible, from the long wall of the Moab hills on the east, to the Mediterranean Sea on the west. Whatever may be the poverty or insignificance of the landscape, it is at once relieved by a glimpse of either of these two boundaries.
“Two voices are there—one is of the sea,
One of the mountains,”—
and the close proximity of each—the deep purple shade of the one, and the glittering waters of the other—makes it always possible for one or other of those two voices to be heard now, as they were by the Psalmists of old—“The strength of the mountains is His also—The sea is His, and He made it.”—A. P. Stanley, D.D.
(d) Look at its boundaries. The most important will be that on the east. For in that early time, when Palestine first fell to the lot of the chosen people, the East was still the world. The great empires which rose on the plains of Mesopotamia, the cities of the Euphrates and the Tigris, were literally then, what Babylon is metaphorically in the Apocalypse, the rulers and corrupters of all the kingdoms of the earth. Between these great empires and the people of Israel, two obstacles were interposed. The first was the eastern Desert, which formed a barrier in front even of the outposts of Israel—the nomadic tribes on the east of the Jordan; the second, the vast fissure of the Jordan valley, which must always have acted as a deep trench within the exterior rampart of the Desert and the eastern hills of the Trans-Jordanic tribes.
Next to the Assyrian empire in strength and power, superior to it in arts and civilization, was Egypt. What was there on the southern boundary of Palestine, to secure that “the Egyptians whom they saw on the shores of the Red Sea, they should see no more again”? Up to the very frontier of their own land stretched that “great and terrible wilderness,” which rolled like a sea between the valley of the Nile and the valley of the Joroan. This wilderness itself—the platform of the Tîh—could be only reached on its eastern side by the tremendous pass of ’Akaba at the southern, of Sâfeh at the northern end of the ’Arabah, or of the no less formidable ascents from the shores of the Dead Sea.
On these, the two most important frontiers the separation was most complete. The two accessible sides were the west and the north. But the west was only accessible by sea, and when Israel first settled in Palestine, the Mediterranean was not yet the thoroughfare—it was rather the boundary and the terror of the eastern nations. From the north-western coast, indeed, of Syria, the Phœnician cities sent forth their fleets. But they were the exception of the world, the discoverers, the first explorers of the unknown depths; and in their enterprises Israel never joined. In strong contrast, too, with the coast of Europe, and especially of Greece, Palestine has no indentations, no winding creeks, no deep havens, such as in ancient, even more than in modern times, were necessary for the invitation and protection of commercial enterprize. One long line, broken only by the bay of Acre, containing only three bad harbours, Joppa, Acre, and Caipha—the last unknown in ancient times—is the inhospitable front that Palestine opposed to the western world. On the northern frontier the ranges of Lebanon formed two not insignificant ramparts. But the gate between them was open, and through the long valley of Cœle-Syria, the hosts of Syrian and Assyrian conquerors accordingly poured. These were the natural ortifications of that vineyard which was “hedged round about” with tower and trench, sea and desert, against the “boars of the wood,” and “the beasts of the field.”—Ibid.
(e) There is this peculiarity which distinguishes Palestine from the only countries with which it could then be brought into comparison. Chaldea and Egypt—the latter of course in an eminent degree—depend on the course of single rivers. Without the Nile, and the utmost use of the waters of the Nile, Egypt would be a desert. But Palestine is well distinguished, not merely as “a land of wheat and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates, of oil-olive and honey,” but emphatically as “a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of plains and mountains,”—“not as the land of Egypt, where thou sowedst thy seed and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs; but a land of mountains and plains which drinketh water of the rain of heaven.” This mountainous character; this abundance of water both from natural springs and from the clouds of heaven, in contradistinction to the one uniform supply of the great river; this abundance of “milk” from its “cattle on a thousand hills,” of “honey” from its forests and its thymy shrubs, was absolutely peculiar to Palestine amongst the civilized nations of the East. Feeble as its brooks might be—though, doubtless, they were then more frequently filled than now—yet still it was the only country where an Eastern could have been familiar with the image of the Psalmist: “He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the mountains.” Those springs, too, however short-lived, are remarkable for their copiousness and beauty. Not only in the East, but hardly in the West, can any fountains and sources of streams be seen so clear, so full-grown even at their birth, as those of the Kishon, the Jordan, and the whole of the Jordan valley. Wales or Westmoreland are, doubtless, not regarded as fertile regions; and the green fields of England to those who have come fresh from Palestine, seem, by way of contrast, to be indeed “a land of promise.” But transplant Wales or Westmoreland into the heart of the Desert, and they would be far more to the inhabitants of the Desert than to their inhabitants are the richest spots of England. Far more: both because the contrast is in itself greater, and because the phenomena of a mountain country, with wells and springs, are of a kind almost unknown to the dwellers in the deserts or river plains of the East.
Palestine therefore, not merely by its situation, but by its comparative fertility, might well be considered the prize of the Eastern world, the possession of which was the mark of God’s peculiar favour; the spot for which the nations would contend: as on a smaller scale the Bedouin tribes for some “diamond of the desert,” some “palm-grove islanded amid the waste.” And a land of which the blessings were so evidently the gift of God, not as in Egypt of man’s labour; which also, by reason of its narrow extent, was so constantly within reach and sight of the neighbouring Desert, was eminently calculated to raise the thoughts of the nation to the Supreme Giver of all these blessings, and to bind it by the dearest ties to the land which He had so manifestly favoured.—Ibid.
THE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PROMISED LAND
(Num_34:16-29)
The two chief rules for the Distribution of the Land have already been noticed by us (see p. 502). We have here the names of the persons to whom this distribution was committed. Notice,—
I. The co-working of the Divine and the human in the distribution of the land.
1. Here is the Divine agency. “This is the land which ye shall inherit by lot” (Num_34:13); i.e., the situation of the territory of each tribe, and probably of each family, was to be determined by lot. The use of the lot was regarded by most ancient peoples as an appeal to God, and the result was viewed as determined by Him. There are numerous instances of this in Jewish history (Lev_16:8-10; Jos_7:14-18; Jdg_1:1-3; Jdg_20:8-10; 1Sa_10:20-21; 1Sa_14:41-42; 1Ch_24:3-31). There is a striking and important example of its use in the very early Christian Church (Act_1:24-26). The estimate of it may be gathered from Pro_16:33; Pro_18:18. By its use on this occasion, the families of Israel would regard their respective inheritances as allotted to them by Jehovah.
2. Here is human agency. “The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, These are the names of the men which shall divide the land unto you.” The situation of the inheritances having been determined by lot, the extent of the inheritance of each tribe was to be determined according to their respective numbers and needs, by the persons whose names are here recorded. In this, as in many other things, God calls man to work, and to work in harmony with Himself. This is the case in the cultivation of the earth, in working out our own salvation, in the conversion of sinners, &c. We are “workers together with him” (2Co_6:1). (a)
II. The wise arrangements for the performance of man’s duties in the division of the land.
It is worthy of notice that in the persons appointed to this work—
1. Each class was represented. On the commission were “Eleazar the priest,” the head of the religious orders; “Joshua the son of Nun,” the head of the military order; and “one prince of every tribe,” representing the civilian order.
2. Each tribe was represented, with the exception of Reuben and Gad, which had received their inheritance on the east of the Jordan. This arrangement, by which each class and each tribe was represented on the commission, was calculated to inspire the confidence of the people as to the equitable division of the land, and to prevent dissatisfaction on the part of any tribe or class of the nation.
3. Faithful services already rendered were recognised. Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, had already served the nation well and bravely. Their employment on this commission may be viewed—
(1) as an acknowledgment of the value of their former services; and
(2) as a judicious use of persons of approved fidelity.
4. Distinguished abilities were called into use. Joshua and Caleb were not only faithful but remarkably able men. For wisdom and courage they would have been eminent amongst any people. Their abilities would be very valuable in the distribution of the land.
Learn; that in the arrangements for the services of God the highest wisdom should be embodied, and in carrying out those arrangements the most approved fidelity and the most conspicuous ability should be employed. The work of God demands our best efforts both of head and of heart. (b)
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) If men say, “You do not believe in conversion,” I do. If they say, “You do not believe in conversion by Divine influences,” I do. If they say, “But you act as though you were to produce it yourself,” I reply, “Not any more than I produce flowers myself.” I believe that God made the earth, I believe that he made the seed, I believe that He made the germ in the seed, I believe that He made the sun and the atmospheric conditions needful to the development of that germ, but I believe that I shall have no flowers without my interposition and skilful agency. I prepare the soil, I plant the seed, I remove the weeds from them and nourish them; and yet, after I have done that, I shall not have flowers by any power that is in me. Thou, O Sun! hast alone that secret alchemy, thou alone hast that involving power, by which blossoming can come after my skill ceases, and by which the flower shall reward my toil. And Thou, O Sun of Righteousness! hast alone the power to cause the seed to blossom out. For though man may plant the seed, and till the soil, the final form of development comes from the influence of the Divine Spirit upon the human soul. We work together. Man carries on his work, and God adds His influence; and the two are not in antagonism, but are coincident and co-operative. They are not in conflict, but concurrent. Some men are shocked when we say, “Such a man was converted by the minister.” You may say that in an irreverent way, but you may say it so as to be conformable to truth. I say, “I raised a harvest.” A person listening to me says, “No, you did not; God raised it.” I say, by way of explanation, “I went out and planted my fields, and brought my orchard into the right condition, and all this wealth of grain and fruit is the result of my pains-taking;” and in a proper sense that does not imply conceit or pride, and that does not exclude the agency of nature or the Divine constitution of things. I did raise that harvest. We are accustomed to talk so, and without irreverence; and there is a sense in which I am instrumental in implanting correct views in a soul, and impressing right influences upon it, and it is not irreverent for me to say that I have converted men from the error of their ways.—H. W. Beecher.
(b) Men have naturally such slight thoughts of the majesty and law of God, that they think any service is good enough for Him, and conformable to His law. The dullest and deadest time we think fittest to pay God a service in; when sleep is ready to close our eyes, and we are unfit to serve ourselves, we think it a fit time to open our heart to God. How few morning sacrifices hath God from many persons and families! Men leap out of their beds to their carnal pleasures or worldly employments without any thought of their Creator and Preserver, or any reflection upon His will as the rule of our daily obedience. And as many reserve the dregs of their lives—their old age—to offer up their souls to God, so they reserve the dregs of the days—their sleeping time—for the offering up their service to Him. How many grudge to spend their best time in serving the will of God, and reserve for Him the sickly and rheumatic part of their lives—the remainder of that which the devil and their own lusts have fed upon! Would not any prince or governor judge a present, half eaten up by Wild beasts, or that which died in a ditch, a contempt of his royalty? A corrupt thing is too base and vile for so great a King as God is, whose name is dreadful. Alas! God calls for our best, and we give Him our worst!—Charnocks.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The Boundaries of the Land of Promise
The Boundaries of the Land of Promise
On the land and the tribes inhabiting it see on Num_13:21.
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3-5. The southern border: this started from the S. extremity of the Dead Sea, here called the Salt Sea (Num_34:3), and proceeded in a SW. direction to the ascent of Akrabbim, i.e. 'of scorpions' (Num_34:4), a row of cliffs about 8 m. distant; thence it passed by way of Kadesh-Barnea to the River of Egypt, where it reached the Mediterranean Sea (Num_34:5). The 'River of Egypt' is not the Nile but a brook, now identified with the Wady el-Arish, flowing into the sea about 20 m. S. of Gaza. It is frequently mentioned as the SW. border of Canaan: see 1Ki_8:65; 2Ki_24:7; 2Ch_7:8; Isa_27:12. This southern boundary was also the boundary of Judah and Simeon: see Jos_15:1-4; Jos_19:9.
6. The western border was formed by the Mediterranean Sea, the Great Sea.
7-9. The northern border: the places mentioned on this line are unknown. Mt. Hermon is too far E. to be identified with mount Hor, which is probably some spur of the Lebanon range.
10-12. The eastern border was formed by the Sea of Chinnereth (afterwards called the Lake of Gennesaret, Sea of Galilee, or Lake of Tiberias), the River Jordan, and the Dead Sea.
13-15. See Numbers 32.
16-29. A list of the persons entrusted with the division of the land W. of the Jordan, one being chosen from each of the tribes interested, in addition to Eleazar and Joshua. The names are all new with the exception of that of Caleb (Num_34:19).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Boundaries of Canaan
The Boundaries of Canaan
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
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v. 2. 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 [boundaries] thereof, that is, the land of your inheritance, the Land of Promise, shall have the following boundaries,)
v. 3. then your south quarter, the general southern boundary, shall be from the Wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, in the southeastern corner, and your south border shall be the outmost coast of the Salt Sea eastward, the extreme southeastern corner of the Dead Sea;
v. 4. and your border shall turn from the south, that is, bend southwards in Israel’s favor, to the ascent of Akrabbim, the mountains on the northeastern boundary of Edom, and pass on to Zin, along the border of the desert; and the going forth thereof shall be from the south to Kadesh-barnea, to include this station, and shall go on to Hazar-addar, and pass on to Azmon, farther toward the east;
v. 5. and the border shall fetch a compass (turn toward) from Azmon unto the river of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at the sea, for the brook of Egypt would form the boundary on the southwest, 1Ki 8:65; 2Ki 24:7.
v. 6. And as for the western border, ye shall even have the Great Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, for a border; this shall be your west border.
v. 7. And this shall be your north border: from the great sea ye shall point out for you Mount Hor; this mountain, probably in the Anti-Lebanon range, was to determine the extent of the country toward the north.
v. 8. From Mount Hor ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath, on the boundary of the kingdom of that name, in the valley of the Orontes, 2Ki 14:25; and the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad, toward the northeast;
v. 9. and the border shall go on to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be at Hazar-enan, a village noted for its abundant springs, between Palmyra and Damascus; this shall be your north border.
v. 10. And ye shall point out your east border from Hazar-enan to Shepham;
v. 11. and the coast shall go down from Shepham to Biblah, on the east side of Ain, in the borders of the land of Hamath, 2Ki 23:33; and the border shall descend, and shall reach unto the side, literally, "the shoulder," of the Sea of Chinnereth, later called the Sea of Galilee, eastward, thus striking this body of water on the northeastern shore;
v. 12. and the border, skirting the lake on the eastern side, shall go down to Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be At the Salt Sea, the Dead Sea, both the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan thus being included within the boundary of Canaan proper. This shall be your land with the coasts thereof round about. "This land of Canaan was still now to be distributed by lot, as the land of the inheritance in the narrower and stricter sense. Still, the inheritance of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, the east Jordan region, was included. For here it treats specially of that part of the inheritance which was yet to be conquered and distributed. " (Lange. )
v. 13. 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;
v. 14. 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, to be definitely assigned to them after they had fulfilled the condition which they had accepted, Num 32:28-33, and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance.
v. 15. The two tribes and the half tribe have received their inheritance on this side Jordan, near Jericho eastward, toward the sun-rising, this expression being used to denote the entire kingdom of the Amorites, as well as Bashan and Gilead. Every new message of the Lord made the possession of the land of Canaan surer in the minds of the people, and was intended to inspire them with greater eagerness to possess their inheritance.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 wilderness of Zin
wilderness of Zin
See how you translated this phrase in Numbers 33:12.
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translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
command
Israel
Canaan
desert
Edom
Salt Sea
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 34:1-29 Chapter 34 gives the borders of the land…
34:1-29 Chapter 34 gives the borders of the land of Canaan, which Israel was to settle according to the guidelines in 26:52-56. Ever since the call of Abraham (Gen 12:1-7), the Promised Land of Canaan had stood at the heart of the Old Testament story. Though an entire generation of Hebrews died in the wilderness because they refused to believe the report of the faithful spies (Num 13), God had reaffirmed his promise of land (33:53). Here, God reviewed the plan and identified the boundaries of the Promised Land in an idealized form (cp. Josh 13–19; Ezek 47–48). Old Testament Israel did not possess the exact extent of the territory described here (though it came close in the days of David and Solomon; e.g., 2 Sam 24:1-9), but these borders describe the region of Canaan as generally defined by Egyptian texts dating 1500–1200 BC (the period of the Hebrew invasion). The region actually occupied by Israel changed from time to time.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.