“ ‘For the western border, you shall have the great sea and its border. This shall be your west border.
Parallel Translations
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“ ‘For the western border, you shall have the great sea and its border. This shall be your west border.
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And as for the western border, ye shall even have the great sea for a border: this shall be your west border.
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And for the western border, ye shall have the Great Sea for a border; this shall be your west border.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Numbers 34:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Joshua 1:4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.
- Joshua 9:1 When all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and on all the shore of the great sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard of it
- Joshua 15:12 The west border was to the shore of the great sea. This is the border of the children of Judah according to their families.
- Joshua 15:47 Ashdod, its towns and its villages; Gaza, its towns and its villages; to the brook of Egypt, and the great sea with its coastline.
- Joshua 23:4 Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun.
- Ezekiel 47:10 It will happen, that fishermen will stand by it. From En Gedi even to En Eglaim will be a place for the spreading of nets. Their fish will be after their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceedingly many.
- Ezekiel 47:15 “This shall be the border of the land: “On the north side, from the great sea, by the way of Hethlon, to the entrance of Zedad;
- Ezekiel 47:20 “The west side shall be the great sea, from the south border as far as opposite the entrance of Hamath. This is the west side.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Which is called Mediterranean.
Which is called Mediterranean.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Num 34:6 And [as for] the western border, ye…
Num 34:6 And [as for] the western border, ye shall even have the great sea for a border: this shall be your west border.
Ver. 6. The great sea.] Commonly called the Mediterranean Sea, betwixt which and the Jews lay the Philistines; as now betwixt the Church and the Turk lies the Pope and his followers, Italy being the mark that the Turk shoots at. Lo, a sweet providence of God!
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The great sea; the midland sea from the south…
The great sea; the midland sea from the south to the north so far as runs parallel with Mount Libanus.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And as for the western border,.... Of the land…
And as for the western border,.... Of the land of Canaan:
you shall even have the great sea for a border; and no other, meaning the Mediterranean sea, which lies west of the land of Judea; Aben Ezra calls it the Spanish sea: it has the name of "great", in comparison of some in the land of Canaan, as the salt sea, and the sea of Tiberias:
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this shall be your west border; namely, the Mediterranean sea.
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 The great sea - This midland sea from the…
The great sea - This midland sea from the south to the north, so far as it runs parallel with mount Libanus.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. Ye shall even have the great sea…
Verse 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, &c., 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's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Great sea, compared with those of Palestine, which were…
Great sea, compared with those of Palestine, which were only like pools or lakes. The Hebrews call every great collection of water, a sea. The Mediterranean bounded the promised land entirely, on the west.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain the western border--There is no uncertainty about this boundary,…
the western border--There is no uncertainty about this boundary, as it is universally allowed to be the Mediterranean, which is called "the great sea" in comparison with the small inland seas or lakes known to the Hebrews.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. and the border thereof] These words should be…
6. and the border thereof] These words should be omitted. The word וּגְבוּל (ûgebhûl ‘and a border’) may have been accidentally added as a doublet of the preceding חַגָּדוֹל (haggâdhôl ‘the great’), which it somewhat resembles.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (6) And as for the western border . .…
(6) And as for the western border . . . —Better, And as for the western border, ye shall have the great sea and (its) border (i.e., its coast). (See Jos_15:47. “the great sea and the border thereof.”)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And as for the western border. The Hebrew word…
And as for the western border. The Hebrew word for "west" ( is simply that for "sea," because the Jews in their own land always had the sea on their west. Thus the verse reads literally, "And the sea boundary shall be to you the great sea and boundary; this shall be to you the sea boundary." It would seem very unlikely that the Jews familiarly used the word "yam for "west" after a residence of several centuries in a country where the sun set not over the sea, but over the desert. Nothing can of course be proved kern the use of the word here, but it cannot be overlooked as one small indication that the language of this passage at any rate is the language of an age subsequent to the conquest of Canaan (see Exo_10:19 Exo_26:22, and on Num_2:18) The line of coast from the brook of Egypt to the Leontes was upwards of 160 miles in length.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues telling Moses where the borders are for the land that he is giving to the Israelites.
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translationWords
the 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 34:6-9 The natural western boundary of Canaan was the…
34:6-9 The natural western boundary of Canaan was the Mediterranean coast (34:6). The northern boundary began at the Mediterranean and ran eastward to Mount Hor somewhere in the Lebanon range (not the place of Aaron’s death, 20:22-29). • Lebo-hamath: Cp. 13:21; 1 Kgs 8:65; Amos 6:14.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.