2 Give orders to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land which is to be your heritage, the land of Canaan inside these limits,)
3 Then your south quarter will be from the waste land of Zin by the side of Edom, and your limit on the south will be from the east end of the Salt Sea,
4 And round to the south of the slope of Akrabbim, and on to Zin: and its direction will be south of Kadesh-barnea, and it will go as far as Hazar-addar and on to Azmon:
5 And from Azmon it will go round to the stream of Egypt as far as the sea.
6 And for your limit on the west you will have the Great Sea and its edge: this will be your limit on the west.
7 And your limit on the north will be the line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor:
8 And from Mount Hor the line will go in the direction of Hamath; the farthest point of it will be at Zedad:
9 And the limit will go on to Ziphron, with its farthest point at Hazar-enan: this will be your limit on the north.
10 And on the east, your limit will be marked out from Hazar-enan to Shepham,
11 Going down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain, and on as far as the east side of the sea of Chinnereth:
12 And so down to Jordan, stretching to the Salt Sea: all the land inside these limits will be yours.
13 And Moses gave orders to the children of Israel saying, This is the land which is to be your heritage, by the decision of the Lord, which by the Lord's order is to be given to the nine tribes and the half-tribe:
14 For the tribe of the children of Reuben, by their fathers' families, and the tribe of the children of Gad, by their fathers' families, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, have been given their heritage:
15 The two tribes and the half-tribe have been given their heritage on the other side of Jordan at Jericho, on the east looking to the dawn.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Numbers 34
Commentary on Numbers 34 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 34
In this chapter God directs Moses, and he is to direct Israel,
Num 34:1-15
We have here a particular draught of the line by which the land of Canaan was meted, and bounded, on all sides. 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, Deu. 11:24. And even so far the dominion of Israel did extend in David's time and Solomon's, 2 Chr. 9:26. But this which is here described is Canaan only, which was the lot of the nine tribes and a half, for the other two and a half were already settled, v. 14, 15. Now concerning the limits of Canaan observe,
Num 34:16-29
God here appoints commissioners for the dividing of the land to them. The conquest of it is taken for granted, though as yet there was never a stroke struck towards it. Here is no nomination of the generals and commanders-in-chief that should carry on the war; for they were to get the land in possession, not by their own sword or bow, but by the power and favour of God; and so confident must they be of victory and success while God fought for them that the persons must now be named who should be entrusted with the dividing of the land, that is, who should preside in casting the lots, and determine controversies that might arise, and see that all was done fairly.