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Numbers 34: What the Passage Says

53 claims across 29 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Numbers 34 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Moses to give Israel the exact boundaries of Canaan, the land they are to receive: the southern line from the Wilderness of Zin to the Brook of Egypt, the Mediterranean coast on the west, a northern line to Hazar-enan, and an eastern line running down the Jordan to the Salt Sea. Moses reminds the people that Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh have already taken their land east of the Jordan, so this territory is for the remaining nine and a half tribes. The LORD then names the men who will divide the land: Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and one leader from each of the ten tribes involved.

Claim by Claim

  1. 34:1
    • The LORD spoke to Moses.
  2. 34:2
    • The LORD told Moses to command the Israelites.
    • The LORD told Moses to say to them that they are entering the land of Canaan.
    • The land of Canaan is the land that will fall to them as an inheritance.
    • The land is defined by its borders.
  3. 34:3
    • Their southern side will run from the wilderness of Zin alongside Edom.
    • Their southern border will run from the end of the Salt Sea eastward.
  4. 34:4
    • The border will turn south of the ascent of Akrabbim.
    • The border will pass over to Zin.
    • The border's limits will be south of Kadesh-barnea.
    • The border will go out to Hazar-addar.
    • The border will pass over to Azmon.
  5. 34:5
    • The border will turn from Azmon to the brook of Egypt.
    • The border's limits will be at the sea.
  6. 34:6
    • The western border will be the Great Sea and its coast.
    • This will be their western border.
  7. 34:7
    • This will be their northern border.
    • From the Great Sea they shall mark out a line to Mount Hor.
  8. 34:8
    • From Mount Hor they shall mark out a line to the entrance of Hamath.
    • The limits of the border will be at Zedad.
  9. 34:9
    • The border will go out to Ziphron.
    • The border's limits will be at Hazar-enan.
    • This will be their northern border.
  10. 34:10
    • They shall mark out their eastern border from Hazar-enan to Shepham.
  11. 34:11
    • The border will go down from Shepham to Riblah, east of Ain.
    • The border will go down and reach the slope of the Sea of Chinnereth on the east.
  12. 34:12
    • The border will go down to the Jordan.
    • The border's limits will be at the Salt Sea.
    • This will be their land with its borders all around.
  13. 34:13
    • Moses commanded the Israelites.
    • Moses said this is the land they shall inherit by lot.
    • Moses said the LORD commanded it to be given to the nine tribes and the half tribe.
  14. 34:14
    • The tribe of the Reubenites by their fathers' houses has received its inheritance.
    • The tribe of the Gadites by their fathers' houses has received its inheritance.
    • The half tribe of Manasseh has received its inheritance.
  15. 34:15
    • The two tribes and the half tribe have received their inheritance across the Jordan from Jericho, eastward toward the sunrise.
  16. 34:16
    • The LORD spoke to Moses.
  17. 34:17
    • These are the names of the men who shall apportion the land as an inheritance for them.
    • Eleazar the priest is one of them.
    • Joshua son of Nun is one of them.
  18. 34:18
    • They shall take one leader from each tribe to apportion the land as an inheritance.
  19. 34:19
    • These are the names of the men.
    • For the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh.
  20. 34:20
    • For the tribe of the sons of Simeon, Shemuel son of Ammihud.
  21. 34:21
    • For the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad son of Chislon.
  22. 34:22
    • For the tribe of the sons of Dan, a leader: Bukki son of Jogli.
  23. 34:23
    • For the sons of Joseph, for the tribe of the sons of Manasseh, a leader: Hanniel son of Ephod.
  24. 34:24
    • For the tribe of the sons of Ephraim, a leader: Kemuel son of Shiphtan.
  25. 34:25
    • For the tribe of the sons of Zebulun, a leader: Elizaphan son of Parnach.
  26. 34:26
    • For the tribe of the sons of Issachar, a leader: Paltiel son of Azzan.
  27. 34:27
    • For the tribe of the sons of Asher, a leader: Ahihud son of Shelomi.
  28. 34:28
    • For the tribe of the sons of Naphtali, a leader: Pedahel son of Ammihud.
  29. 34:29
    • These are the ones whom the LORD commanded to apportion the inheritance to the Israelites in the land of Canaan.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

34:1
Moses was the leader who brought the people of Israel out of Egypt.
34:2
"Inheritance" here does not mean property received when someone dies. The Hebrew word means a permanent family holding, land granted to a household and its descendants, which was not meant to be sold off outside the family. "Canaan" was the standing name for the region between the Jordan and the Mediterranean before Israel settled it. Where the King James says "coasts," 1611 English meant borders or territory generally, not seashore; the word carries that sense throughout this chapter.
34:3
The Salt Sea is what is now called the Dead Sea, so salty that nothing lives in it. Edom was the kingdom southeast of the Dead Sea, occupying the highlands of what is now southern Jordan. The Wilderness of Zin is the dry country south of it (a different place from the Wilderness of Sin mentioned in Exodus).
34:4
"Ascent of Akrabbim" means "Scorpion Pass", a steep climb southwest of the Dead Sea. Kadesh-barnea was the desert oasis where Israel had spent much of its time in the wilderness; it sits at the far southern edge of the territory being marked out.
34:5
The Brook of Egypt is not the Nile. It is a wadi, a streambed that runs with water only in the rainy season and lies dry the rest of the year, generally identified with the Wadi el-Arish, which reaches the Mediterranean about halfway across the northern Sinai. It served as the conventional dividing line between Canaan and Egypt. "The sea" at the end of the verse is the Mediterranean.
34:6
The Great Sea is the Mediterranean, the only large sea these writers knew to the west.
34:7
This Mount Hor is not the Mount Hor where Aaron died, which was far to the south near Edom. The same name is used for a peak somewhere in the Lebanon range at the northern limit of the territory; its exact location is not known.
34:8
Hamath was a major city-state on the Orontes River in what is now Syria, well north of Israel. "Lebo-hamath" is either the approach or pass leading into its territory, or the name of a town at that point, Hebrew *lebo* can mean "entrance to," which is how the King James reads it. Either way it marks the far northern boundary.
34:11
The Sea of Chinnereth is the lake later called the Sea of Galilee. The name comes from a Hebrew word for a harp, which its shape was thought to resemble. The locations of Riblah and Ain on this line are uncertain.
34:12
The Jordan is the main river of this land. It runs from the north down into the Salt Sea.
34:13
Casting lots meant using marked stones or similar objects drawn at random to decide a matter. It was a standard procedure for dividing property fairly, since no one could be accused of favoring a particular tribe. There were twelve tribes, but the tribe of Levi received no territory of its own (it was given scattered towns instead), and two and a half tribes had already been settled east of the Jordan, leaving nine and a half to divide the land west of the river.
34:14
"Family by family" translates a phrase meaning "by their ancestral houses", the extended household descended from a common forefather, which was the basic unit by which land was allotted and recorded.
34:15
The King James "on this side Jordan" is confusing to a modern reader: it means the east side, where Moses and the people are standing as he speaks. Jericho lay on the west bank, so this land faced it from across the river.
34:17
Eleazar was Aaron's son and had succeeded him as high priest. Joshua son of Nun was Moses' longtime assistant and, by this point, his designated successor as leader.
34:18
"Prince" in the King James does not mean a king's son. The Hebrew word means a chief or recognized head of a tribe, a leader by standing within his own people, not royalty.
34:19
Caleb and Joshua were the only two of the twelve scouts sent into Canaan a generation earlier who had urged the people to go in. They were also the only two of that generation permitted to enter the land. The tribes in this list are named roughly in geographical order, from the south of the country northward, rather than by the birth order used in other lists.
34:23
Joseph had no tribe under his own name; instead his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, each headed a tribe, which is why "the descendants of Joseph" yields two entries here. Only the western half of Manasseh needs a representative, since the other half had already been settled east of the Jordan.
34:28
This list names only ten tribes. Reuben and Gad are missing because they already had their land, and Levi is missing because the Levites served as priests and were given towns instead of a share of the country.

Read Numbers 34