Numbers 34 Mapped by God

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Numbers 34:1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Command the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance is to have these boundaries:

3 “‘Your southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. Your southern boundary will start in the east from the southern end of the Dead Sea, 4 cross south of Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and go south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon, 5 where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Mediterranean Sea.

6 “‘Your western boundary will be the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This will be your boundary on the west.

7 “‘For your northern boundary, run a line from the Mediterranean Sea to Mount Hor 8 and from Mount Hor to Lebo Hamath. Then the boundary will go to Zedad, 9 continue to Ziphron and end at Hazar Enan. This will be your boundary on the north.

10 “‘For your eastern boundary, run a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham. 11 The boundary will go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Galilee.[a] 12 Then the boundary will go down along the Jordan and end at the Dead Sea.

“‘This will be your land, with its boundaries on every side.’”​

a. Numbers 34:11 Hebrew Kinnereth

I don't know about anyone else, but I need a map.

Numbers 34.jpg today.jpg Promised_boundaries.jpg

This commentary is from the easy English site.

This passage describes the borders of the Promised Land. Actually, the Israelites controlled most of this area only for a short time. This was several centuries later, when David and then Solomon ruled. But this passage is important because, for the Israelites, it was more than a record of political borders. It emphasised that God had given this land to his special people. It was his gift to them. Also, he told them how to divide it between the 9 and a half tribes. Reuben’s tribe, Gad’s tribe and the half tribe of Manasseh kept their land outside the country called Canaan.​

I went back to the BibleTrack site to get this commentary.

So, they haven't crossed over Jordan yet, but Moses is very specific about what property is to be Israel's for a possession. Some of these names are no longer locatable on a map, because they simply ceased to be called by that name after that. The place names for the eastern, western and southern borders are relatively easy to find on a map. The names given in this account for the northern border, extending into today's Lebanon and Syria, mention names that are no longer used. We do have a general idea of the location of that Northern border. Verse 14-15 make reference to the fact that Gad, Reuben and half of Manasseh stayed on the east side of the Jordan River.

A point of clarification is in order here. Take note of Genesis 15:18, "In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abraham, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:" That's from the Nile to the Euphrates. That passage has caused some confusion because the tribes of Israel did not inhabit all of that land when they arrived in the Book of Joshua, nor is that large of a land survey specified in this passage. However, later on King David did, in fact, control the territory all the way over to the Euphrates. We see this in II Samuel 8:3 "David smote also Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to recover his border at the river Euphrates." So, while the Israelites did not choose to live that far away, nonetheless David's kingdom and control extended to that point, thus fulfilling the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 15:18 . So...to put it more succinctly, Israel's living area was smaller than the actual kingdom area would be when the covenant with Abraham would be fulfilled under King David.

Comparing the borders of back then to now is pretty interesting to me. I know I should be more compassionate to the inhabitants of the West Bank, but I keep going back to these maps when the West Bank comes up. I can't begin to imagine how I would feel if I actually lived there and had these maps.

:coffee:
 
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