Commentari biblici

Numbers 34:1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying— Having given, in the foregoing chapter, a strict charge to the Israelites, how they should treat the inhabitants of the land of Canaan; the Lord proceeds to describe to them the bounds of the land, as it had been promised to Abraham; thereby to let them know where to stop their conquests, and to prevent them from making any encroachments upon their neighbours. This chapter would have begun more properly at the 50th verse of the last; a division which, in future times, may be made, more consistently with the 1st verse of that chapter. There is no way by which the sacred geography can be well understood, but by the inspection of a correct and proper map; and none, perhaps, will be found superior to those of Calmet, who has accurately considered the subject. See his Comment and Dictionary.

return to '

The Boundaries of Canaan (1452 BC)

¹ And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
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 thereof:)
³ Then 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:
⁴ And your border shall turn from the south to the ascent of 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:
⁵ And the border shall fetch a compass from Azmon unto the river of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at the sea.
⁶ And as for the western border, ye shall even have the great sea for a border: this shall be your west border.
⁷ And this shall be your north border: from the great sea ye shall point out for you mount Hor:
⁸ From mount Hor ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath; and the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad:
⁹ And the border shall go on to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be at Hazar-enan: this shall be your north border.
¹⁰ And ye shall point out your east border from Hazar-enan to Shepham:
¹¹ And 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 side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward:
¹² And 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.
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:
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; and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance:
¹⁵ The two tribes and the half tribe have received their inheritance on this side Jordan near Jericho eastward, toward the sunrising.

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, Da 11:24. And even so far the dominion of Israel did extend in David's time and Solomon's, 2Ch 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, Nu 34:14,15. Now concerning the limits of Canaan observe,

I. That it was limited within certain bounds: for God appoints the bounds of our habitation, Ac 17:26. The borders are set them, 1. That they might know whom they were to dispossess, and how far the commission which was given them extended (Nu 33:53), that they should drive out the inhabitants. Those that lay within these borders, and those only, they must destroy; hitherto their bloody sword must go, and no further. 2. That they might know what to expect the possession of themselves. God would not have his people to enlarge their desire of worldly possessions, but to know when they have enough, and to rest satisfied with it. The Israelites themselves must not be placed alone in the midst of the earth, but must leave room for their neighbours to live by them. God sets bounds to our lot; let us then set bounds to our desires, and bring our mind to our condition.

II. That it lay comparatively in a very little compass: as it is here bounded, it is reckoned to be but about 160 miles in length and about fifty in breadth; perhaps it did not contain more than half as much ground as England, and yet this is the country which was promised to the father of the faithful and was the possession of the seed of Israel. This was that little spot of ground in which only, for many ages, God was known, and his name was great, Ps 76:1. This was the vineyard of the Lord, the garden enclosed; but, as it is with gardens and vineyards, the narrowness of the extent was abundantly compensated by the extraordinary fruitfulness of the soil, otherwise it could not have subsisted so numerous a nation as did inhabit it. See here then, 1. How small a part of the world God has for himself. Though the earth is his, and the fullness thereof, yet few have the knowledge of him and serve him; but those few are happy, very happy, because fruitful to God. 2. How small a share of the world God often gives to his own people. Those that have their portion in heaven have reason to be content with a small pittance of this earth; but, as here, what is wanting in quantity is made up in quality; a little that a righteous man has, having it from the love of God and with his blessing, is far better and more comfortable than the riches of many wicked, Ps 37:16.

III. It is observable what the bounds and limits of it were. 1. Canaan was itself a pleasant land (so it is called Da 8:9), and yet it bordered upon wilderness and seas, and was surrounded with divers melancholy prospects. Thus the vineyard of the church is compassed on all hands with the desert of this world, which serves as a foil to it, to make it appear the more beautiful for situation. 2. Many of its borders were its defences and natural fortifications, to render the access of enemies the more difficult, and to intimate to Israel that the God of nature was their protector, and with his favour would compass them as with a shield. 3. The border reached to the river of Egypt (Nu 34:5), that the sight of that country which they could look into out of their own might remind them of their bondage there, and their wonderful deliverance thence. 4. Their border is here made to begin at the Salt Sea (Nu 34:3), and there it ends, Nu 34:12. This was the remaining lasting monument of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. That pleasant fruitful vale in which these cities stood became a lake, which was never stirred by any wind, bore no vessels, was replenished with no fish, no living creature of any sort being found in it, therefore called the Dead Sea. This was part of their border, that it might be a constant warning to them to take heed of those sins which had been the ruin of Sodom; yet the iniquity of Sodom was afterwards found in Israel (Eze 16:49), for which Canaan was made, though not a salt sea as Sodom, yet a barren soil, and continues so to this day. 5. Their western border was the Great Sea (Nu 34:6), which is now called the Mediterranean. Some consider this sea itself to have been a part of their possession, and that by virtue of this grant, they had the dominion of it, and, if they had not forfeited it by sin, might have rode masters of it.

¹⁶ And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
¹⁷ These are the names of the men which shall divide the land unto you: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun.
¹⁸ And ye shall take one prince of every tribe, to divide the land by inheritance.
¹⁹ And the names of the men are these: Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
²⁰ And of the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud.
²¹ Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon.
²² And the prince of the tribe of the children of Dan, Bukki the son of Jogli.
²³ The prince of the children of Joseph, for the tribe of the children of Manasseh, Hanniel the son of Ephod.
²⁴ And the prince of the tribe of the children of Ephraim, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan.
²⁵ And the prince of the tribe of the children of Zebulun, Elizaphan the son of Parnach.
²⁶ And the prince of the tribe of the children of Issachar, Paltiel the son of Azzan.
²⁷ And the prince of the tribe of the children of Asher, Ahihud the son of Shelomi.
²⁸ And the prince of the tribe of the children of Naphtali, Pedahel the son of Ammihud.
²⁹ These are they whom the LORD commanded to divide the inheritance unto the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.

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. 1. The principal commissioners, who were of the quorum, were Eleazar and Joshua (Nu 34:17), typifying Christ, who, as priest and king, divides the heavenly Canaan to the spiritual Israel; yet, as they were to go by the lot, so Christ acknowledges the disposal must be by the will of the Father, Mt 20:23. Compare, Eph 1:11. 2. Besides these, that there might be no suspicion of partiality, a prince of each tribe was appointed to inspect this matter, and to see that the tribe he served for was in no respect injured. 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 justice done them., It is a happiness to a land to have the princes of their people meet together, some out of every tribe, to concert the affairs that are of common concern, a constitution which is the abundant honour, ease, and safety, of the nation that is blessed with it. 3. Some observe that the order of the tribes here very much differs from that in which they hitherto, upon all occasions, been named, and agrees with the neighbourhood of their lots in the division of the land. Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin, the first three here named, lay close together; the inheritance of Dan lay next them on one side, that of Ephraim and Manasseh on another side; Zebulun and Issachar lay abreast more northerly, and, lastly, Asher and Naphtali most northward of all, as is easy to observe in looking over a map of Canaan; this (says bishop Patrick) is an evidence that Moses was guided by a divine Spirit in his writings. Known unto God are all his works beforehand, and what is new and surprising to us he perfectly foresaw, without any confusion or uncertainty.

2. this is the . . . land of Canaan--The details given in this chapter mark the general boundary of the inheritance of Israel west of the Jordan. The Israelites never actually possessed all the territory comprised within these boundaries, even when it was most extended by the conquests of David and Solomon.

The land of Canaan - The name Canaan is here restricted to the territory west of the Jordan.

The land of Canaan with the coasts thereof - All description here is useless. The situation and boundaries of the land of Canaan can only be known by actual survey, or by consulting a good map.

Command the children of Israel, and say unto them,.... Not to fix the borders, and settle the boundaries of the land, for that is done by the Lord himself, who has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of men's habitations, and particularly of Israel, see Deuteronomy 32:8, but to observe and take notice of the limits he had fixed, that they might know how far they were to go on every side, whom they were to drive out, and what they were to divide and inherit, and see what was their right, and preserve it from the encroachments of their neighbours, as well as observe the goodness of God unto them, in thus providing for them:

when ye come into the land of Canaan; to take possession of it by virtue of a grant of it to them:

this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance; it is said to "fall", because it was divided by lot, each tribe having such a part of it assigned to them, according to the lot that came up unto them: even

the land of Canaan, with the coasts thereof; or according to its borders, which are as follow.

Or, limits, or bounds, to wit, of the land beyond Jordan; which are here particularly described,

1. To direct 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.

2. To encourage them in their attempt upon Canaan, and assure them of their success.

3. To guide them in the approaching distribution of the land.