Numbers 34:3

3 1your south side shall be from the wilderness of Zin alongside Edom, and your southern border shall run from the end of 2the Salt Sea on the east.

Numbers 34:3 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 34:3

Then your south quarter
Or border of the land; which, as Jarchi observes, was from east to west:

shall be from the wilderness of Zin;
which is Kadesh, where Miriam died, ( Numbers 20:1 ) ( 33:36 ) , and if this Kadesh was Kadeshbarnea, as Dr. Lightfoot seems to have proved F8, from whence the spies were sent, that was clearly on the south of the land of Canaan, for they were bid to go up their way southward, ( Numbers 13:17 ) , and so Kadeshbarnea is hereafter mentioned, as being in the southern border: the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it,

``from the wilderness of the palm trees of the mountain of iron;''

there is a smaller palm tree, which by Jewish writers is called Zin, of which there were great quantities on a mountain famous for iron mines, in this wilderness, from whence it is thought it had its name; hence we read F9 of palm trees of the mountain of iron, as fit to make the bunch of branches of trees, called the "lulab", carried in the hand on the feast of tabernacles:

along by the coast of Edom;
the land of Canaan, to the south, bordered on three countries, Egypt, Edom, and Moab; according to Jarchi, some part of Egypt, the whole land of Edom, and the whole land of Moab; the part of the land of Egypt was in the south west corner of it; the land of Edom by it to the east; and the land of Moab by the land of Edom, at the end of the south to the east:

and your south border shall be the outmost coast of the salt sea
eastward;
the same that is sometimes called the Dead sea, the sea of Sodom, or the lake Asphaltites, as Heathen writers generally call it.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 Works, vol. 2. p. 8, 9.
F9 Misn. Succah. c. 3. sect. 1.

Numbers 34:3 In-Context

1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
2 "Command the people of Israel, and say to them, When you enter the land of Canaan (this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, the land of Canaan as defined by its borders),
3 your south side shall be from the wilderness of Zin alongside Edom, and your southern border shall run from the end of the Salt Sea on the east.
4 And your border shall turn south of the ascent of Akrabbim, and cross to Zin, and its limit shall be south of Kadesh-barnea. Then it shall go on to Hazar-addar, and pass along to Azmon.
5 And the border shall turn from Azmon to the Brook of Egypt, and its limit shall be at the sea.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Joshua 15:1; See Genesis 15:18-21; Ezekiel 47:13-21
  • 2. ver. 12; Genesis 14:3; Joshua 15:2
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