Numbers 34:12

12 and those terms shall stretch forth till to (the) Jordan, and at the last those shall be closed with the saltiest sea. Ye shall have this land by his coasts in compass. (and the border shall then go south along the Jordan River, and end at the Salt Sea, that is, the Dead Sea. Ye shall have all the land within these borders.)

Numbers 34:12 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 34:12

And the border shall go down to Jordan
A well known river to the east of the land of Canaan:

and the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea;
the sea of Sodom; and though all sea water is generally salt, this was remarkably so, through the great quantity of bitumen and nitre in it; hence it was called Asphaltites; thus as the description of the borders of the land began with the salt sea, ( Numbers 34:3 ) , it ends with it:

this shall be your land, with the coasts thereof round about:
which, according to the Targum of Jonathan, was thus bounded, Rekamgea (or Kadeshbarnea) on the south, Taurus Urnanus (by which he interprets Mount Hor) on the north, the great sea on the west (i.e. the Mediterranean sea), and the salt sea on the east.

Numbers 34:12 In-Context

10 From thence they shall mete the coasts against the east coast, from the town (of) Enan to Shepham; (From there the eastern border shall run from Hazarenan to Shepham;)

11 and from Shepham the terms shall go down into Riblah, against the well of Ain; from thence those terms shall come against the east to the sea of Chinnereth; (and from Shepham, the border shall go down to Riblah, east of Ain; from there the border shall go forth to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, that is, Lake Galilee;)

12 and those terms shall stretch forth till to (the) Jordan, and at the last those shall be closed with the saltiest sea. Ye shall have this land by his coasts in compass. (and the border shall then go south along the Jordan River, and end at the Salt Sea, that is, the Dead Sea. Ye shall have all the land within these borders.)

13 And Moses commanded to the sons of Israel, and said, This shall be the land which ye shall wield by lot, and which the Lord commanded to be given to the nine lineages, and to the half lineage; (And Moses commanded to the Israelites, and said, This shall be the land which ye shall possess by lot, and which the Lord commanded to be given to the nine tribes, and to the half tribe;)

14 for the lineage of the sons of Reuben, by their families, and the lineage of the sons of Gad, by their kindred and number, and half the lineage of Manasseh, (for the tribes of the sons of Reuben, and of the sons of Gad, and half of the tribe of the sons of Manasseh,)