Numbers 34 - Introduction

P.

Numbers 34:1. The boundaries of Israelite possessions on the west of the Jordan. Numbers 34:16. The appointment of ten princes to superintend the allotment of the land.

The eastern and western boundaries of the country are clearly defined. They are the R. Jordan and the -Great Sea," the Mediterranean. But the northern and southern limits are very uncertain, hardly any of the places mentioned having been identified. The Southern Border(Numbers 34:3) runs from the Salt Sea (i.e. the Dead Sea), along the border of Edom, to the Mediterranean through two known points, Kadesh-Barnea and the -Wady of Egypt" (see on Numbers 34:5). The other places named are unknown. The same names are found in a similar description of the southern border in Joshua 15:2-4, except that Hezron takes the place of Hazar-addar, Addar being given as a distinct spot, and an additional unknown place Karka is named. And in Ezekiel 47:19; Ezekiel 48:28 in the ideal picture of the boundaries of the future Israel four points are given to mark the southern border: Tamar (site unknown, but somewhere near the Dead Sea), Meriboth-Kadesh (Kadesh-Barnea), -the Wady," and the Great Sea. The Northern Border(Numbers 34:7) is still more uncertain. It started from a point on the Mediterranean described as Mt Hor, passed by the -entrance of Hamath" (see on Numbers 13:21) and Zedad (unknown), ran eastward as far as Hazar-enan (unknown), and then turned southward to the sea of Chinnereth. No such northern boundary is described in Joshua, but Ezekiel 47:15-17 coincides with Num. as regards the Great Sea, Zedad, and Hazar-enan, the last, however, being spelt Hazar-enon.

It is probable that the boundaries here traced in P are, as in Ezekiel, ideal, and that the full extent of country which they imply was never actually possessed by Israel. This is certain as regards the west, for the Hebrews never held a single spot on the Mediterranean coast with the possible exception of Carmel, and, at certain periods, Joppa (see Hastings" DB.i. 355 and ii. 755). Joppa was captured by Jonathan Maccabaeus in 148 b.c. (1Ma 10:76) and again by his brother Simon six years later (1Ma 12:33 f.; cf. 1Ma 14:5).

For a fuller discussion than is here possible of the localities mentioned in this chapter the reader is referred to Gray, Numbers, pp. 454 462.