Numbers - 34:6



6 "'For the western border, you shall have the great sea and the border (of it): this shall be your west border.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Numbers 34:6.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
And as for the western border, ye shall even have the great sea for a border: this shall be your west border.
And the west side shall begin from the great sea, and the same shall be the end thereof.
And as west border ye shall have the great sea, and its coast. This shall be your west border.
'As to the west border, even the great sea hath been to you a border; this is to you the west border.
And for your limit on the west you will have the Great Sea and its edge: this will be your limit on the west.
'For the western border, you shall have the great sea and its border: this shall be your west border.
Then the western region shall begin from the Great Sea, and the same shall be its end.
Terminum autem occidentalis erit vobis mare magnum, terminus, inquam, iste erit vobis terminus occidentalis.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Ye shall even have the great sea for a border - The Mediterranean Sea, called here the Great Sea, to distinguish it from the Dead Sea, the Sea of Tiberias, etc., which were only a sort of lakes. In Hebrew there is properly but one term, ים yam, which is applied to all collections of water apparently stagnant, and which is generally translated sea. The Greek of the New Testament follows the Hebrew, and employs, in general, the word θαλασσα, Sea, whether it speaks of the Mediterranean, or of the sea or lake of Galilee.

And [as for] the western border, ye shall even have the (c) great sea for a border: this shall be your west border.
(c) Which is called the Mediterranean.

And as for the western border,.... Of the land of Canaan:
you shall even have the great sea for a border; and no other, meaning the Mediterranean sea, which lies west of the land of Judea; Aben Ezra calls it the Spanish sea: it has the name of "great", in comparison of some in the land of Canaan, as the salt sea, and the sea of Tiberias:
this shall be your west border; namely, the Mediterranean sea.

the western border--There is no uncertainty about this boundary, as it is universally allowed to be the Mediterranean, which is called "the great sea" in comparison with the small inland seas or lakes known to the Hebrews.

The western boundary was to be "the great sea and its territory," i.e., the Mediterranean Sea with its territory or coast (cf. Deuteronomy 3:16-17; Joshua 13:23, Joshua 13:27; Joshua 15:47).

The great sea - This midland sea from the south to the north, so far as it runs parallel with mount Libanus.

*More commentary available at chapter level.


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