| Back to Home Page | Back to Book Index
|
Numbers Chapter
Thirty-four
Numbers 34
Chapter Contents
The bounds of the promised land. (1-15) Those appointed
to divide the land. (16-29)
Commentary on Numbers 34:1-15
Canaan was of small extent; as it is here bounded, it is
but about 160 miles in length, and about 50 in breadth; yet this was the
country promised to the father of the faithful, and the possession of the seed
of Israel. This was that little spot of ground, in which alone, for many ages,
God was known. This was the vineyard of the Lord, the garden enclosed; but as
it is with gardens and vineyards, the narrowness of the space was made up by
the fruitfulness of the soil. Though the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness
thereof, yet few know him, and serve him; but those few are happy, because
fruitful to God. Also, see how little a share of the world God gives to his own
people. Those who have their portion in heaven, have reason to be content with
a small pittance of this earth. Yet 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.
Commentary on Numbers 34:16-29
God here appoints men to divide the land to them. So sure
must they feel of victory and success while God fought for them, that the
persons are named who should be intrusted with the dividing of the land.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on
Numbers》
Numbers 34
Verse 2
[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:)
Coasts - 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. There was a much larger possession
promised them, if they were obedient, even to the river Euphrates. But this, which
is properly Canaan, lay in a very little compass. 'Tis but about an hundred and
fifty miles in length, and about fifty in breadth. This was that little spot of
ground, in which alone for many ages God was known! But its littleness was
abundantly compensated by its fruitfulness: otherwise it could not have
sustained so numerous a nation. See, how little a share of the world God often
gives to his own people! But they that have their portion in heaven, can be
content with a small pittance of this earth.
Verse 3
[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:
Your fourth quarter —
Which is here described from east to west by divers windings and turnings, by
reason of the mountains and rivers.
The salt sea — So
called from the salt and sulphurous taste of its waters.
Eastward —
That is, at the eastern part of that sea, where the eastern and southern
borders meet.
Verse 4
[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 Kadeshbarnea, and
shall go on to Hazaraddar, and pass on to Azmon:
From the south —
Or, on the south, that is, proceeding onward towards the south.
Azmon —
Which is at the west-end of the mount of Edom.
Verse 5
[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.
The river of Egypt —
Called Sihor, Joshua 13:3, which divided Egypt from Canaan.
The sea —
The midland sea, called the sea emphatically, whereas the other seas, as they
are called, are indeed but lakes.
Verse 6
[6] And as for the western border, ye shall even have the great sea for a
border: this shall be your west border.
The great sea —
This midland sea from the south to the north, so far as it runs parallel with
mount Libanus.
Verse 7
[7] And
this shall be your north border: from the great sea ye shall point out for you
mount Hor:
Hor —
Not that Hor where Aaron died, which was southward, and bordering upon Edom,
but another mountain, and, as it is conceived, the mountain of Libanus, which
is elsewhere mentioned as the northern border of the land, and which, in regard
of divers parts, or by divers people, is called by divers names, and here Hor,
which signifies a mountain, by way of eminency.
Verse 17
[17]
These are the names of the men which shall divide the land unto you: Eleazar
the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun.
Eleazar —
Who was to act in God's name, to cast lots, to prevent contentions, to consult
with God in cases of difficulty, to transact the whole business in a solemn and
religious manner.
Verse 19
[19] And
the names of the men are these: Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of
Jephunneh.
Judah —
The order of the tribes is here different from that, Numbers 1:7,26, and in other places, being
conformed to the order of their several inheritances, which afterwards fell to
them by lots. Which is an evident demonstration of the infinite wisdom of God's
providence, and of his peculiar care over his people.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Numbers》
34 Chapter 34
Verses 1-15
When ye come into the land of Canaan.
The Promised Land
I. The boundaries
of this land were determined by God.
1. A reason for contentment.
2. A rebuke of selfish greed, whether on the part of individuals or
of nations.
II. The extent of
this land was small. Mr. Grove thus speaks of its size, and briefly sets forth
its boundaries: “The Holy Land is not in size or physical characteristics
proportioned to its moral and historical position, as the theatre of the most
momentous events in the world’s history. It is but a strip of country about the
size of Wales, less than a hundred and forty miles in length and barely forty
in average breadth, on the very frontier of the East, hemmed in between the
Mediterranean Sea on the one hand and the enormous trench of the Jordan valley
on the other, by which it is effectually cut off from the mainland of Asia
behind it. On the north it is shut in by the high ranges of Lebanon and
Anti-Lebanon, and by the chasm of the Litany, which runs at their feet, and
forms the main drain of their southern slope. On the south it is no less
enclosed by the arid and inhospitable deserts of the upper part of the
peninsula of Sinai, whose undulating wastes melt imperceptibly into the
southern hills of Judea.”
III. The position of
this land was secure. It was surrounded by natural fortifications. In one
particular only was the position of this land perilous. “The only road by which
the two great rivals of the ancient world could approach one another--by which
alone Egypt could go to Assyria and Assyria to Egypt--lay along the broad fiat
strip of coast which formed the maritime portion of the Holy Land, and thence
by the plain of the Lebanon to the Euphrates.” This road was undoubtedly a
dangerous one for the Israelites. And through this channel the destruction of
the nation came at length. But, with this exception, this land was naturally
surrounded by almost impregnable defences.
IV. The soil of
this land was fertile. At present the face of the country presents a rocky and
barren aspect. For this there are two causes. “The first is the destruction of
the timber in that long series of sieges and invasions which began with the
invasion of Shishak (B.C. circa 970), and has not yet come to an end. This, by
depriving the soil and streams of shelter from the burning sun, at once made,
as it invariably does, the climate more arid than before, and doubtless
diminished the rainfall. The second is the decay of the terraces necessary to
retain the soil on the steep slopes of the round hills. This decay is owing to
the general unsettlement and insecurity which have been the lot of this poor
little country almost ever since the Babylonian conquest. The terraces once
gone, there was nothing to prevent the soil which they supported being washed
away by the heavy rains of winter; and it is hopeless to look for a renewal of
the wood, or for any real improvement in the general face of the country, until
they have been first re-established.”
V. The Israelites
failed to take possession of the whole of this land assigned to them by God. (W.
Jones.)
Boundaries
Life is marked all over with boundary lines. Two different views
may be taken of such lines--that is to say, in the first place they may be
regarded as limitations and partial impoverishments, or, in the next place,
they may be regarded as defining rights and liberties, possessions and
authorities. Very subtle and delicate things are boundaries oftentimes. They
are invisible. Are not all the greatest things invisible, as well as the best
and most delicate and tender? Show the line of love. There is no line to show.
It is at this point that conscience comes into active play. Where the
conscience is dull, or imperfectly educated, or selfish, there will be much
dispute about boundaries; but where the conscience is sanctified by the power
of the Cross and is alive with the righteousness of God, there will be no
controversy, but large concession, noble interpretation, willingness to give,
to take, to arrange and settle, without the severity of the law or the cruelty
of the sword. What differences there are in boundaries! We read of one, in the
seventh verse, whose boundary was “from the great sea”; in the twelfth verse,
“the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea.” There is so much sea in some
people’s limited possession. What a boundary is the inhospitable sea! We cannot
cut it up into acres, and lay it out; we cannot sow it with wheat, and reap the
harvest, and enjoy the bread; it is to most of us but a spectacle--great,
melancholy, unresponsive, pitiless; a liquid emblem of cruel death. Is not this
the case with many men? They know they have great possessions, but their
greatness is not the measure of their value. A little garden-plot would be to
some men more valuable, for purposes of living, than the freehold of the
Atlantic. Sometimes men are born to great estates that have nothing in
them--boundless nothings; a proprietorship of infinite bogs and wastes and unanswering
sterilities; sand that cannot be ploughed, water that cannot be sown with seed,
and bogs that cannot be built upon. Contrast with such allotments the words of
music which you find in the fifteenth verse: “toward the sunrising.” That is an
inheritance worth having! The morning sun blesses it: early in the morning all
heaven’s glory is poured out upon it with the hospitality of God; whatever is
planted in it grows almost instantly; the flowers love to be planted there; all
the roots of the earth would say, “Put us in this place of the morning sun, and
we will show you what we can do in growth and fruitfulness; give us the chance
of the sun, and then say what we really are.” We cannot all have our estates
“toward the sunrising”; we cannot wholly cut off the north and the
northeast--the shady side of the bill: somebody must be there. Does God plant a
tabernacle in such sunless districts? Is there any temple of God in the
northlands, where the storm blows with a will and the tempests seem to have it all
their own way, rioting in their tumultuous strength, and, as it were, accosting
one another in reduplications of infinite thunderings and roarings of
whirlwinds? Even there God’s footprint may be found. Even a little may be so
held as to he much. Quite a small garden may grow stuff enough for a whole
household. Look for the bright spots; add up all the excellences; totalise the
attractions of the situation; and it is wonderful how things add up when you
know how to add them. Boundary is disciplinary. Who would not like to add just
one more shelf to his library, and could do it if he were at liberty to take
the books from another man’s study? Who does not desire to have just the corner
plot to make the estate geometrically complete, and would do it if the owner of
the plot were not looking? But to retire within your own boundary!--to have
nothing but a ditch between you and the vineyard you covet! Who is stopped by a
ditch? To have nothing but one thin, green hedge between proprietorship actual
and proprietorship desired! Why not burn the hedge, or transfer it? “Whoso
breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him,” saith the proverbs of Solomon. To
be kept within our own lines, to build our altar steadily there, and to bow
down at that altar and confess that “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness
thereof,” and that, whether a man has much or little, he may be God’s child,
God’s servant, and Christ’s apostle--that is the highest discipline, and it is
possible to every man. Boundaries are suggestive. Every boundary, rightly
interpreted, means, “Your last estate will be a very little one--a grave in the
cemetery, a tomb in the silent place.” Does it come to this, that the man who
wanted acres a thousand in number doubled lies down in six feet, or seven, by
four? Can a carpenter measure him for his last house? Does there ,come a time
when a man steals quietly upstairs with a two-foot measure, and afterwards
hurries out to build for him in the eventide his last dwelling-place? It is
impossible to exclude this thought from all our best reasoning. There is no
need to be mawkish, sentimental, foolishly melancholy about it; but there is
the fact that there is an appointed time to man upon the earth as well as an
appointed place to man upon the earth, and that he is the wise man who looks at
that certain fact and conducts himself wisely in relation to it. Men have the
power of closing their eyes and not seeing the end; but to close the eves is
not to destroy the inevitable boundary. Even the grave can be made beautiful. A
man may so live that when he is laid in his grave other men may go to see the
tomb and bedew it with tears, and even stoop down and touch it with a loving
hand as if it were a living thing. (J. Parker, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》