Bible Strands
Numbers 34:12
Then the border will go down along the Jordan and end at the Salt Sea. This will be your land, defined by its borders on all sides.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Moses and the Israelite leadership while delineating the territorial limits of Canaan prior to the tribal inheritance. This verse concludes the eastern boundary description before the land is divided by lot.
The words — The phrase יָם הַמֶּלַח (yam ha.Melach) literally renders “Sea of Salt,” while תוֹצְאֹתָיו (totz'otav) denotes its extremities or defined boundaries.
The thread — The Salt Sea functions as a fixed geographic anchor in Genesis 14:3, where the Valley of Siddim is explicitly identified by that name, and the surrounding region is noted in Genesis 13:10 as the well-watered plain of the Jordan.
Why it lands — The text establishes a concrete, non-negotiable eastern limit for the promised territory. It requires the reader to recognize that divine allocation operates within specific, observable geography rather than abstract boundaries.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the border shall go down to Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea: this shall be your land with the coasts thereof round about.
Cross-references
- Numbers 34:3 Your southern border will extend from the Wilderness of Zin along the border of Edom. On the east, your southern border will run from the end of the Salt Sea,
- Genesis 13:10 And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
- Genesis 14:3 The latter five came as allies to the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).
- Genesis 19:24 Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.