Numbers 34:2

“Command the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, it will be allotted to you as an inheritance with these boundaries:

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The LORD directs Moses to speak to the Israelites at the moment they are preparing to cross into Canaan.

The words — The Hebrew imperative צַו (tzav) translates literally as “command,” framing the subsequent instruction as an authoritative decree rather than a suggestion.

The thread — The designation of Canaan as a divinely granted inheritance recurs in Genesis 17:8 and Psalm 105:11, both of which explicitly tie the land’s possession to God’s promise.

Why it lands — The verse establishes that territorial possession requires strict adherence to God-specified boundaries, placing the responsibility of obedience on the recipients before any settlement occurs.

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

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:)

Cross-references

Genesis 17:8 And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”
Psalms 105:11 “I will give you the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.”
Deuteronomy 1:7 Resume your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the foothills, in the Negev, and along the seacoast to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great River Euphrates.
Psalms 78:54 He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand had acquired.
Ezekiel 47:14 You are to divide it equally among them. Because I swore with an uplifted hand to give it to your forefathers, this land will fall to you as an inheritance.
1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Genesis 12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.
Genesis 13:15 for all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.
Genesis 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
Numbers 33:51 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,