Commentaria in Numeros
Chapter the Thirty-fourth
The bounds of the promised land are described, namely, that on the east it is to be terminated by the Dead Sea; on the west by the Mediterranean Sea; on the south by the Torrent of Egypt; on the north by Libanus and the city of Epiphania. Secondly, verse 17, God names the 10 princes who are to divide this land by lot to the Hebrews.
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2. Command the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: When you shall have entered into the land of Chanaan, and it shall fall to you by lot for a possession, it shall be bounded by these limits. 3. The south part shall begin from the wilderness of Sin, which is by Edom; and shall have the borders toward the east the most salt sea; 4. which borders shall compass the southern quarter by the ascent of Scorpions, so as to pass on to Senna, and reach from the south to Cadesbarne; whence the borders shall go out to the village named Adar, and shall pass on to Asemona, 5. and the border shall go round from Asemona to the Torrent of Egypt, and shall end at the shore of the great sea. 6. And the western quarter shall begin from the great sea, and shall be closed by the very end thereof.
7. And on the north quarter the borders shall begin from the great sea, and shall reach as far as the high mountain, 8. from which they shall come to Emath as far as the borders of Sedada: 9. and the borders shall go as far as Zephrona, and the village of Enan; these shall be the limits in the north part. 10. From thence they shall mark out the bounds toward the east quarter from the village of Enan as far as Sephama, 11. and from Sephama the borders shall go down to Rebla over against the fountain Daphnis: from thence they shall come toward the east to the sea of Cenereth, 12. and shall reach as far as the Jordan, and at last shall be closed by the most salt sea. This land you shall have by its borders round about. 13. And Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying: This shall be the land which you shall possess by lot, and which the Lord commanded to be given to the nine tribes and the half tribe. 14. For the tribe of the children of Ruben by their families, and the tribe of the children of Gad, according to the number of their kindreds, and the half tribe of Manasses, 15. that is, two tribes and a half, have received their portion beyond the Jordan, over against Jericho, toward the east. 16. And the Lord said to Moses: 17. These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you, Eleazar the priest, and Josue the son of Nun, 18. and one prince of every tribe, 19. whose names are these: Of the tribe of Juda, Caleb the son of Jephone. 20. Of the tribe of Simeon, Samuel the son of Ammiud. 21. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chaselon. 22. Of the tribe of the children of Dan, Bocci the son of Jogli. 23. Of the children of Joseph, of the tribe of Manasses, Hanniel the son of Ephod. 24. Of the tribe of Ephraim, Camuel the son of Sephthan. 25. Of the tribe of Zabulon, Elisaphan the son of Pharnach. 26. Of the tribe of Issachar, the leader Phaltiel the son of Ozan. 27. Of the tribe of Aser, Ahiud the son of Salomi. 28. Of the tribe of Nephthali, Phedael the son of Ammiud. 29. These are they to whom the Lord commanded that they should divide the land of Chanaan to the children of Israel.
Verse 3. THE SOUTH PART (of Chanaan) SHALL BEGIN FROM THE WILDERNESS OF SIN, WHICH IS BY EDOM, AND SHALL HAVE THE BORDERS TOWARD THE EAST, THE MOST SALT SEA.— “The most salt sea” is the lake of the Sodomites, or Asphaltites, where the Pentapolis formerly stood, but, it being consumed by fire, there came to be in that place a lake of pitch, which in the Hebrew manner is called a sea, and salt, that is most salt. For in this lake the water is thick, retaining the property of the sulphur and salt by which the Pentapolis was burned: for that burning salt was then mixed with the sulphur, as is plain from Deuteronomy xxix, 23, though others think it is called the most salt sea from the salt-pits, which Sophonias, chapter ii, 9, teaches to be there; and therefore this lake nourishes neither fish nor anything else living: whence it is also called the Dead Sea. It is also called the sea of the solitude, or of the desert, because it lies near the wilderness of Sin and Cades, where the king of the Sodomites was slain by Codorlahomor, Genesis xiv, 7. It is commonly also called the sea of the devil, because Sodom, Gomorrha, Adama and Seboim, for their unspeakable sins, fire and brimstone falling from heaven, were (as the common folk think) by the demon submerged and buried under the waters, says Abulensis. Moreover, this lake, or sea, is on the east of the holy land. For the Jordan, which is on the east of Chanaan, flows into this sea, and is swallowed up by it, as is plain from geographical tables, and from Josue iii, 16.
4. BY THE ASCENT OF SCORPIONS,—this place is so called from the steep mountains, which are rough like scorpions.
5. AND THE BORDER SHALL GO ROUND FROM ASEMONA TO THE TORRENT OF EGYPT.—This torrent is a little river which, coming from the desert (whence Theodotion renders, the torrent of Arabia) by Rhinocorura, falls into the Mediterranean Sea, and separates the land of the tribes of Juda and Simeon from the desert and the road of Egypt. Whence the Septuagint for this torrent put Rhinocorura. Hence throughout Scripture this torrent is set as the southern boundary of the promised land, namely of Chanaan. So St. Jerome on chapter vi of Amos, and in the epistle to Dardanus, tome III; see Adrichomius in the Tables. They err, therefore, who think this torrent to be one of the streams of the Nile, from Josue xiii, 3, for there the sense is different. For this torrent is far from the Nile and from Pelusium and Egypt.
AND SHALL END AT THE SHORE OF THE GREAT (that is, Mediterranean) SEA.—The Mediterranean Sea is here called “great,” in respect of two others: for in the holy land there is a threefold sea: the first is this Mediterranean, which washes it on the west; whence “sea” here in the Hebrew and elsewhere often signifies the west; the second is the Dead Sea, or most salt; the third is the sea of Cinnereth, or Genesareth: these last two are rather lakes, but the first is a true and vast sea.
7. AND ON THE NORTH QUARTER THE BORDERS SHALL BEGIN FROM THE GREAT SEA, AND SHALL REACH AS FAR AS THE HIGH MOUNTAIN,—namely as far as mount Hor, as the Hebrew and Chaldee have it. Wrongly, therefore, do some understand Libanus here.
8. FROM WHICH THEY SHALL COME TO EMATH.—This Emath is the Lesser, in which is the city which was afterwards called Epiphania by Antiochus Epiphanes. This city was the boundary of the holy land on the north. There was another, Emath the Greater, namely Antioch, which was the capital of all Syria. So St. Jerome, and from him Ribera on Amos
11. OVER AGAINST THE FOUNTAIN DAPHNIS.—The Hebrew has not Daphnim, but only over against the fountain, namely that which is known and celebrated near Reblata; but here it is Daphnis, as our Interpreter, namely St. Jerome, who accurately surveyed the holy land, best knew and understood. The fountain Daphnis, abounding in waters, irrigates the city Reblata, and, like that celebrated and delightful Daphne, suburb of Antioch, is renowned for most frequent laurels and for its pleasantness, as Adrichomius teaches from 2 Machabees, Josephus and St. Jerome. Hear him: “he says, that is, from Apamia, the borders shall go down to Reblata, which is now called Antioch of Syria.” And he adds: “that thou mayest know that Rebla, or Reblata, signifies this city, he says over against the fountain; which it is plain signifies Daphne, from which fountain the grove enjoys most abundant waters.” And 2 Machabees iv: “Onias the priest,” he says, “kept himself in a safe place beside Daphne.” For since there are several Antiochs, one on the river Cragus in Cilicia, another near the river Meander in Caria, a third in Pisidia in Cappadocia, to distinguish it from these this was surnamed Antioch at Daphne, which also, in comparison with the others, is called Antioch the Great, and Antioch on the Orontes, because it is cut through the middle by the river Orontes. It is a prolepsis; for the name Daphne was given afterwards to this fountain, as to the suburb of Antioch adjoining it. Whence also the gate of the city leading there was called Daphnitic, near which the body of St. Ignatius the Martyr is attested by St. Jerome to have been buried. It was called Daphne, that is laurel, or laurel grove, on account of laurels and cypresses dedicated there by Pompey; or rather in memory of the virgin Daphne, whom the Antiochenes fabled to be the daughter of their river Ladon: whence also “they worshipped the laurel in memory of the virgin Daphne,” says Philostratus, book I, and Arrian, and from them Antonius Nebrissensis in the Quinquagena, chapter xiv.
11. FROM THENCE THEY SHALL COME TOWARD THE EAST TO THE SEA OF CENERETH.—“Cenereth,” or, as the Hebrews read, Cinnereth, was a city, which afterwards, corruptly, Genezareth, and by Tiberius Caesar was called Tiberias: near this city was the lake which is called the sea and pool of Cenereth, or Genesareth, or of Tiberias, and, from the province in which it was, the sea of Galilee; near this sea were Nazareth, Capharnaum, Bethsaida and other cities, which were made famous by the education, conversation and miracles of Christ.
This sea of Cenereth, as also the other, the most salt or dead sea, with the Jordan, was the boundary of the holy land on the east; the Mediterranean was the boundary on the west, the torrent of Egypt with the deserts of Arabia the boundary on the south; Emath, or Epiphania, the boundary, as also Libanus, on the north. The same bounds of the promised land are assigned in Exodus xxiii, 31, save that there the boundary on the north is set as a river, namely the Euphrates. These were certainly ample bounds, and consequently the land promised to the Jews was very ample: for it comprised Philistia and all the Philistines, as is plain from Josue xiii, 2 and 3; again it comprised the whole of Phoenicia, and consequently Tyre and Sidon: these fell to the lot of the tribe of Aser, assigned by Josue, Josue xix, verses 28 and 29; but Solomon permitted Hiram the king to rule over Tyre, and used his service in the building of the temple, whereas he could by right have excluded him from the kingdom of Tyre. So Abulensis. Hence also the Tyrian woman, who obtained of Christ the health of her daughter, is called by Matthew, chapter xv, 22, a Chanaanite, but by Mark, chapter vii, verse 26, a Syrophenician, because, namely, Phoenicia was a part of Chanaan. Whence it is plain that the Jews, by their own demerit and fault, did not possess the whole land here promised, up to these bounds, save for the short time of Solomon’s reign, in which, however, some regions were not cultivated and inhabited by them, but only subdued and tributary, and some also only friendly and allied, as I have already said of Tyre.
12. AND SHALL REACH AS FAR AS THE JORDAN.—The Jordan was the boundary of the holy land on the east, that is, of the nine tribes. For the other three tribes, namely Ruben, Gad and the half of Manasses, are not numbered here, nor are their bounds described here, because they had already received their lot on this side of the Jordan, in Galaad, as is said in verse 14.
Note: The Jordan was a most famous river, and conterminous with the holy land. For it rises at the roots of Hermon and Libanus, and is formed by the confluence of two streams, namely Jor and Dan; whence it is called Jordan: near which is a most verdant plain, in which stands the sepulchre of St. Job, marked by a high pyramid. The Jordan, says Abulensis, Question V, has seven privileges over other rivers:
the first, that it divides the holy land from the Moabites, Arabs and other Gentiles; the second, that when the ark of God passed with the Hebrews, its waters stood still: in memory of which thing the Israelites took twelve stones from the midst of the bed of the Jordan, and set them up as monuments and placed them in Galgal, Josue iii, 4 and 5; the third, that through it Elias and Eliseus passed with dry feet, when Elias was taken up by a whirlwind into heaven, 4 Kings ii, 8; the fourth, that in it Naaman the Syrian was cleansed of leprosy, when he washed seven times in it, 4 Kings chapter v; the fifth, that in it the iron of an axe, at the command of Eliseus, floated, 4 Kings vi, 2 and 6; the sixth, that in the Jordan Christ was baptized, and by the touch of His most pure flesh gave regenerative power in baptism to all waters, Matthew iii; the seventh, that there John the Baptist saw heaven opened, and heard the voice of the Father, and saw the Spirit descending in the shape of a dove upon Christ, Matthew iii.
Verses 17 and 18. THESE ARE THE NAMES OF THE MEN WHO SHALL DIVIDE THE LAND AMONG YOU, etc., ONE PRINCE OF EVERY TRIBE.—Not that these twelve dividers were the supreme princes of the several tribes; for Caleb was not the chief prince of the tribe of Juda; nor were the others sons of the firstborn, that is, of the princes of their tribe, as is plain if one compare the names of their parents, which are here recounted, with the princes of the tribes named in chapter 1. They were therefore princes of certain families in their tribe, or princes, that is, men set over and appointed prefects of the division of the holy land. For the Hebrew word nasi properly signifies one set over.
And so these twelve princes divided the land of Chanaan into equal parts proportionally; which done, they cast lots which part should fall to each; and hence this land is said now to be divided by lot, now by princes, as is plain from the preceding chapter, verse 54. How the land was divided by lots I shall say on Josue xiv, 1.