Numbers 34:10

Summary

Numbers 34:10 instructs the Israelites to mark for themselves the eastern boundary of the promised land, specifying that this line runs from Hazar-enan toward Shepham. The verse continues a sequence of boundary directives using a distinctive causative verb form.

Key words

• hit'avitem ("you will mark", H0184) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural: the causative stem implies an active, deliberate act of marking or designating, not merely observing a border.
• gevul ("border of", H1366G) — masculine singular construct noun, linking to the following word qedmah to form "border of the east."
• qedmah ("east", H6924B) + directional he (H9011) — the added he turns the noun "east" into a directional sense, "eastward" or "toward the east."
• chatzar 'Einan ("Hazar-enan", H2704) — a proper place name functioning as the starting point of the boundary line ("from Hazar-enan").
• Shefamah ("Shepham", H8221) + directional he — the same directional suffix appears here, marking Shepham as the destination point ("toward Shepham").

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative vav ("and") attached to hit'avitem, continuing a chain of prior boundary instructions in sequential perfect form — a construction typical of legal or procedural listing in this chapter, where each verse adds one segment of the territorial perimeter. The verb hit'avitem is hiphil, giving it a causative nuance: the subject (the people, "you all") causes the marking to happen, rather than simply perceiving a boundary that already exists. The phrase lakhem ("for yourselves") reinforces that this marking is done for their own benefit or use.

The core geographical instruction follows: ligvul qedmah, "for the border of the east," where gevul stands in construct relation to qedmah. The directional he suffix appears twice in the verse — once on qedmah and once on Shefamah — both times signaling motion or orientation toward a point ("eastward," "toward Shepham"). This grammatical device, rather than an added preposition, conveys spatial direction in Biblical Hebrew and cannot be rendered as a separate word in translation.

The two place names, Chatzar 'Einan and Shefamah, mark the two ends of this particular boundary segment — a starting and ending point — with the preposition me ("from") governing the first.

Differences between versions

The LXX combines Chatzar and 'Einan into a single transliterated name, Ἁρσεναείν, whereas the Hebrew treats them as two elements (a place called "Hazar" belonging to "Enan"). The LXX also renders Shefamah as Σεπφάμαρ, an ending not clearly matching the Hebrew's directional he. The Vulgate translates chatzar not as a proper name element but as "villa" ("village/estate"), producing "villa Enan" instead of preserving "Hazar-enan" as a single toponym, and it renders gevul qedmah as "fines contra orientalem plagam" ("borders against the eastern region"), a more descriptive phrase than the Hebrew's construct noun pairing.