Numbers 34:11

וְיָרַד הַגְּבֻל מִשְּׁפָם הָרִבְלָה מִקֶּדֶם לָעָיִן וְיָרַד הַגְּבוּל וּמָחָה עַל־כֶּתֶף יָם־כִּנֶּרֶת קֵֽדְמָה׃

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The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְיָרַ֨ד הַגְּבֻ֧ל מִשְּׁפָ֛ם הָרִבְלָ֖ה מִקֶּ֣דֶם לָעָ֑יִן וְיָרַ֣ד הַגְּב֔וּל וּמָחָ֛ה עַל־כֶּ֥תֶף יָם־כִּנֶּ֖רֶת קֵֽדְמָה׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ καταβήσεται τὰ ὅρια ἀπὸ Σεπφάμαρ βῆλά ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν ἐπὶ πηγάς, καὶ καταβήσεται τὰ δρία βῆλά ἐπὶ νώτου θαλάσσης Χενάρα ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

et de Sephama descendent termini in Rebla contra fontem Daphnim: inde pervenient contra orientem ad mare Cenereth,

Spanish

Desde Sefam, la frontera bajará hasta Ribla, al este de Aín, y continuará bajando hasta tocar la orilla oriental del mar de Galilea.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y bajará este término desde Sepham á Ribla, al oriente de Ain: y descenderá el término, y llegará á la costa de la mar de Cinnereth al oriente;

English

then go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Chinnereth.

What the text says

Summary

Numbers 34:11 continues the description of Israel's eastern border, tracing its descent from Shepham to Riblah, east of Ain, and further down until it reaches the eastern shore of the Sea of Kinnereth (Galilee).

Key words

  • ya.Rad ("it will go down", H3381) — qal sequential perfect, repeated twice in the verse, marking successive stages of the border's descent as part of a continuous narrative chain.
  • ge.Vul ("border", H1366G) — masculine singular noun, the subject of both instances of ya.Rad; it is "the border" that performs the movement.
  • Ke.dem ("east", H6924G) — construct form ("east of"), here governing 'A.yin ("Ain"), specifying the border's position relative to that place.
  • ma.Chah ("it will reach", H4229B) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the verbal chain, describing the border's contact with the "shoulder" (Ke.tef, H3802) of the Sea of Kinnereth.
  • Ke.de.ma ("east", H6924B) + directional he (H9011) — the noun with the directional suffix indicates motion "eastward," marking the final directional orientation of the border line.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of sequential perfect verbs (ve-yarad... ve-yarad... u-machah), a common structure in Hebrew boundary-list texts where each verb picks up the narrative thread from the previous clause. The repeated subject ha-gevul ("the border") acts almost as a traveling agent, "going down" twice and then "reaching" (machah) a geographic feature — the "shoulder" (ketef, a construct term literally meaning shoulder or side) of the Sea of Kinnereth.

The place names Shepham, Riblah, and Ain are connected by prepositions of direction (min, "from") and construct relationships (mi-qedem, "from the east of"), locating Riblah spatially east of Ain. The final word, qedmah, uses the directional he suffix (H9011) attached to qedem ("east"), a grammatical device indicating motion toward a direction rather than simple location — here marking that the border's endpoint is oriented eastward relative to the Sea of Kinnereth.

Differences between versions

The LXX transliterates the Hebrew place names differently, rendering Shepham and Riblah together as a single compound "Sepphamar bēla," and translates 'Ayin ("Ain") as πηγάς ("springs"), treating it as a common noun ("spring") rather than a proper place name as in the Hebrew and Vulgate. The Vulgate similarly reads "contra fontem Daphnim" ("toward the spring of Daphnis"), also interpreting 'Ayin as a fountain/spring rather than a toponym. The Hebrew, by contrast, presents 'Ayin explicitly as a place name (marked with the definite article and construct chain "east of Ain").

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.