Numbers 34:12

Summary

The verse concludes the description of the Promised Land's boundaries, stating that the border descends to the Jordan and terminates at the Salt Sea. It closes the boundary list with a summary formula declaring that this territory, with its surrounding borders, belongs to the people addressed.

Key words

• ya.Rad ("it will go down", H3381) — qal sequential perfect, third masculine singular, continuing the chain of boundary movements described earlier in the chapter.
• ge.Vul ("border", H1366G) — masculine singular noun with definite article, the subject performing the descending action.
• totz.'o.Ta ("extremities/limits", H8444) — feminine plural construct noun with third masculine singular suffix ("its extremities"), marking the endpoint of the boundary line.
• Me.lach ("Salt", H4417G) — masculine singular noun in construct chain with yam ("sea", H3220G), forming the toponym "Sea of Salt."
• sa.Viv ("all around", H5439G) — common gender singular noun functioning adverbially, describing the encircling nature of the borders just enumerated.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure uses two sequential perfect verbs (ya.Rad and ha.Yu) to continue a narrative chain describing the movement of a boundary line, a grammatical pattern typical of this chapter's cartographic listing. The first clause states that "the border" (ha.ge.Vul) "will go down" toward "the Jordan" (ha.yar.De.na), with the directional he suffix reinforcing motion toward that location. The second clause shifts to describe where this line's "extremities" (totz.'o.Ta, construct plural with suffix) will be — namely at the "Sea of the Salt" (yam ha.Me.lach), a construct phrase functioning as a proper name for a body of water.

The verse then pivots with a demonstrative formula: zoT tih.Yeh ("this will be"), using an imperfect verb rather than the previous perfects, marking a summarizing declaration rather than a narrative continuation. The phrase la.Khem ha.'A.retz ("to you the land") identifies the addressees as recipients of this territory. The closing phrase li.g.vu.lo.Tei.ha sa.Viv ("to its borders all around") uses a feminine plural construct noun with a third feminine singular suffix referring back to "the land," followed by sa.Viv functioning adverbially to indicate the circumferential completeness of the boundary description.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yam ha.Me.lach ("Sea of the Salt") as θάλασσα ἡ ἁλυκή ("the salty sea"), an adjectival construction rather than the Hebrew's construct noun phrase naming a specific body of water. The Vulgate renders this same phrase as "salsissimo mari" ("most salty sea"), using a superlative adjective, which differs from both the Hebrew construct form and the LXX's simple adjective.