Numbers 34:15
שְׁנֵי הַמַּטּוֹת וַחֲצִי הַמַּטֶּה לָקְחוּ נַחֲלָתָם מֵעֵבֶר לְיַרְדֵּן יְרֵחוֹ קֵדְמָה מִזְרָֽחָה׃ פ
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✦ The same verse in five languages
שְׁנֵ֥י הַמַּטּ֖וֹת וַחֲצִ֣י הַמַּטֶּ֑ה לָקְח֣וּ נַחֲלָתָ֗ם מֵעֵ֛בֶר לְיַרְדֵּ֥ן יְרֵח֖וֹ קֵ֥דְמָה מִזְרָֽחָה׃ פ
δύο φυλαὶ καὶ ἥμισυ φυλῆς ἔλαβον τοὺς κλήρους αὐτῶν πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου κατὰ Ἰερειχὼ ἀπὸ νότου κατ’ ἀνατολάς.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
id est, duæ semis tribus, acceperunt partem suam trans Jordanem contra Jericho ad orientalem plagam.
Estas dos tribus y media ya recibieron su tierra al este del río Jordán, frente a Jericó, hacia la salida del sol”.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Dos tribus y media tomaron su heredad de esta parte del Jordán de Jericó al oriente, al nacimiento del sol.
These two and a half tribes have received their inheritance across the Jordan from Jericho, toward the sunrise.” Leaders to Divide the Land
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 34:15 states that two and a half tribes have already received their territorial inheritance on the side of the Jordan across from Jericho, in the eastward direction. The verse closes the list of tribal allotments for the land west of the Jordan by noting which tribes were settled on the other side.
Key words
- she.Nei ("[the] two", H8147) — dual/cardinal number in construct state, linking directly to "the tribes" that follows.
- ma.Tot ("tribes", H4294H) — feminine plural noun, the group noun for the tribal units being counted.
- la.ke.Chu ("they have taken", H3947H) — qal perfect, third person plural; the perfect aspect marks the action as completed, i.e., the inheritance is already secured, not pending.
- na.cha.la.Tam ("their inheritance", H5159 + H9028) — feminine singular construct noun with a pronominal suffix, specifying that the inheritance belongs to these tribes.
- Ke.de.ma / miz.Ra.cha ("east" / "east", H6924B + H4217H) — two nouns each carrying the directional he (H9011) suffix, both meaning "toward the east," creating a doubled directional expression.
What the text says
The sentence opens with a numeral phrase in construct: she.Nei ha.ma.Tot ("two of the tribes") va.cha.Tzi ha.ma.Teh ("and the half of the tribe"), which together function as the compound subject of the verb la.ke.Chu ("they took/have taken"). This verb, in the qal perfect, presents the taking of land as a finished event, distinguishing it from an ongoing or future allotment. The object is na.cha.la.Tam ("their inheritance"), a construct noun bearing a third-person plural suffix that ties the inheritance directly back to the subject tribes.
The locative phrase me.'E.ver le.Yar.Den Ye.re.Cho ("from the region across the Jordan of Jericho") situates this inheritance geographically, using the construct chain "the other side of the Jordan of Jericho" to specify the location opposite the city of Jericho. The verse ends with a striking doubling of directional vocabulary: Ke.de.mah and miz.Ra.chah, both meaning "eastward" and both marked with the directional he suffix. This repetition in the Hebrew emphasizes the eastward orientation of the territory, a nuance that a single-word translation such as "eastward" in English versions does not fully convey.
Differences between versions
The LXX (Swete) renders the final directional phrase as "ἀπὸ νότου κατ’ ἀνατολάς" ("from the south, toward the east"), introducing the term for "south" (νότου) which has no counterpart in the Hebrew text's doubled Ke.de.mah miz.Ra.chah ("eastward, eastward"). The Vulgate's "ad orientalem plagam" ("toward the eastern region") and the Hebrew both concentrate solely on the eastward direction without any mention of south.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.