Numbers 34:9

Summary

The verse traces the northern boundary line of the land as it continues from Ziphron toward Hazar-enan, and declares that this line will constitute the northern border for the community addressed. It closes the description of the northern frontier that began in the preceding verses.

Key words

• ya.Tza' ("it will go out", H3318) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the chain of boundary movements described in the prior verses; the subject is the border itself, personified as "going out" toward a place.
• ha.geVul ("the border", H1366) — masculine singular noun with definite article, referring back to the specific boundary line already introduced earlier in the chapter.
• zif.Ro.na ("Ziphron", + directional he, H2202) — the final he attached to the place name marks direction ("toward Ziphron"), a common Hebrew way of expressing motion without a separate preposition.
• totz.'o.Ta + suffix ("its extremities", H8444) — feminine plural construct noun with a 3rd person masculine singular suffix ("its"), referring to the endpoints of the border line.
• ge.Vul tza.Fon ("border of north", H1366 + H6828) — construct chain without the article, unlike the earlier ha.geVul; this anarthrous construct produces a general label "a northern border" rather than pointing back to one specific line.

What the text says

The sentence is built as two linked clauses joined by narrative vav forms that continue a sequence of prior boundary descriptions: first the border "goes out" (ya.Tza') toward Ziphron, then its "extremities" (totz.'o.Ta) "are" (ha.Yu) at Hazar-enan. Both verbs are sequential perfects, a form that in Biblical Hebrew narrates one event after another in a chain, here applied to the movement of a geographic line rather than to human action. The demonstrative zeh ("this") followed by the imperfect yih.Yeh ("it will be") shifts from narrating the path to a formal declarative statement, marking a conclusion: "this will be for you the border of north."

The double occurrence of the root for "border" — first with the definite article (ha.geVul, "the border," referring to the specific line just traced) and then without it in the construct phrase ge.Vul tza.Fon ("border of north") — shows Hebrew grammar distinguishing between a concrete, already-identified boundary and a general classification of that boundary's orientation.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew treats chaTzar ("Hazar") and 'eiNan ("Enan") as one compound place name, "Hazar-enan." The LXX renders this as a single transliterated term, Ἁρσεναείμ, also treating it as one place name. The Vulgate instead splits it, translating chaTzar as "villam" ("village/estate") and taking 'eiNan as the proper name, giving "villam Enan" ("the village of Enan") rather than preserving it as a single toponym.