Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan with the coasts thereof:)
Parallel translations
- WEB “Command the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land of Canaan (this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan according to its borders),
- BSB “Command the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, it will be allotted to you as an inheritance with these boundaries:
- NKJV “Command the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance—the land of Canaan to its boundaries.
- NASB “Command the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance, that is, the land of Canaan according to its borders.
- NLT “Give these instructions to the Israelites: When you come into the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your special possession, these will be the boundaries.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses is to tell Israel that Canaan, with its defined borders, is the inheritance falling to them. The land is presented as a settled gift with fixed extent.
Overview
Describing Canaan as what will fall to them as an inheritance frames the land as a divine grant, fulfilling the promise to Abraham (Genesis 15:18-21). The detailed borders that follow assure Israel that God has a definite provision in mind. This certainty of inheritance anticipates the sure inheritance God secures for His people in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Gen 17:8And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
- Ps 105:11Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance:
- 1 Pet 1:3–4Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
- Deut 1:7–8Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
- Gen 13:15–17For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
- Ps 16:5–6The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.
- Gen 12:6–7And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
- Acts 26:18To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
- Eph 1:14Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
- Eph 1:18The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
- Num 33:51–53Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan;
- Jer 3:19But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.
- Ps 78:54–55And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
- Gen 15:16–21But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
- Ezek 47:14And ye shall inherit it, one as well as another: concerning the which I lifted up mine hand to give it unto your fathers: and this land shall fall unto you for inheritance.
- Acts 17:26And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 34:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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