“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.
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),
- KJV 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:)
- 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.
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 17:8I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God.”
- Ps 105:11saying, “To you I will 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, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
- Deut 1:7–8Turn, and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all the places near there, in the Arabah, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and in the South, and by the seashore, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
- Gen 13:15–17for all the land which you see, I will give to you, and to your offspring forever.
- Ps 16:5–6Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup. You made my lot secure.
- Gen 12:6–7Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. The Canaanites were in the land, then.
- Acts 26:18to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
- Eph 1:14who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
- Eph 1:18having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
- Num 33:51–53Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, “When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
- Jer 3:19“But I said, ‘How I desire to put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!’ and I said, ‘You shall call me “My Father”, and shall not turn away from following me.’
- Ps 78:54–55He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.
- Gen 15:16–21In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.”
- Ezek 47:14You shall inherit it, one as well as another; for I swore to give it to your fathers: and this land shall fall to you for inheritance.
- Acts 17:26He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,
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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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.