Numbers 34:17
These are the names of the men which shall divide the land unto you: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun.
Jump to: BarnesBensonBICalvinCambridgeClarkeDarbyEllicottExpositor'sExp DctGaebeleinGSBGillGrayGuzikHaydockHastingsHomileticsJFBKDKingLangeMacLarenMHCMHCWParkerPoolePulpitSermonSCOTTBWESTSK
EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)
(17) Which shall divide the land unto you.—Better, Which shall give (or, allot) the land as an inheritance unto you.

Numbers 34:17. These are the men that shall divide the land — Although the division of the land was to be made by lot, (Numbers 34:13,) yet it was proper there should be some persons appointed to oversee this business, and to take care that there should be no fraud nor quarrels in the drawing of the lots. The management of it, therefore, is ordered to be in the hands of the high-priest, of the governor, or chief general, and a principal officer chosen out of each tribe, as its representative. Eleazar the priest — Was to preside in God’s name, to cast lots, to prevent contentions, to consult with God in cases of difficulty, and to see that the whole business was transacted in a solemn and religious manner.

34:16-29 God here appoints men to divide the land to them. So sure must they feel of victory and success while God fought for them, that the persons are named who should be intrusted with the dividing of the land.Of the representatives now selected through Moses beforehand, who were all princes, i. e. heads of chief families, in their respective tribes (see Numbers 13:2), Caleb alone, of the tribe of Judah, is otherwise known to us (see Numbers 13:4 ff). The order in which the tribes are named is peculiar to this passage. If they be taken in pairs, Judah and Simeon, Benjamin and Dan, Manasseh and Ephraim, Zebulun and Issachar, Asher and Naphtali, the order of the pairs agrees with the order in which the allotments in the Holy land, taken also in couples, followed each other in the map from south to north. 16-29. names of the men … which shall divide the land—This appointment by the Lord before the Jordan tended not only to animate the Israelites faith in the certainty of the conquest, but to prevent all subsequent dispute and discontent, which might have been dangerous in presence of the natives. The nominees were ten princes for the nine and a half tribes, one of them being selected from the western section of Manasseh, and all subordinate to the great military and ecclesiastical chiefs, Joshua and Eleazar. The names are mentioned in the exact order in which the tribes obtained possession of the land, and according to brotherly connection. Eleazar was to act in God’s name, to cast lots, to prevent differences and contentions, to consult with God in cases of difficulty, to transact the whole business in a solemn and religious manner.

These are the names of the men which shall divide the land unto you,.... Or "inherit the land for you" (z); that is, as Jarchi interprets it, they were to take possession of it in their name and stead, as their representatives, and then distribute it unto them, or divide it to be inherited by them; but whatever may be said for the princes of the tribes, as acting for their respective tribes, and representing them, the same cannot be said of the two first named, as follow:

Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun; the one the principal person in ecclesiastical affairs, and the other in civil ones; to divide the land being partly a sacred work, as it was a type of the heavenly Canaan, and a civil one, as it concerned the present welfare of the people of Israel; and both were types of Christ, the priest upon his throne, who is both priest and King; who, as the one, gives a right unto it, and, as the other, introduces into it.

(z) "haereditabunt vobis", Montanus; "qui haereditario jure accipient pro vobis", Tigurine not.

These are the names of the men which shall divide the land unto you: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Verse 17. - Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun. As the ecclesiastical and military heads respectively of the theocracy (see on Numbers 32:28). Numbers 34:17List of the Men Appointed to Distribute the Land. - In addition to Eleazar and Joshua, the former of whom was to stand at the head as high priest, in accordance with the divine appointment in Numbers 27:21, and the latter to occupy the second place as commander of the army, a prince was selected from each of the ten tribes who were interested in the distribution, as Reuben and Gad had nothing to do with it. Of these princes, namely heads of fathers' houses of the tribes (Joshua 14:1), not heads of tribes (see at Numbers 13:2), Caleb, who is well known from Numbers 13, is the only one whose name if known. The others are not mentioned anywhere else. The list of tribes, in the enumeration of their princes, corresponds, with some exceptions, to the situation of the territory which the tribes received in Canaan, reckoning from south to north, and deviates considerably from the order in which the lots came out for the different tribes, as described in Joshua 15-19. נחל in the Kal, in Numbers 34:17 and Numbers 34:18, signifies to give for an inheritance, just as in Exodus 34:8, to put into possession. There is not sufficient ground for altering the Kal into Piel, especially as the Piel in Numbers 34:29 is construed with the accusative of the person, and with the thing governed by ב; whereas in Numbers 34:17 the Kal is construed with the person governed by ל, and the accusative of the thing.
Links
Numbers 34:17 Interlinear
Numbers 34:17 Parallel Texts


Numbers 34:17 NIV
Numbers 34:17 NLT
Numbers 34:17 ESV
Numbers 34:17 NASB
Numbers 34:17 KJV

Numbers 34:17 Bible Apps
Numbers 34:17 Parallel
Numbers 34:17 Biblia Paralela
Numbers 34:17 Chinese Bible
Numbers 34:17 French Bible
Numbers 34:17 German Bible

Bible Hub














Numbers 34:16
Top of Page
Top of Page