What Does Numbers 34:6 Mean in the King James?
And as for the western border, ye shall even have the great sea for a border: this shall be your west border.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The sea is not merely beside the western edge; it is the very feature that makes the edge legible.
THE MEANING
The verse gives belonging a shape: the Great Sea itself defines its western edge. The boundary is not an abstract line; the place becomes legible through what meets it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that every boundary is a wall of exclusion: a defining edge can be a vast feature already present in the landscape.
THE ROOT
גְּבוּל
gĕvûl
GROWS FROM
גבל
g-b-l
To bound or mark off; to define an edge.
“border” in this verse is gĕvûl. גְּבוּל (gĕvûl, boundary or territory) can name both the edge and the land it encloses. The sea is therefore not only beside the territory; it helps give the territory its western extent.
ALSO GROWS
gĕvûl: Boundary or border
גְּבוּל
The verse repeats this word around the Great Sea, making the coast the territory’s defining edge.
gĕvûl: Territory or region
גְּבוּל
The same word can name the bounded land itself, holding the border and the place it shapes together.
יָם
yām sea
GROWS FROM
יָם
y-m
Sea; in directional usage, toward the sea or westward.
“sea / west” in this verse is yām sea. Hebrew can use the sea to name the western direction, joining two facts English separates. The Great Sea is both the physical feature at the edge and the feature that orients the edge.
ALSO GROWS
yām: Sea
יָם
The Great Sea is named as the actual boundary of the territory.
yammâ: Toward the sea; westward
יָמָּה
This directional form shows how the sea itself can orient the word for west.
THE PATTERN
A boundary gives a domain its shape and keeps its reach legible.
Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?And 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;THE THREAD
Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.The word translated “bound” is גְּבוּל (gĕvûl, boundary), the same word used for the border here. In Numbers the sea marks a territory’s edge; in this psalm the sea itself is held at an edge.
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