And by the border of Benjamin, from the east side unto the west side, Simeon shall have a portion.
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| border | גְּב֣וּל ge.Vul | H1366 | properly · noun, common masculine singular construct |
| Benjamin | בִּנְיָמִ֗ן bin.ya.Min | H1144 | Binjamin · proper noun, a man's name |
| east | קָדִ֛ימָה ka.Di.mah | H6921 | the fore or front part · noun, common masculine singular absolute + directional suffix |
| side | מִפְּאַ֥ת mi.pe.'At | H6285 | properly · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct |
| west | יָ֖מָּה Ya.mah | H3220 | a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · noun, common masculine singular absolute + directional suffix |
| side | פְּאַת pe.'at- | H6285 | properly · noun, common feminine singular construct |
| Simeon | שִׁמְע֥וֹן shim.'on | H8095 | Shimon · proper noun, a man's name |
| a | אֶחָֽד 'e.Chad | H259 | properly · cardinal number, feminine singular absolute |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Benjamin--Compare Jacob's prophecy (Gen 49:27; Deu 33:12). It alone with Judah had been throughout loyal to the house of David, so its prowess at the "night" of the national history was celebrated as well as in the "morning."
And the residue - for the prince - His portion was alongside that of the Levites, from west to east; these were on each side twenty-five thousand cubits in length, from the east to the west. by twelve thousand five hundred cubits in breadth from north to south. The space both above and below was equal, between the tribe of Judah and that of Benjamin to north and south; and the portion of the Levites, which had Judah and Benjamin to the north and south, and the portion of the prince to the east and to the west. See the map.
And by the border of Benjamin, from the east side unto the west side, Simeon shall have a portion. Close by the border of Benjamin, running east and west, Simeon's part and inheritance in the land shall be; even such true Israelites as "hear", understand, and believe the Gospel, and practise what they hear. This tribe is not now to be divided and scattered in Israel, or to have its inheritance in Judah, as formerly, Genesis 49:5, but to be distinct, and have a portion by itself.
The area filling out the rest of the central portion to the east and west of the holy square was assigned to the prince. The prince was more important than the rest of the laity, but he was below the priests and Levites. The same message was delivered by the architecture of the Temple complex.
And the rest of the tribes shall receive [portions] south of that strip, Benjamin alongside it, and beside him Simeon, beside him Issachar, beside him Zebulun, and beside him Gad. Gad is therefore at the southern boundary of the land of Israel.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
