Hebrew word · H1367

גְּבוּלָה

ligvuloteiha

border

Border or boundary line. By extension, the territory inside the border. Boundaries were marked by stones, and moving one was a serious crime.

Appears 10 times in 10 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

border, boundary

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Deuteronomy 32:8

Range of meaning

Border or boundary line. By extension, the territory inside the border. Boundaries were marked by stones, and moving one was a serious crime.

Against the English

"Boundaries / bounds" is accurate. The image, though, is of physical boundary markers set up (yaṣṣēb) by a divine surveyor.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 19:14 and 27:17: cursed is whoever moves a neighbour's boundary marker. Prov 22:28. Ps 74:17: God "fixed all the boundaries of the earth". Mesopotamian kudurru (boundary-stone) inscriptions call on gods to guard land grants. Acts 17:26 echoes the idea: God "determined... the boundaries of their dwelling".

From the study of Isaiah 10:13

Range of meaning

Gəbûl/gəbûlāh means a boundary line, a boundary marker, or the territory inside it. In Israel, boundaries were tied to inheritance and to God's allotment of land, and moving one was a crime under a curse (Deut 19:14; 27:17; Prov 22:28).

Against the English

'Boundaries of nations/peoples' is accurate. Modern readers may think of lines on a map. For Isaiah's audience a boundary was an inheritance under God's protection.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 32:8: 'When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance… He set the boundaries of the peoples (gəbulōt ʿammîm)'. This is the same phrase. Assyrian practice from Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 BC) onward was to annex vassal kingdoms as provinces, deport populations and resettle them elsewhere (2 Kgs 15:29; 17:6, 24). The annals boast of this ('I counted them among the people of Assyria') and of 'enlarging the border of my land'.

From the study of Joshua 19:49

Range of meaning

A boundary or border line, and by extension the territory inside it. It is the feminine form, closely related to gevul (H1366).

Against the English

KJV 'by their coasts' sounds like seashores to modern ears but means 'by its borders.' BSB has 'into its territories,' WEB/YLT 'by its borders.'

How it drifted

In 1611 English 'coast' (from Latin costa, 'side, rib') still meant a border or frontier region in general. Since then it has narrowed to the seashore.

Used elsewhere in the period

Boundary language runs all through Joshua 15–19. Moving a neighbour's boundary marker was a curse-worthy crime (Deut 19:14; 27:17), which shows how sacred fixed borders were.

Where it appears

Numbers · 3

  1. Numbers 32:33 בִּגְבֻלֹ֔ת with territories

    So Moses gave to the Gadites, to the Reubenites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan—the land including its cities and the territory surrounding them.

    Here: The boundaries, and so the land each town controlled. The cities are given together with their surrounding fields and pastures.

  2. Numbers 34:2 לִגְבֻלֹתֶֽיהָ׃ to borders its

    “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:

    Here: 'By its borders' or 'as its borders run': the land is about to be defined by the boundary lines traced in verses 3–12. The 'its' refers to the land.

  3. Numbers 34:12 לִגְבֻלֹתֶ֖יהָ to borders its

    Then the border will go down along the Jordan and end at the Salt Sea. This will be your land, defined by its borders on all sides.”

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 32:8 גְּבֻלֹ֣ת boundaries of

    When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

    Here: The borders, and so the territories they enclose. Every people receives a bounded land, the way tribes and clans received bounded plots in Israel.

Joshua · 2

  1. Joshua 18:20 לִגְבֽוּלֹתֶ֛יהָ to borders its

    On the east side the border was the Jordan. These were the borders around the inheritance of the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.

  2. Joshua 19:49 לִגְבֽוּלֹתֶ֑יהָ to borders its

    When they had finished distributing the land into its territories, the Israelites gave Joshua son of Nun an inheritance among them,

    Here: 'According to its boundaries' or 'into its bounded territories.' The land was not handed out loosely. It was divided into defined areas with recorded border lines, which chapters 13 to 19 have just listed.

Job · 1

  1. Job 24:2 גְּבֻל֥וֹת boundaries

    Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 74:17 גְּבוּל֣וֹת [the] boundaries of

    You set all the boundaries of the earth; You made the summer and winter.

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 10:13 גְּבוּלֹ֣ת [the] boundaries of

    For he says: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, for I am clever. I have removed the boundaries of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their rulers.

    Here: 'The boundaries of'. The lines that separate one people's land from another's. The exact phrase 'boundaries of peoples' appears in Deut 32:8, where the Most High *set* them. The Assyrian boasts of erasing what God laid down.

  2. Isaiah 28:25 גְּבֻלָתֽוֹ׃ territory its

    When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots, and rye within its border.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.