 | Lech Lecha |  |
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| | 15:18 |
On that day, God made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'To your descendants I have given this land, from the Egyptian River as far as the great river, the Euphrates;
Bayom hahu karat Adonay et-Avram brit lemor lezar'acha natati et-ha'arets hazot minehar Mitsrayim ad-hanahar hagadol nehar-Perat. |
| 15:19 |
[the lands of] the Kenites, the Kenizites, the Kadmonites,
Et-haKeyni ve'et haKenizi ve'et haKadmoni. |
| 15:20 |
the Hittites, the Perizites, the Rephaim,
Ve'et-haChiti ve'et-haPrizi ve'et-haRefayim. |
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Commentary:
Euphrates
This is the limit reached in the days of Solomon (1 Kings 5:1).
| Kadmonites
Identified simply as Arabs, living in the area of Ammon, to the northeast of the Dead Sea (see sources mentioned in note on Genesis 15:19 'Kenites'). Literally, 'the Easterner' cf. 1 Samuel 24:14. The Dead Sea was also known as the 'Eastern Sea' or 'Kadmoni Sea' (Ezekiel 47:18, Joel 2:20, Zechariah 38:17).
| Hittites
Living around Hebron. See note on Genesis 10:15.
| Rephaim
See note on Genesis 14:5.
| Egyptian River
Some say that it is the Nile (Targum Yonathan), but this is a minority opinion. Ibn Ezra says that it is the Shichur River (cf. Joshua 13:3, Jeremiah 2:18), which is identified with Wadi el Arish, on the border of the Holy Land, some 90 miles east of the present Suez Canal (see note on Exodus 23:31). See Numbers 34:5.
| Kenites
It seems that they lived near Moab, to the west of the Dead Sea (cf. Numbers 24:21; Bava Bathra 56a). They lived in Ir HaTamarim (Palm City) (Judges 1:16), which may be identified with Chatzatzon Tamar (Genesis 14:7), to the west of the Dead Sea. The Targum translates Keni as Shaalmite, an Arabic tribe (cf. Bava Bathra 56a; Yerushalmi, Shevi'ith 6:1; Yerushalmi, Kiddushin 1:8; Bereshith Rabbah 44).
| Kenizites
They are identified as the Nebatians, a tribe that lived to the southeast of the Holy Land, near Edom (see sources mentioned in note on Genesis 15:19 'Kenites'; cf. Targum Yonathan on Numbers 11:22; Targum on Isaiah 60:7, Ezekiel 27:21).
| Perizites
See note on Genesis 13:7.
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