Numeri 34:3 (Numbers 34:3)

Posted on June 1, 2006 by Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus

Nm 34:3 Pars meridiana incipiet a solitudine Sin, quæ est iuxta Edom: et habebit terminos contra Orientem mare salsissimum.

The southern part shall begin from the wilderness of Sin, which is beside Edom; and toward the east it shall have the Salt Sea as its boundary.

# Latin Gloss Grammar Tag
1 Pars part NOM.SG.F 3RD DECL
2 meridiana southern NOM.SG.F.ADJ.POS
3 incipiet shall begin 3SG.FUT.ACT.IND 3RD CONJ
4 a from PREP+ABL
5 solitudine the wilderness ABL.SG.F 3RD DECL
6 Sin of Sin INDECL
7 quæ which NOM.SG.F.REL
8 est is 3SG.PRES.ACT.IND
9 iuxta beside PREP+ACC
10 Edom Edom INDECL
11 et and CONJ INVAR
12 habebit it shall have 3SG.FUT.ACT.IND 2ND CONJ
13 terminos as boundaries ACC.PL.M 2ND DECL.PRED
14 contra toward PREP+ACC
15 Orientem the east ACC.SG.M 3RD DECL
16 mare the sea ACC.SG.N 3RD DECL.OBJ
17 salsissimum very salty / Salt ACC.SG.N.ADJ.SUPER

Syntax

First Main Clause: Pars meridiana incipiet a solitudine Sin means “The southern part shall begin from the wilderness of Sin.” Pars is the nominative singular subject, meridiana agrees with it adjectivally, and incipiet is the future active indicative verb.

Prepositional Phrase: a solitudine Sin marks the point from which the southern boundary begins. a governs the ablative solitudine, while the indeclinable name Sin specifies the wilderness in a genitival sense, “the wilderness of Sin.”

Relative Clause: quæ est iuxta Edom modifies solitudine. The relative pronoun quæ is nominative singular feminine because its antecedent is solitudine, whose lexical gender is feminine. est is the verb, and iuxta Edom means “beside Edom.”

Second Main Clause: et habebit terminos contra Orientem mare salsissimum continues with the same understood subject, Pars meridiana. habebit means “it shall have.” The construction presents mare salsissimum as the geographical feature serving as terminos, that is, as the boundary: “it shall have the Salt Sea as its boundary.”

Directional Phrase: contra Orientem specifies the orientation of this boundary, “toward the east.” contra governs the accusative Orientem.

Object and Predicate: mare salsissimum is the thing that the southern side “has,” while terminos functions predicatively, expressing what the sea constitutes for the territory: its boundary or limits. salsissimum agrees with mare and identifies the body of water conventionally called the Salt Sea.

Morphology

  1. Pars — Lemma: pars; Part of Speech: Noun; Form: Nominative singular feminine, third declension; Function: Subject of incipiet and the understood subject of habebit; Translation: “part”; Notes: In this boundary description pars denotes a side or section of the territorial boundary, specifically the southern side.
  2. meridiana — Lemma: meridianus; Part of Speech: Adjective; Form: Nominative singular feminine, positive degree, first-and-second-declension adjective; Function: Modifies Pars; Translation: “southern”; Notes: The adjective derives from meridies, “midday” or “south,” and here has the geographical sense “southern.”
  3. incipiet — Lemma: incipio; Part of Speech: Verb; Form: Third person singular, future active indicative, third conjugation in -io; Function: Main verb of the first clause; Translation: “shall begin”; Notes: It identifies the starting point of the southern territorial boundary.
  4. a — Lemma: a; Part of Speech: Preposition; Form: Indeclinable preposition governing the ablative; Function: Introduces the point of departure solitudine; Translation: “from”; Notes: With incipiet, it marks the place from which the boundary begins.
  5. solitudine — Lemma: solitudo; Part of Speech: Noun; Form: Ablative singular feminine, third declension; Function: Object of the preposition a; Translation: “the wilderness”; Notes: The noun denotes an uninhabited or desert region and is further identified by Sin and described by the relative clause quæ est iuxta Edom.
  6. Sin — Lemma: Sin; Part of Speech: Proper noun; Form: Indeclinable biblical geographical name; Function: Specifies solitudine, yielding the sense “the wilderness of Sin”; Translation: “of Sin”; Notes: The genitival relationship is supplied by syntax because the proper name itself is indeclinable.
  7. quæ — Lemma: qui; Part of Speech: Relative pronoun; Form: Nominative singular feminine; Function: Subject of est and relative pronoun referring back to solitudine; Translation: “which”; Notes: Its feminine singular form agrees in gender and number with its antecedent solitudo, while its nominative case comes from its function inside the relative clause.
  8. est — Lemma: sum; Part of Speech: Verb; Form: Third person singular, present active indicative, irregular verb; Function: Verb of the relative clause quæ est iuxta Edom; Translation: “is”; Notes: It links the wilderness with the locational phrase iuxta Edom.
  9. iuxta — Lemma: iuxta; Part of Speech: Preposition; Form: Indeclinable preposition governing the accusative; Function: Introduces Edom as the place beside which the wilderness lies; Translation: “beside”; Notes: The preposition expresses close geographical proximity.
  10. Edom — Lemma: Edom; Part of Speech: Proper noun; Form: Indeclinable biblical geographical name functioning syntactically as accusative; Function: Object of the preposition iuxta; Translation: “Edom”; Notes: Although the form does not change, its accusative syntactic function is determined by the government of iuxta.
  11. et — Lemma: et; Part of Speech: Conjunction; Form: Indeclinable coordinating conjunction; Function: Coordinates the clause headed by habebit with the preceding clause; Translation: “and”; Notes: It continues the description of the southern boundary by adding its eastern limiting feature.
  12. habebit — Lemma: habeo; Part of Speech: Verb; Form: Third person singular, future active indicative, second conjugation; Function: Main verb of the second coordinated clause, with Pars meridiana understood as subject; Translation: “it shall have”; Notes: Here habeo introduces the geographical feature that constitutes the boundary of the southern side.
  13. terminos — Lemma: terminus; Part of Speech: Noun; Form: Accusative plural masculine, second declension; Function: Predicative accusative expressing the role of mare salsissimum as the territorial boundary; Translation: “as boundaries” or “as its boundary”; Notes: Although formally plural, terminos denotes the territorial limits collectively and is naturally rendered by singular “boundary” in English in this context.
  14. contra — Lemma: contra; Part of Speech: Preposition; Form: Indeclinable preposition governing the accusative; Function: Introduces the directional expression Orientem; Translation: “toward”; Notes: In this geographical context contra indicates orientation or position with respect to the east.
  15. Orientem — Lemma: oriens; Part of Speech: Noun; Form: Accusative singular masculine, third declension; Function: Object of the preposition contra; Translation: “the east”; Notes: Literally associated with the “rising” of the sun, oriens is the standard Latin geographical term for the east.
  16. mare — Lemma: mare; Part of Speech: Noun; Form: Accusative singular neuter, third declension; Function: Direct object of habebit, with terminos expressing its role as the boundary; Translation: “the sea”; Notes: In context this refers to the Salt Sea, the body of water marking the eastern side of this portion of the boundary.
  17. salsissimum — Lemma: salsus; Part of Speech: Adjective; Form: Accusative singular neuter, superlative degree, first-and-second-declension adjective; Function: Modifies mare; Translation: “Salt” or literally “very salty”; Notes: The superlative salsissimum literally means “saltiest” or “very salty,” but with mare it serves as the conventional designation of the Salt Sea.

 

About Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus

Born around 346 A.D. in Stridon, St. Jerome was a scholar fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew whose ascetic discipline and deep engagement with Scripture prepared him for a monumental task: translating the Bible into Latin. Commissioned by Pope Damasus I around 382 A.D., Jerome began by revising the flawed Old Latin Gospels, then expanded his work to the entire Bible. For the New Testament, he corrected Latin texts using Greek manuscripts; for the Old Testament, he translated most books directly from Hebrew—a controversial but principled choice. His final Psalter, however, followed the Greek Septuagint tradition for liturgical use. This composite translation, later known as the Vulgate (editio vulgata), became the authoritative biblical text of the Western Church, formally endorsed at the Council of Trent in 1546. The Vulgate’s influence extends beyond theology into textual criticism and Latin education. As one of the earliest translations grounded in original-language scholarship, it offers a vital witness to the state of biblical texts in late antiquity. Jerome’s lexical and syntactic decisions are studied to trace manuscript history and assess variant readings. Its elegant Latin, consistent in grammar and rich in vocabulary, became a model for medieval and Renaissance learning, bridging classical and ecclesiastical Latin. More than a translation, the Vulgate helped define Christian doctrine, preserved the Latin language, and laid essential groundwork for the critical study of Scripture—remaining indispensable to students of Latin, theology, and textual history.
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