John Calvin Commentary Numbers 34:1

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying," — Numbers 34:1 (ASV)

And the Lord spoke to Moses. God here undertakes the role of a prudent and careful head of a family, in establishing the boundaries of the land on every side, so that their right to possess it would never be questioned. He begins on the southern side, where it must be observed that the district of Bashan is included, along with all that the Israelites had acquired before their crossing of the Jordan; thus, this addition was approved by God. He extends this part as far as the wilderness of Sin and the borders of Edom, bringing it around from Kadesh-barnea to Addar and the pass of Azmon, and finally to the stream that washes²²⁸ the city of Rhinocorura, in the immediate vicinity of Egypt. For by “the river of Egypt,” the Nile is by no means to be understood, as its course was not at all in that direction. The southern boundary, therefore, extended from the Mediterranean Sea towards Arabia.

On the western side, the land was bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, which is here called “the Great Sea” in comparison with the Lake of Gennesareth and the Salt Sea (by which name the Lacus Asphaltires is meant).

The northern boundary began at the promontory of Hor. It would not be fitting to suppose that this refers to the mountain where Aaron died, which was far away and located on the opposite side of the land. From there, it extended to Epiphania in Syria, which is called Hamath.

I agree with Jerome in thinking that there were two cities of this name, and it is undoubtedly probable that Antioch is called Hamath the great by the Prophet Amos (Amos 6:2) in comparison with the lesser city mentioned here, whose name was given to it by that wicked and cruel tyrant (Antiochus) Epiphanes. Whether, however, the greater Antioch was formerly called Hamath and Riblah, as Jerome states, I leave undecided. The boundary then passed on to Zedad and Ziphron, and its extremity was the village of Enan.

The eastern boundary passed from there through Shephan, Riblah, and Ain, until it reached the Lake of Gennesareth—a well-known lake, here called the Sea of Chinnereth. Thus, the eastern boundary extended from Arabia in the direction of Persia, with Babylon situated to its northeast.

²²⁸ There has been much discussion amongst the commentators on this point. The conclusion to which Dr. Kitto comes, after due examination of the opposite theory, is, that “the river of Egypt,” when mentioned as a boundary, cannot mean the Nile. “The present ‘river of Egypt’ (he adds) probably denotes a stream which formed the extreme boundary of the country eastward of the Nile, which Egypt, even in these early times, professed to claim, and which derived its name from that circumstance. It was probably not far from El-Arish, to which, under the name of Rhinocorura, it is expressly referred by the Septuagint. That it was a stream somewhere between the southern frontier of Palestine and the Nile we are deeply convinced.” — Illustr. Com., in loco.