Deuteronomy 3:17

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

the Arabah also, and the Jordan and the border [of it], from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible

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אַשְׁדֹּ֥ת

ʼăshêdâh

H794

“foundations of”

Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct

Appears 6× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H793

TWOT: 174b

foundation, slope

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

13: words
11: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is אַשְׁדֹּ֥ת foundation H794 — appearing just 6 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

אַשְׁדֹּ֥ת foundation H794

Shared distinctive vocabulary

אַשְׁדֹּ֥ת foundation H794 occurs in 6 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

11 nouns
2 prepositions

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וְהָֽעֲרָבָ֖ה wilderness H6160 ×2
יָ֤ם sea H3220 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 29 words from the Hebrew and 22 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 13 Hebrew tokens and 19 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Deuteronomy 3:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Joshua 12:3 and the Arabah to the sea of Chinneroth, eastward, and to the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, eastward, the way to Beth-jeshimoth; and on the south, under the slopes of Pisgah:
Genesis 14:3 All these joined together in the valley of Siddim (the same is the Salt Sea).
Joshua 3:16 that the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap, a great way off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went down toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.
Deuteronomy 4:49 and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.
Genesis 13:10 Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.
Genesis 19:28–29 He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
Numbers 23:14 He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
Numbers 34:11–12 and the border shall go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and the border shall go down, and shall reach to the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward;

Joshua 13:27 and in the valley, Beth Haram, and Beth Nimrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, the Jordan and the border [of it], to the uttermost part of the sea of Chinnereth beyond the Jordan eastward.
Joshua 15:2 Their south border was from the uttermost part of the Salt Sea, from the bay that looks southward;
Joshua 15:5 The east border was the Salt Sea, even to the end of the Jordan. The border of the north quarter was from the bay of the sea at the end of the Jordan;
Joshua 18:19 and the border passed along to the side of Beth Hoglah northward; and the goings out of the border were at the north bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan: this was the south border.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Deuteronomy 3:17 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְהָֽעֲרָבָ֖ה וְהַיַּרְדֵּ֣ן וּגְבֻ֑ל מִכִּנֶּ֗רֶת וְעַ֨ד יָ֤ם הָֽעֲרָבָה֙ יָ֣ם הַמֶּ֔לַח תַּ֛חַת אַשְׁדֹּ֥ת הַפִּסְגָּ֖ה מִזְרָֽחָה

the Arabah also, and the Jordan and the border [of it], from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 3:17 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὁ ἀραβά καί ὁ ἰορδάνης ὅριον μαχαναρεθ καί ἕως θάλασσα ἀραβά θάλασσα ἁλυκός ὑπό ασηδωθ ὁ φασγα ἀνατολή

And Araba and Jordan are the boundary of Machanareth, even to the sea of Araba, the salt sea under Asedoth Phasga eastward.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וּמֵישְׁרָא וְיַרְדְנָא וּתְחוּמֵהּ מִגֵנוֹסַר וְעַד יַמָא דְמֵישְׁרָא יַמָא דְמִלְחָא תְּחוֹת מַשְׁפַּךְ מְרָמָתָא מָדִינְחָא

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וּמֵישְׁרָא וְיוֹרְדְּנָא וּתְחוּם מִגְנִיסַר וְעַד יַמָּא דְמֵשְׁרָא וְקַרְתָּא טְבַרְיָה דִסְמִיכָא לְיַמָא דְמִלְחָא תְּחוֹת שַׁפְכוּת מַיָא מֵרַמָתָא מַדִּינְחָא

the plain also, the Jordan, the boundary from Genesar to the sea of the plain, and the city of Tebaria, which is by the Sea of Salt, the limit of the outflow of waters from the heights of the east.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Deuteronomy 3:17 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Deu 3:17. The plain — The low country toward Jordan. The sea of the plain — That is, that salt sea, which before that dreadful conflagration was a goodly plain.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

3:17 from the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea: The Hebrew name for the beautiful Sea of Galilee is kinnereth, which might come from kinnor (“harp”) because of its shape. • The Dead Sea (Hebrew yam hammelakh, “Salt Sea”), here also called the Sea of the Arabah (see study note on 1:1), has a very high mineral content (about 30 percent). • Pisgah is a section of the Abarim mountain range; its most prominent peak is Mount Nebo, where Moses died (see 34:1).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Or, at Asdoth-Pisgah.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 17. From Chinnereth] See Clarke on Nu 34:11.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

17. the Arabah also, and Jordan for a border] The territory included the E. strip of the ‘Arabah—hence eastwards at the end of the verse—with the Jordan as its W. limit, and this between Chinnereth on the N. and the Sea of the ‘Arabah on the S. On the ‘Arabah see Deu_1:1. Kinnéreth was a town (Jos_11:2; Jos_19:35; the plur. Kinneroth a district, 1Ki_15:20) either giving its name to, or taking its name from, the Sea of Kinnéreth (Num_34:11, P); probably the latter, if K. be from kinnôr, harp, as this suits the shape of the Lake; in later times called the L. of Gennesaret, a name frequently but not plausibly derived from Kinnereth (HGHL, 443). The Sea of the ‘Arabah (so Deu_4:49; 2Ki_14:25), the Salt Sea (so Gen_14:3; Num_34:3; Num_34:12; Jos_15:2; Jos_15:5; Jos_18:19); both names as here in Jos_3:16; Jos_12:23; called also front or E. Sea (Eze_47:18; Joe_2:20; Zec_14:8) in contrast to the Mediterranean the back or W. Sea, Deu_11:24. The Greeks gave the name Asphaltitis. ‘The Dead Sea’ first occurs under Augustus. Ar. Baḥr Lût, ‘Lot’s Sea.’

the slopes of Pisgah] So Deu_4:49; Jos_12:3; Jos_13:20. The Heb. ’ashedôth is slopes rather than springs (A.V.) as appears from the masc. form of the word, Num_21:15 (the eshed of the wâdies, which stretches to ‘Ar’s site and leans on the border of Moab); slopes, too, is most suitable in Jos_10:40; Jos_12:8, and with the use of the prepos. under in this verse. The Pisgah (always so) is the name attached by E (Num_21:20; Num_23:14) and by deuteronomic writers to ‘the western edge’ (G. B. Gray), or the headlands, of the Moabite Plateau at the N.E. corner of the Dead Sea. The headland of the Pisgah, which Moses ascended, Deu_3:27, is in Deu_32:49 (P) Mt Nebo (cp. their identification in Deu_34:1), that headland S. of the W. ‘Uyûn Musa which bears the names en-Neba’ and Râs en-Neba’, just opposite the N. end of the sea (HGHL, 562 ff.). One of its lower steps, called Wat en-Na‘am, is identified by Musil (Moab, 272, 274) with the slopes of the Pisgah. The deep W. es-Seyâle which cleaves this he takes as Abel Shittim (Num_33:49); but the latter is probably part of the Jordan valley. See further on Beth-Pe‘or, Deu_3:29. The name Pisgah has disappeared, unless we are to recognise it in the almost equivalent Râs Feshkhah, a headland on the opposite coast of the sea.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And I commanded you at that time,.... Not all Israel, but the tribes of Reuben and God, and the half tribe of Manasseh; for what follows only concerns them:

saying, the Lord your God hath given you this land to possess it; the land before described, lately in the hands of Sihon and Og; this at their request Moses gave them, by the direction of the Lord, on the following condition:

you shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet for the war; that is, they should pass over Jordan with the rest of the tribes, being armed to assist them in the conquest of Canaan: for this phrase, which we render "before your brethren", does not signify that they went in the forefront of them, only that they were present with them, and joined them in their war against their enemies; see Num 32:29 and therefore should be rendered "with your brethren" (a); even as many of them as were able to bear arms, at least as many as Joshua would choose to take of them; for he did not take them all by a great many; see Jos 4:13.

(a) "cum fratribus vestris", Noldius, p. 531, No. 1492.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Foot. Hebrew and Septuagint Ashdoth-pisga. Eusebius seems to have taken these for two different towns. The former was situated near Phasga, Josue xii. 3. This mount was the eastern boundary of Ruben. The plain here mentioned was that where Moses was speaking. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

The plain; the low country towards Jordan.

Chinnereth; of which see on Num 34:11; Jos 12:3.

The sea of the plain, i.e. that salt sea, as it here follows, which before that dreadful conflagration was a goodly plain, called the plain of Jordan, Gen 13:10. Ashdoth-pisgah; the proper name of a city, of which Jos 13:20.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

The plain - The low country towards Jordan. The sea of the plain - That is, that salt sea, which before that dreadful conflagration was a goodly plain.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Scofield Reference Notes

C. I. Scofield

Ashdoth-pisgah

i.e. the springs of Pisgah, or the hill.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

General Information:

Moses continues to speak to the people of Israel.

Another of its borders is also

"The western border of the Reubenite and Gadite territory is"

Kinnereth

the Sea of Kinnereth, also called "the Sea of Galilee" or "the Lake of Gennesaret" (See: How to Translate Names)

Mount Pisgah

This is the name of a mountain in the northern part of the Abarim mountain range. (See: How to Translate Names)

translationWords

Jordan River

Arabah

Salt Sea

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

מכנרת FROM CHINNERETH — This is on the western side of Jordan. The inheritance of the children of Gad was in the east side of the Jordan, and there fell as their lot the width of the Jordan, adjoining their territory, and in addition, land on its opposite bank up to Chinnereth. This is the meaning of what is said here, "And the Jordan and the territory thereof”, i.e. the Jordan and some land on its opposite bank.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 13 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼăshêdâh (“foundation”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “foundation” (ʼăshêdâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
The word “foundation” first appears here in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
Deuteronomy 4:49 shares the word «foundation» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“wilderness” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
Reading how Joseph Benson's Commentary and Tyndale Open Study Notes read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 13 Hebrew ↔ 19 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 10 words in this verse.
“wilderness” occurs 2× in this single verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 13 words in this verse.