From Tamar even to the waters of strife. — The southern border, as given in Numbers 34:3-5, is identical with that described here, as far as the two can be compared. Tamar has been identified with Kurnub, a ruined village some twenty-five miles west of the southern end of the Dead Sea; but as the old boundary certainly went far to the south of this and as the next place mentioned is Kadesh, about thirty miles nearly south from the Dead Sea, the Tamar here meant is more probably some place not yet identified. Kadesh, known from the “waters of strife” as Meribah (Numbers 20:3-14), is called Kadesh-barnea in Numbers 34:4. It has been identified by Robinson with the Ain-el-Weibeh, about thirty miles slightly west of south from the Dead Sea. Its exact situation, however, is somewhat doubtful.
The river to the great sea. — Literally, riverward to the great sea. From Kadesh the boundary was to strike across the mountainous desert to what is often called in Scripture “the river of Egypt,” and was anciently known as the Rhinocolura, now called the Wady-el-Arish. It followed this to the Mediterranean. The length of the southern boundary, following the curve of the Rhinocolura, must have been nearly 100 miles, or about eighty-seven miles from east to west.