Properly, a cord (as twisted ), i.e. (by implication) a boundary ; by extension the territory inclosed
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
H1366, gĕbûl, is a Hebrew masculine noun for a boundary, border, limit, or the territory enclosed by a recognized limit. It can mark the edge of tribal land, a neighboring property line, the extent of a kingdom, a city’s vicinity, or a limit God sets within creation.
Reader summary
Full entry for גְּבוּל (H1366) · Open the biblical lexicon
H1366, gĕbûl, is a Hebrew masculine noun for a boundary, border, limit, or the territory enclosed by a recognized limit. It can mark the edge of tribal land, a neighboring property line, the extent of a kingdom, a city’s vicinity, or a limit God sets within creation.
The BSB source-word alignment has 241 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the border (34), the territory (23), border (15), . . . (14), - (13).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 10:19. Its strongest book concentrations include Joshua (84), Ezekiel (43), Numbers (29), Deuteronomy (14).
H1366, gĕbûl, is a Hebrew masculine noun for a boundary, border, limit, or the territory enclosed by a recognized limit. It can mark the edge of tribal land, a neighboring property line, the extent of a kingdom, a city’s vicinity, or a limit God sets within creation. The context decides whether the emphasis falls on the line itself or on the area defined by it.
A gĕbûl is therefore more concrete than a vague sense of difference, but the noun alone does not declare every boundary righteous, permanent, or transferable. Numbers 34 uses the word while describing the land allotted to Israel under the Mosaic covenant. That particular gift and allocation must be honored in its scriptural setting rather than converted into an automatic deed for a modern government, movement, or claimant.
Deuteronomy 19 forbids moving a neighbor’s marker, joining bounded inheritance to protection from theft. Joshua 22 shows another danger: tribes fear that the Jordan might be used to deny their descendants a share in worshiping the Lord. Careful testimony and accountable listening prevent the perceived border from becoming a pretext for exclusion and war. Psalm 104 uses gĕbûl for God’s restraint of the waters, while Jeremiah 31 speaks hope to exiles who will return to their own territory.
These texts show that boundaries can serve created order, stewardship, neighbor justice, protection, and promised restoration. They can also be manipulated to dispossess, isolate, or silence. Faithful application must therefore ask who established a boundary, what text governs it, whom it protects, and whom it burdens. Churches may draw responsible analogies for safeguarding, property stewardship, clear roles, and accessible facilities, but H1366 does not establish a modern border policy, nationalist program, displacement warrant, or excuse for denying disabled and vulnerable neighbors a safe way to enter and participate.
H1366 ranges widely through Torah land descriptions, tribal allotments, historical geography, wisdom warnings, creation poetry, judgment, exile, and restoration. Its passages can name a line, marker, extent, vicinity, or bounded territory. The moral and theological weight comes from the covenant, narrative, poetic, or prophetic setting in which that spatial limit appears.
Then the border will go down along the Jordan and end at the Salt Sea. This will be your land, defined by its borders on all sides.”
The closing line of Canaan’s surveyed borders identifies Israel’s allotted inheritance under the Mosaic covenant, not a timeless template for every territorial claim.
You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which was set up by your ancestors to mark the inheritance you shall receive in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
The command protects a neighbor’s inherited portion by forbidding the quiet movement of an established boundary marker within Israel’s land order.
For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between us and you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no share in the Lord!’ So your descendants could cause ours to stop fearing the Lord.
The eastern tribes fear that the Jordan will be treated as a boundary of religious exclusion, and the ensuing inquiry prevents bloodshed through truthful explanation.
You set a boundary they cannot cross, that they may never again cover the earth.
The psalm praises God for setting a limit on the waters so the ordered and life-giving world is not covered again.
So there is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children will return to their own land.
Within a promise addressed to grieving and exiled Israel, return to their own territory expresses concrete hope without minimizing loss or waiting.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Boundary marked by physical cordage, extended to mean the enclosed territory itself or region
Boundary marked by physical cordage, extended to mean the enclosed territory itself or region
properly, a cord (as twisted), i.e. (by implication) a boundary; by extension the territory inclosed BDB: border Usage: border, bound, coast, × great, landmark, limit, quarter, space.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 241 lexical occurrence verses.
גְּבוּל is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Deuteronomy 19:14 places gĕbûl inside a chapter concerned with land, refuge, innocent blood, due distinction, and neighbor responsibility. Moving a marker is not an abstract cartographic mistake. It quietly takes what has been recognized as another household’s inheritance. The boundary serves justice when it restrains seizure and makes stewardship accountable.
Numbers 34 supplies the covenant setting for Israel’s allotted land, while Joshua 22 demonstrates that even a real geographic boundary can be misread and weaponized. The Jordan becomes the feared basis for saying, ‘You have no share in the Lord,’ yet investigation, testimony, and a shared witness avert war. Psalm 104 moves the term into creation praise, where God’s limit on the waters protects the inhabited earth.
Jeremiah 31 brings it into exile and restoration, where return to one’s own territory answers grief with promised hope rather than impatience. These uses refuse a simple slogan. Some boundaries protect life, property, worship, and responsibility; other uses of bounded power can exclude, dispossess, or conceal injustice. Responsible teaching does not derive a modern territorial title, immigration rule, or nationalist theology from the noun.
It asks whether a proposed boundary is lawfully and truthfully governed, whether its burdens fall unjustly on displaced or vulnerable people, and whether protective procedures include clear reasons, fair hearing, disability access, and safe paths of welcome. Those applications are ethical synthesis from the passages, not meanings hidden inside a border word.
Deut.19.14
H1366 is a masculine noun found in singular and plural, absolute and construct expressions, often with prepositions or pronominal suffixes. Depending on syntax, it can point to a border line, a territorial extent, or the vicinity belonging to a place. Its historical relationship to the verb H1379 does not permit interpreters to import rope imagery into every occurrence.
The Old Testament uses H1366 within creation, Israel’s covenant land, neighbor protection, exile, and restoration. The New Testament sends Christ’s witnesses across peoples and regions and describes reconciled access to God, but it does not turn the church into a territorial state or make ancient allotment commands a direct modern title. These canonical connections support truthful stewardship, peacemaking, hospitality, and mission while preserving Israel’s historical setting and the distinct vocabulary of each passage.