Zedad

Zedad anchored the northern limit of the Promised Land in two boundary descriptions written six centuries apart. Numbers 34:8 records the Lord's instructions to Moses: "From Mount Hor ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath; and the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad." Centuries later in Ezekiel's vision of the restored Israel, Zedad reappears as the same frontier point (Ezekiel 47:15). The site is identified with modern Sadad in Syria, about 100 km north of Damascus — far beyond any territory Israel actually controlled. The ideal frontier at Zedad described divine promise, persistently held out by the prophets as the future hope of a restored kingdom.