The dry region south of Judah in which Kadesh lay, and the stage for this chapter: the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month (Numbers 20:1). ⚠ Not to be confused with the wilderness of SIN, a different place with a similar English spelling — Hebrew keeps them apart as Tzin and Sin, and the Douay-Rheims, following the Vulgate, prints ‘the desert of Sin’ here and so merges the two for its readers. Zin marks Israel's southern boundary in Numbers 13:21 and again in the land-borders of Numbers 34. The coordinates point at the Kadesh oasis within it and are approximate; the region has no surveyed edges. ⭐ That forward reference now comes due: Numbers 34:3-4 begins Canaan's southern line at this wilderness and then doubles back to it a verse later — and the Douay-Rheims merges Zin with Sin there exactly as it does here.