View source for Promised Land

{{Short description|Land given by God to Abraham's descendants in the Bible}}
{{About|the concept in the Abrahamic religions}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Primary sources|date=November 2018}}
{{Religious text primary|date=November 2018}}}}
In the [[Abrahamic religions]], the "'''Promised Land'''" ({{langx|he|הָאָרֶץ הַמֻּבְטַחַת|rtl=yes}} {{Transliteration|he|Ha'aretz ha-Muvtaḥat}}) refers to a swath of territory in the [[Levant]] that was bestowed upon [[Abraham]] and his descendants by [[God in Abrahamic religions|God]]. In the context of the [[Bible]], these descendants are originally understood to have been the [[Israelites]], whose forefather was [[Jacob]], who was a son of Abraham's son [[Isaac]]. The concept of the Promised Land largely overlaps with the [[Land of Israel]] ([[Zion]]) or the [[Holy Land]] in a biblical/religious sense and with [[Canaan]] or [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] in a secular/geographic sense. Although the [[Book of Numbers]] provides some definition for the Promised Land's boundaries, they are not delineated with precision, but it is universally accepted that the core areas lie in and around [[Jerusalem]]. According to the biblical account, the Promised Land was not inherited until the [[Conquest of Canaan|Israelite conquest of Canaan]], which took place shortly after [[the Exodus]].

== Biblical narrative ==
[[File:Greater Israel map.jpg|thumb|300px|Expansive [[Brook of Egypt#Possible interpretation as the Nile|interpretation]] claiming the [[Nile]] and [[Euphrates]] as the river boundaries of the original promise to [[Abraham]] in {{bibleverse|Genesis|15|HE}}. See also: [[Greater Israel]].]][[File:Map Land of Israel.jpg|thumb|300px|Estimated borders based on biblical interpretation of {{bibleverse|Numbers|34|HE}} and {{bibleverse|Ezekiel|47|HE}}.]]
{{See also|Land of Israel#Biblical borders}}
The concept of the Promised Land is first mentioned in the [[Book of Genesis]], which is the first book of the [[Torah]], which collectively refers to the first five books of the [[Hebrew Bible]].{{NoteTag|The [[Torah]] and the [[Hebrew Bible]] are both originally Jewish scriptures, but they are also regarded as holy in Christianity (which initially emerged as a [[Jewish Christianity|Jewish religious movement]]) and Islam: Christians regard the Hebrew Bible as the [[Old Testament]]; while Muslims refer to the Torah by the Arabic name [[Tawrat]].}}

=== God's covenant with Abraham ===
[[God in Abrahamic religions|God]] is claimed to have spoken the following promises to [[Abraham]] in several verses of [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] (the first book of the [[Torah]]), which a [[New International Version|modern English Bible translates]] to:
:The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you." – {{bibleverse|Genesis|12:1|NIV}}
:The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring [or seed] I will give this land." – {{bibleverse|Genesis|12:7|NIV}}

Later in what is called the [[covenant of the pieces]], a verse is said to describe what are known as "borders of the Land" (''Gevulot Ha-aretz''):<ref>''Kol Torah'', vol. 13, no. 9, Torah Academy of Bergen County, Nov 8, 2003</ref>
:On that day the Lord made a [[Covenant (biblical)#Abrahamic|covenant]] with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the [[Wadi of Egypt]] to the great river, the [[Euphrates]] – the land of the [[Kenites]], [[Kenizzites]], [[Kadmonites]], [[Hittites]], [[Perizzites]], [[Rephaites]], [[Amorites]], [[Canaanites]], [[Girgashites]] and [[Jebusites]]."  – {{bibleverse|Genesis|15:18-21|NIV}}

These allegedly divine promises were given prior to the birth of Abraham's sons. [[Abraham's family tree]] includes both the [[Ishmaelites|Ishmaelite tribes]] (the claimed ancestry of [[Arabs]] and of the [[Islamic prophet]] [[Muhammad]]) through Abraham's first son [[Ishmael]] and the [[Israelites|Israelite tribes]] (the claimed ancestry of [[Jews]] and [[Samaritans]]) through Abraham's second son [[Isaac]].

=== Subsequent confirmations ===
God later confirms the promise to Abraham's son [[Isaac]] ({{bibleverse|Genesis|26:3|NIV}}), and then to Isaac's son [[Jacob]] ({{bibleverse|Genesis|28:13|NIV}}) in terms of "the land on which you are lying". Jacob is later renamed "[[Israel (name)|Israel]]" ({{bibleverse|Genesis|32:28|NIV}}) and his descendants are called the Children of Israel or the [[Twelve Tribes of Israel]].

The Torah's subsequent [[Book of Exodus]] describes it as "land flowing with milk and honey" ({{bibleverse|Exodus|3:17|}}) and gives verses on how to treat the prior occupants and marks the borders in terms of the [[Red Sea]], the "Sea of the [[Philistines]]", and the "River", which a modern English Bible translates to:
: "I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the [[Mediterranean Sea]], and from the desert to the [[Euphrates]] River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you." – {{bibleverse|Exodus|23:31-33|NIV}}

The [[Israelites]] lived in a smaller area of former [[Canaan]]ite land and land east of the [[Jordan River]] after the legendary prophet [[Moses]] led the Israelite Exodus out of [[Biblical Egypt|Egypt]] ({{bibleverse|Numbers|34:1-12|NIV}}). The Torah's [[Book of Deuteronomy]] presents this occupation as their God's fulfillment of the promise ({{bibleverse|Deuteronomy|1:8|NIV}}). Moses anticipated that their God might subsequently give the Israelites land reflecting the boundaries of the original promise – if they were obedient to the [[Covenant (biblical)|covenant]] ({{bibleverse|Deuteronomy|19:8-9|NIV}}).

==Interpretations==
===Jewish interpretation===
The concept of the Promised Land is a central religious belief of the [[Jews|Jewish people]] and a key tenet of [[Zionism]], the Jewish national movement which established the [[Israel|State of Israel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jewfaq.org/land_of_israel|title=The Land of Israel}}</ref><ref>
Compare:
{{cite book
 | last1 = Haberman
 | first1 = Bonna Devora
 | title = Rereading Israel: The Spirit of the Matter
 | date = October 2014
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=HAG5BQAAQBAJ
 | edition = reprint
 | location = Jerusalem
 | publisher = Urim Publications
 | publication-date = 2014
 | page = 151
 | isbn = 9789655242027
 | access-date = 8 November 2020
 | quote = Both Maccabean and modern Zionism seek to ensure the security of the Jewish People to exist, practice freely, and continue to develop our gifts to humankind.
}}</ref>

Mainstream Jewish tradition regards the promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as applying to anyone [[Who is a Jew?|a member of the Jewish people]], including [[Conversion to Judaism|proselytes]] and in turn their descendants<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.convert.org/Welcome_Converts.html|title=Conversion to Judaism Resource Center|access-date=13 March 2016}}{{dead link|date=March 2025}}</ref> and is signified through the [[Brit milah|''brit milah'' (rite of circumcision)]].

===Christian interpretation===
[[File:Frans pourbus il vecchio, yahweh mostra a mosè la terra promessa, 1565-80 ca.jpg|thumb|Imagined painting by [[Frans Pourbus the Elder]] (c. 1565–1580) depicting the [[Israelite]]'s [[National god|God]] showing [[Moses]] the Promised Land|309x309px]]In the [[New Testament]], the descent and promise is reinterpreted along religious lines.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Gary M. Burge|first=Gary M|last=Burge|chapter=The New Testament and the land|title= Christians and the Middle East Conflict|editor1=Paul S Rowe |editor2=John H.A. Dyck |editor3=Jens Zimmermann|publisher=Routledge|date=2014|isbn=9781317801115|quote=Thus if you were a child of Abraham by race you inevitably were heir to the great land promises in the Holy Land ... Paul challenges the exclusivity of racial descent from Abraham. Children of Abraham consist of people - Jews and Gentiles - who share Abraham's faith. And the promise of God, he notes, comes to Abraham and his seed (singular) and this seed is Christ (Gal. 3:16). Thus Christ is the true heir of Abraham and his promises. And if we belong to Christ, we too are attached to Abraham and the promises given to him. Again, for the non-Jewish Christian, it is hard to imagine the impact of this theological subversion. Paul has upended one of the chief arguments for exclusive Jewish privilege in the Holy Land ... If you want a glimpse of just how striking Paul's rethinking of this could be, just look at Romans 4:13. Here Paul refers directly to the inheritance of Abraham. This was the gift of Canaan, the Holy Land, and Israel! And yet look at what Paul actually says: the promise to Abraham was that he would inherit the entire world. How can that be? This is not in Genesis. But it can be true in only one way: the family of Abraham now includes the Gentiles - Gentiles living throughout the world: Romans, Greeks, Cappadocians, Arabs - and they now, inasmuch as they belong to Christ, also belong to Abraham. God's new claim is not for the restoration of Judaea. It is not for a political rebuilding of the Holy Land. God's new claim is for the entire world; His people in Christ will be instruments of that claim.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j7vcAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40}}</ref> In the [[Epistle to the Galatians]], [[Paul the Apostle]] draws attention to the formulation of the promise, avoiding the term "seeds" in the plural (meaning many people), choosing instead "seed," meaning one person, who, he understands to be [[Jesus Christ|Jesus]] (and those united with him). For example, in [[Galatians 3:16]] he notes: 
: "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ."<ref>{{bibleverse|Galatians|3:16|NIV}} NIV</ref>

In [[Galatians 3:28]][[Galatians 3:29|–29]] Paul goes further, noting that the expansion of the promise from singular to the plural is not based on genetic/physical association, but a spiritual/religious one: 
:"There is neither Jew nor [[Gentile]], neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."<ref name=sizer>{{cite book |last=Sizer|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Sizer|date=2007 |title=Zion's Christian Soldiers? The Bible, Israel and the Church}}</ref>

In {{bibleverse|Romans|4:13|KJV}} it is written: 
:"It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith."
German [[Lutheran]] [[Old Testament]] commentator [[Johann Friedrich Karl Keil]] states that the covenant is through Isaac, but notes that [[Ishmael]]'s descendants have held much of that land through time.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Keil |first1=Carl Friedrich |last2=Delitzsch |first2=Franz |date=October 3, 1866 |title=Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6NkmPGJKvIC&dq=%22keil%22++ishmael&pg=PA216 |publisher=T. & T. Clark |via=Google Books}}</ref>

==== American colonialism ====
Many [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonists]] saw America as the "Promised Land", representing a haven from [[European wars of religion|religious conflicts]] and [[Religious persecution|persecution]]. For instance, [[Puritan]] minister [[John Cotton (minister)|John Cotton]]'s 1630 sermon [[wikisource:God’s Promise to His Plantation|God's Promise to His Plantation]] gave colonizers departing [[England]] to [[Massachusetts]] repeated references to the Exodus story, and later [[German immigrants in the United States|German immigrants]] sang: "America ... is a beautiful land that God promised to Abraham."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-07-12 |title=America as the Promised Land |url=https://www.museumofthebible.org/book-minute/america-as-the-promised-land |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314193508/https://www.museumofthebible.org/book-minute/america-as-the-promised-land |archive-date=2023-03-14 |access-date=2023-12-08 |website=[[Museum of the Bible]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

In a sermon celebrating [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|independence in 1783]], [[Yale University|Yale]] president [[Ezra Stiles]] implied [[American exceptionalism|Americans were chosen]] and delivered from bondage to a Promised Land: "the Lord shall have made his American Israel 'high above all nations which he hath made',"<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDougall |first=Walter A. |date=1997 |title=Promised Land, Crusader State |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/mcdougal-promised.html |access-date=2023-12-09 |via=The New York Times |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=0-395-83085-0}}</ref> reflecting language from Deuteronomy of the promise.

[[Shawnee]]/[[Lenape]] scholar Steven Newcomb argued in his 2008 book ''Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Newcomb |first=Steven T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HeDKUXsOC9cC |title=Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery |date=2008 |publisher=Fulcrum Publishing |isbn=978-1-55591-642-8 |language=en}}</ref> that [[Christendom]]'s [[discovery doctrine]] was also the same claim of "the right to kill and plunder non-Christians" found in this covenant tradition, whereby "the Lord" in Deuteronomy told his chosen people how they were to "utterly destroy" the "many nations before thee" when "He" brought them into the land "He" had discovered and promised to "His" "Chosen People" to "possess", and that this "right" was woven into US law through the 1823 [[Johnson v. McIntosh]] [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] ruling.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Newcomb |first=Steven |date=2020-08-22 |title="God's" Gift of a Right of Domination |url=https://originalfreenations.com/gods-gift-of-a-right-of-domination/ |access-date=2023-12-09 |website=ORIGINAL FREE NATIONS |language=en-US}}</ref>

===== Mormonism =====
{{Main article|Mormonism#America}}
[[Mormonism]] teaches that the [[United States]] is the Biblical promised land, the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]] divinely inspired, and [[Mormons]] God's chosen people.

=== Muslim interpretation ===
{{Main article|Ishmael in Islam#Genealogy and association with Arabs|Quraysh#Origins|Family tree of Muhammad}}

1st century [[History of the Jews in the Roman Empire|Roman–Jewish]] historian [[Flavius Josephus#Impact on history and archaeology|Flavius Josephus]] postulated that Ishmael was the founder of the Arab race.<ref>{{harvnb|Millar|2011|loc=Chapter 14: "Hagar, Ishmael, Josephus, and the origins of Islam"}}: "Josephus is thus alluding to a proposition, not yet established in his narrative, that Ishmael was the founder (''ktistēs'') of the race (''ethnos'') of the 'Arabes' and offers this as his explanation of a custom currently observed by them."</ref> And according to Muslim tradition, [[Prophets and messengers in Islam|Islam's founding prophet]] [[Muhammad]] was a [[Hanif]] (true monotheistic believer of the religion of Abraham). His tribe, the [[Quraysh]], traces its ancestry to [[Ishmael]].

==== Palestinian interpretation ====
{{See also|Origin of the Palestinians}}
Some [[Palestinians]] claim partial descent from the Israelites and [[Maccabees]], as well as from other peoples who have lived in the region.<ref name="Khalidi">"(With reference to Palestinians in [[Ottoman empire|Ottoman]] times) Although proud of their [[Arab]] heritage and ancestry, the [[Palestinians]] considered themselves to be descended not only from Arab conquerors of the seventh century but also from [[indigenous peoples]] who had lived in the country since time immemorial, including the ancient [[Hebrews]] and the [[Canaanites]] before them. Acutely aware of the distinctiveness of Palestinian history, the Palestinians saw themselves as the heirs of its rich associations." [[Walid Khalidi]], 1984, ''Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of the Palestinians, 1876–1948''. Institute for Palestine Studies</ref>

=== African-American spirituals ===
African-American [[Spiritual (music)|spiritual]]s invoke the imagery of the "Promised Land" as [[heaven]] or [[paradise]]<ref>
For example:
{{cite book
 | last1 = Beaulieu Herder
 | first1 = Nicole
 | last2 = Herder
 | first2 = Ronald
 | title = Best-loved Negro Spirituals: Complete Lyrics to 178 Songs of Faith
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FdsVXYkMTJEC
 | series = Dover Books on Music
 | date = January 2001
 | location = Mineola, New York
 | publisher = Courier Corporation
 | pages = 1, 10, 33, 58
 | isbn = 9780486416779
 | access-date = 8 November 2020
}}
</ref> and as an escape from [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]], which could often only be reached by death.{{Citation needed|date= December 2019}} The imagery and term also appear elsewhere in [[popular culture]], in sermons, and in speeches such as [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]'s 1968 "[[I've Been to the Mountaintop]]", in which he said:

<blockquote>I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.<ref>{{cite speech|url=https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm|title=I've Been to the Mountaintop|date=3 April 1968|first1=Martin Luther|last1=King, Jr.}}</ref></blockquote>

== Boundaries from the Book of Numbers ==
:'''Boundaries of the 'Promised Land' given in the [[Book of Numbers]]''' (chapter 34)
::'''The South border.''' —(v.&nbsp;3) "Then your ''south'' quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and your ''south border'' shall be the outmost coast of the salt sea eastward&nbsp;: (v.&nbsp;4) And your border shall turn from the south to the ''ascent of Akrabbim'', and pass on to Zin&nbsp;: and the going forth thereof shall be from the south to Kadesh-barnea, and shall go on to Hazar-addar, and pass on to Azmon&nbsp;: (v.&nbsp;5) And the border shall fetch a compass from Azmon unto the river of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at the sea."
::'''The Western border.''' —(v.&nbsp;6) "And as for the ''western border'', ye shall even have the great sea for a border&nbsp;: this shall be your west border." 
::'''The North border.''' —(v.&nbsp;7) "And this shall be your ''north border''&nbsp;: from the great sea ye shall point out for you mount Hor&nbsp;: (v.&nbsp;8) From mount Hor ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath&nbsp;; and the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad&nbsp;: (v&nbsp;9) And the border shall go on to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be at Hazar-enan&nbsp;: this shall be your north border."
::'''The East border.''' —(v.&nbsp;10) "And ye shall point out your ''east border'' from Hazar-enan to Shepham&nbsp;: (v.&nbsp;11) And the coast shall go down from Shepham to ''Riblah'', on the east side of Ain&nbsp;; and the border shall descend, and shall reach unto the side of the ''sea of Chinnereth'' eastward&nbsp;: (v.&nbsp;12) And the border shall go down to Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea&nbsp;: this shall be your land ''with the coasts thereof'' round about."<ref>{{cite book|author=Henry P. Linton|title=Notes on the book of Numbers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6qgCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA169|year=1884|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6qgCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA170&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U2Qhi2j6CO_CXWO_B4yHMMXxtB1ng&ci=73%2C177%2C842%2C953&edge=0 170]}}</ref>
:'''Boundaries of the 'Promised Land' given by [[Jerome]] c.400'''
::You may delineate the Promised Land of [[Moses]] from the Book of Numbers (ch. 34): as bounded on the south by the desert tract called Sina, between the Dead Sea and the city of [[Kadesh (Israel)|Kadesh-barnea]], [which is located with the [[Arabah]] to the east] and continues to the west, as far as the river of Egypt, that discharges into the open sea near the city of [[Arish|Rhinocolara]]; as bounded on the west by the sea along the coasts of Palestine, Phoenicia, Coele-Syria, and Cilicia; as bounded on the north by the circle formed by the [[Taurus Mountains]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Bechard|first=Dean Philip|title=Paul Outside the Walls: A Study of Luke's Socio-geographical Universalism in Acts 14:8-20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BwoLOauyDcUC&pg=PA203|date=1 January 2000|publisher=Gregorian Biblical BookShop|isbn=978-88-7653-143-9|pages=203–205|quote=In the Second Temple period, when Jewish authors were seeking to establish with greater precision the geographical definition of the Land, it became customary to construe "Mount Hor" of Num 34:7 as a reference to the Amanus range of the Taurus Mountains, which marked the northern limit of the Syrian plain (Bechard 2000, p. 205, note 98.)}}</ref> and Zephyrium and extending to Hamath, called Epiphany-Syria; as bounded on the east by the city of [[Hippos, Israel|Antioch Hippos]] and Lake Kinneret, now called [[Sea of Galilee|Tiberias]], and then the Jordan River which discharges into the salt sea, now called the Dead Sea.<ref>{{cite book|title=Sainte Bible expliquée et commentée, contenant le texte de la Vulgate|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hOhWsYkY8iEC&pg=PR41|year=1837|publisher=Bibl. Ecclésiastique|quote=Quod si objeceris terram repromissionis dici, quae in Numerorum volumine continetur (Cap. 34), a meridie maris Salinarum per Sina et Cades-Barne, usque ad torrentem Aegypti, qui juxta Rhinocoruram mari magno influit; et ab occidente ipsum mare, quod Palaestinae, Phoenici, Syriae Coeles, Ciliciaeque pertenditur; ab aquilone Taurum montem et Zephyrium usque Emath, quae appellatur Epiphania Syriae; ad orientem vero per Antiochiam et lacum Cenereth, quae nunc Tiberias appellatur, et Jordanem, qui mari influit Salinarum, quod nunc Mortuum dicitur |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=hOhWsYkY8iEC&pg=PR41&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U1psds-cSbj-GaeBF3LBOIFGcp0Jg&ci=108%2C638%2C766%2C222&edge=0 41]}}</ref><ref>Hieronymus (1910). "Epistola CXXIX Ad Dardanum de Terra promissionis (al. 129; scripta circa annum 414ce)". [https://archive.org/details/CSEL56 Epistularum Pars III —Epistulae 121-154], p.&nbsp;171 (The fifty-sixth volume of ''Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum'' also known as the Vienna Corpus: Letters Part 3, Containing letters 121-154 of St. Jerome.) Image of [https://ia600803.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/6/items/CSEL56/CSEL56_jp2.zip&file=CSEL56_jp2/CSEL56_0182.jp2&scale=1&rotate=0 p.&nbsp;171] at Archive.org</ref>

* 1845: [[Salomon Munk]], ''Palestine, Description Géographique, Historique et Archéologique," in "L'Univers Pittoresque'':
<blockquote>Under the name ''Palestine'', we comprehend the small country formerly inhabited by the Israelites, and which is today part of Acre and Damascus pachalics. It stretched between 31 and 33° N. latitude and between 32 and 35° degrees E. longitude, an area of about 1300 {{langx|fr|lieues carrées}}. Some zealous writers, to give the land of the Hebrews some political importance, have exaggerated the extent of Palestine; but we have an authority for us that one can not reject. St. Jerome, who had long traveled in this country, said in his letter to Dardanus (ep. 129) that the northern boundary to that of the southern, was a distance of 160 Roman miles, which is about 55 {{langx|fr|lieues}}. He paid homage to the truth despite his fears, as he said himself, of availing the ''Promised Land'' to pagan mockery, "{{lang|la|Pudet dicere latitudinem terrae repromissionis, ne ethnicis occasionem blasphemandi dedisse uideamur}}" (Latin: "I am embarrassed to say the breadth of the promised land, lest we seem to have given the heathen an opportunity of blaspheming").<ref>{{cite book|last=Munk|first=Salomon|author-link=Salomon Munk|title=Palestine: Description géographique, historique et archéologique|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02EOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA2|year=1845|publisher=F. Didot|language=fr|pages=2–3|quote=Sous le nom de ''Palestine'', nous comprenons le petit pays habité autrefois par les Israélites, et qui aujourd'hui fait partie des pachalics d'Acre et de Damas. Il s'étendait entre le 31 et 33° degré latitude N. et entre le 32 et 35° degré longitude E., sur une superficie d'environ 1300 lieues carrées. Quelques écrivains jaloux de donner au pays des Hébreux une certaine importance politique, ont exagéré l'étendue de la Palestine; mais nous avons pour nous une autorité que l'on ne saurait récuser. Saint Jérôme, qui avait longtemps voyagé dans cette contrée, dit dans sa lettre à Dardanus (ep. 129) que de la limite du nord jusqu'à celle du midi il n'y avait qu'une distance de 160 milles romains, ce qui fait environ 55 lieues. Il rend cet hommage à la vérité bien qu'il craigne, comme il le dit lui-même de livrer par la ''terre promise'' aux sarcasmes païens. (Pudet dicere latitudinem terrae repromissionis, ne ethnicis occasionem blasphemandi dedisse uideamur)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Munk|first1=Salomon|author-link1=Salomon Munk|last2=Levy|first2=Moritz A.|author-link2=Moritz Abraham Levy|title=Palästina: geographische, historische und archäologische Beschreibung dieses Landes und kurze Geschichte seiner hebräischen und jüdischen Bewohner|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbRUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP1|year=1871|publisher=Leiner|language=de|page=1}}</ref></blockquote>

== Footnotes ==
{{NoteFoot}}

== See also ==
{{columns-list|colwidth=25em|* [[Battle of Refidim]]
* [[Canaan]]
* [[Conquest of Canaan]]
* [[Covenant of the pieces]]
* [[Greater Israel]]
* [[Holy Land]]
* [[Israel]]
* [[Jews as the chosen people]]
* [[Land of Israel]]
* [[Palestine (region)]]
* [[Southern Levant]]
* [[Who is a Jew?]]
* [[Yom HaAliyah]]
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== General sources ==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
*{{Cite book |last=Millar |first=Fergus |url=https://www.perlego.com/book/539864/rome-the-greek-world-and-the-east-volume-3-the-greek-world-the-jews-and-the-east-pdf |title=Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Volume 3: The Greek World, the Jews, and the East |date=2011-05-01 |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-7665-7 |editor-last=Cotton |editor-first=Hannah M. |language=English |oclc=646793155 |access-date=2023-09-28 |editor-last2=Rogers |editor-first2=Guy M. |url-access=subscription |author-link=Fergus Millar |editor-link1=Hannah Cotton}}
{{refend}}

{{Zionism}}

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[[Category:Book of Genesis]]
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[[Category:Hebrew Bible words and phrases]]
[[Category:Land of Israel]]
[[Category:Zionism]]
[[Category:Mythical utopias]]
[[Category:Religious nationalism]]
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