Promised Land


The Promised Land is the land which, according to the Tanakh, was promised and subsequently given by God to Abraham and his descendants, and in modern contexts an image and idea related both to the restored Homeland for the Jewish people and to salvation and liberation is more generally understood.
The promise was first made to Abraham, then confirmed to his son Isaac, and then to Isaac's son Jacob. The Promised Land was described in terms of the territory from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates river. A smaller area of former Canaanite land and land east of the Jordan River was conquered and occupied by their descendants, the Israelites, after Moses led the Exodus out of Egypt, and this occupation was interpreted as God's fulfilment of the promise. Moses anticipated that God might subsequently give the Israelites land reflecting the boundaries of God's original promise, if they were obedient to the covenant.
The concept of the Promised Land is the central tenet of Zionism, whose discourse suggests that modern Jews descend from the Israelites and Maccabees through whom they inherit the right to re-establish their "national homeland". Palestinians also claim partial descent from the Israelites and Maccabees, as well as all the other peoples who have lived in the region.
The imagery of the "Promised Land" was invoked in African-American spirituals as heaven or paradise and as an escape from slavery, which can often only be reached by death. The imagery and term have also been used in popular culture, sermons and in speeches, such as the "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech by Martin Luther King Jr.:

Divine promise

The promise that is the basis of the term is contained in several verses of Genesis in the Torah. In it is said:
and in :
Commentators have noted several problems with this promise and related ones:
  1. It is to Abram's descendants that the land will be given, not to Abram directly nor there and then. However, in it is said: He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it." However, how this verse relates to the promises is a matter of controversy.
  2. There is nothing in the promise to indicate God intended it be applied to Abraham’s physical descendants unconditionally, exclusively, exhaustively or in perpetuity.
  3. Jewish commentators drawing on Rashi's comments to the first verse in the Bible, assert that no human collective ever has any a priori claim to any piece of land on the planet, and that only God decides which group inhabits which land in any point in time. This interpretation has no contradictions since the idea that the Jewish people have a claim to ownership rights on the physical land is based on the idea of God deciding to give the land to the Jewish people and commanding them to occupy it as referred to in Biblical texts previously mentioned.
In the boundary of the Promised Land is clarified in terms of the territory of various ancient peoples, as follows:
The verse is said to describe what are known as "borders of the Land". In Jewish tradition, these borders define the maximum extent of the land promised to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob.
The promise was confirmed to Jacob at, though the borders are still vague and is in terms of "the land on which you are lying".
Other geographical borders are given in which describes borders as marked by the Red Sea, the "Sea of the Philistines" i.e. the Mediterranean, and the "River,".
The promise is fulfilled in the biblical book of Joshua when the Israelites cross the Jordan river into the promised land for the first time.
It took a long time before the Israelites could subdue the Canaanite inhabitants of the land. The furthest extent of the Land of Israel was achieved during the time of the united Kingdom of Israel under David. The actual land controlled by the Israelites has fluctuated considerably over time, and at times the land has been under the control of various empires. However, under Jewish tradition, even when it is not in Jewish occupation, the land has not lost its status as the Promised Land.

Descendants of Abraham

Traditional Jewish interpretation, and that of most Christian commentators, define Abraham's descendants as Abraham's seed only through his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob, to the exclusion of Ishmael and Esau.
This may however reflect an eisegesis or reconstruction of primary verses based on the later biblical emphasis of Jacob's descendants. The promises given to Abraham happened prior to the birth of Isaac and were given to all his offspring signified through the rite of circumcision. Johann Friedrich Karl Keil is less clear, as he states that the covenant is through Isaac, but notes that Ishmael's descendants have held much of that land through time.
Mainstream Jewish tradition regards the promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as having been given to all Jews, including proselytes and in turn their descendants, with the traditional view being that a convert becomes a child of Abraham, as in the term "ben Avraham".

Christian interpretation

In the New Testament, the descent and promise is reinterpreted along religious lines. In the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul the Apostle draws attention to the formulation of the promise, avoiding the term "seeds" in plural, choosing instead "seed," meaning one person, who, he understands to be Jesus. For example, in he notes:
In 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:
In it is written:

Boundaries from the Book of Numbers