Land of Israel in Biblical Sources

(1) And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him: ‘I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be thou wholehearted. (2) And I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.’ (3) And Abram fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying: (4) ’As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be the father of a multitude of nations. (5) Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee. (6) And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. (7) And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. (8) And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.’ (9) And God said unto Abraham: ‘And as for thee, thou shalt keep My covenant, thou, and thy seed after thee throughout their generations. (10) This is My covenant, which ye shall keep, between Me and you and thy seed after thee: every male among you shall be circumcised. (11) And ye shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of a covenant betwixt Me and you. (12) And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any foreigner, that is not of thy seed. (13) He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised; and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. (14) And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken My covenant.’ (15) And God said unto Abraham: ‘As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. (16) And I will bless her, and moreover I will give thee a son of her; yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be of her.’ (17) Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart: ‘Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?’ (18) And Abraham said unto God: ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee! ’ (19) And God said: ‘‘Nay, but Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son; and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him. (20) And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee; behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. (21) But My covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.’ (22) And He left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. (23) And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. (24) And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. (25) And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. (26) In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. (27) And all the men of his house, those born in the house, and those bought with money of a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

(16) Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; (17) and the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and He shut up the heaven, so that there shall be no rain, and the ground shall not yield her fruit; and ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you. (18) Therefore shall ye lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul; and ye shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. (19) And ye shall teach them your children, talking of them, when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (20) And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates; (21) that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, upon the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth. (22) For if ye shall diligently keep all this commandment which I command you, to do it, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave unto Him, (23) then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.

(16) So Joshua took all that land, the hill-country, and all the South, and all the land of Goshen, and the Lowland, and the Arabah, and the hill-country of Israel, and the Lowland of the same; (17) from the bare mountain, that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under mount Hermon; and all their kings he took, and smote them, and put them to death. (18) Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. (19) There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon; they took all in battle. (20) For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that they might be utterly destroyed, that they might have no favour, but that they might be destroyed, as the LORD commanded Moses. (21) And Joshua came at that time, and cut off the Anakim from the hill-country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill-country of Judah, and from all the hill-country of Israel; Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. (22) There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the children of Israel; only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, did some remain. (23) So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD spoke unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land had rest from war.

(1) By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered Zion. (2) Upon the willows in the midst thereof We hanged up our harps. (3) For there they that led us captive asked of us words of song, And our tormentors asked of us mirth: ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.' (4) How shall we sing the LORD’S song In a foreign land? (5) If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning. (6) Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, If I remember thee not; If I set not Jerusalem Above my chiefest joy. (7) Remember, O LORD, against the children of Edom The day of Jerusalem; Who said: 'Rase it, rase it, Even to the foundation thereof.' (8) O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed; Happy shall he be, that repayeth thee As thou hast served us. (9) Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones Against the rock.