Torah-Based Jewish Connections To The Land Of Israel

(5) Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the wealth that they had amassed, and the persons that they had acquired in Haran; and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in the land of Canaan, (6) Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, at the terebinth of Moreh. The Canaanites were then in the land. (7) A-donai appeared to Abram and said, “I will assign this land to your offspring.” And he built an altar there to A-donai who had appeared to him. (8) From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and he built there an altar to A-donai and invoked A-donai by name. (9) Then Abram journeyed by stages toward the Negeb. (10) There was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

(15) for I give all the land that you see to you and your offspring forever. (16) I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring too can be counted. (17) Up, walk about the land, through its length and its breadth, for I give it to you.” (18) And Abram moved his tent, and came to dwell at the terebinths of Mamre, which are in Hebron; and he built an altar there to A-donai.

(18) On that day A-donai made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I assign this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: (19) the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, (20) the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, (21) the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

(1) Sarah’s lifetime—the span of Sarah’s life—came to one hundred and twenty-seven years. (2) Sarah died in Kiriath-arba—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan; and Abraham proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to bewail her. (3) Then Abraham rose from beside his dead, and spoke to the Hittites, saying, (4) “I am a resident alien among you; sell me a burial site among you, that I may remove my dead for burial.” (5) And the Hittites replied to Abraham, saying to him, (6) “Hear us, my lord: you are the elect of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places; none of us will withhold his burial place from you for burying your dead.” (7) Thereupon Abraham bowed low to the people of the land, the Hittites, (8) and he said to them, “If it is your wish that I remove my dead for burial, you must agree to intercede for me with Ephron son of Zohar. (9) Let him sell me the cave of Machpelah that he owns, which is at the edge of his land. Let him sell it to me, at the full price, for a burial site in your midst.” (10) Ephron was present among the Hittites; so Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, all who entered the gate of his town, saying, (11) “No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field and I give you the cave that is in it; I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.” (12) Then Abraham bowed low before the people of the land, (13) and spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If only you would hear me out! Let me pay the price of the land; accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there.” (14) And Ephron replied to Abraham, saying to him, (15) “My lord, do hear me! A piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver—what is that between you and me? Go and bury your dead.” (16) Abraham accepted Ephron’s terms. Abraham paid out to Ephron the money that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites—four hundred shekels of silver at the going merchants’ rate. (17) So Ephron’s land in Machpelah, near Mamre—the field with its cave and all the trees anywhere within the confines of that field—passed (18) to Abraham as his possession, in the presence of the Hittites, of all who entered the gate of his town. (19) And then Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan. (20) Thus the field with its cave passed from the Hittites to Abraham, as a burial site.

(17) But Jacob journeyed on to Succoth, and built a house for himself and made stalls for his cattle; that is why the place was called Succoth. (18) Jacob arrived safe in the city of Shechem which is in the land of Canaan—having come thus from Paddan-aram—and he encamped before the city. (19) The parcel of land where he pitched his tent he purchased from the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred kesitahs. (20) He set up an altar there, and called it El-elohe-yisrael.

(12) The land that I assigned to Abraham and Isaac I assign to you; And to your offspring to come Will I assign the land.” (13) God parted from him at the spot where He had spoken to him; (14) and Jacob set up a pillar at the site where He had spoken to him, a pillar of stone, and he offered a libation on it and poured oil upon it. (15) Jacob gave the site, where God had spoken to him, the name of Bethel. (16) They set out from Bethel; but when they were still some distance short of Ephrath, Rachel was in childbirth, and she had hard labor.

(7) And A-donai continued, “I have marked well the plight of My people in Egypt and have heeded their outcry because of their taskmasters; yes, I am mindful of their sufferings. (8) I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the region of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

(1) A-donai spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Instruct the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as your portion, the land of Canaan with its various boundaries: (3) Your southern sector shall extend from the wilderness of Zin alongside Edom. Your southern boundary shall start on the east from the tip of the Dead Sea. (4) Your boundary shall then turn to pass south of the ascent of Akrabbim and continue to Zin, and its limits shall be south of Kadesh-barnea, reaching Hazar-addar and continuing to Azmon. (5) From Azmon the boundary shall turn toward the Wadi of Egypt and terminate at the Sea. (6) For the western boundary you shall have the coast of the Great Sea; that shall serve as your western boundary. (7) This shall be your northern boundary: Draw a line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor; (8) from Mount Hor draw a line to Lebo-hamath, and let the boundary reach Zedad. (9) The boundary shall then run to Ziphron and terminate at Hazar-enan. That shall be your northern boundary. (10) For your eastern boundary you shall draw a line from Hazar-enan to Shepham. (11) From Shepham the boundary shall descend to Riblah on the east side of Ain; from there the boundary shall continue downward and abut on the eastern slopes of the Sea of Chinnereth. (12) The boundary shall then descend along the Jordan and terminate at the Dead Sea. That shall be your land as defined by its boundaries on all sides. (13) Moses instructed the Israelites, saying: This is the land you are to receive by lot as your hereditary portion, which A-donai has commanded to be given to the nine and a half tribes. (14) For the Reubenite tribe by its ancestral houses, the Gadite tribe by its ancestral houses, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have already received their portions: (15) those two and a half tribes have received their portions across the Jordan, opposite Jericho, on the east, the orient side.

(6) A-donai our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying: You have stayed long enough at this mountain. (7) Start out and make your way to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negeb, the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and the Lebanon, as far as the Great River, the river Euphrates. (8) See, I place the land at your disposal. Go, take possession of the land that A-donai swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to assign to them and to their heirs after them.

(37) And because [G!d] loved your fathers, [G!d] chose their heirs after them; [G!d] [G!d]self, in [G!d]'s great might, led you out of Egypt, (38) to drive from your path nations greater and more populous than you, to take you into their land and assign it to you as a heritage, as is still the case. (39) Know therefore this day and keep in mind that the A-donai alone is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other. (40) Observe [G!d]'s laws and commandments, which I enjoin upon you this day, that it may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may long remain in the land that the A-donai your G!d is assigning to you for all time. (41) Then Moses set aside three cities on the east side of the Jordan (42) to which a manslayer could escape, one who unwittingly slew a fellow man without having been hostile to him in the past; he could flee to one of these cities and live: (43) Bezer, in the wilderness in the Tableland, belonging to the Reubenites; Ramoth, in Gilead, belonging to the Gadites; and Golan, in Bashan, belonging to the Manassites.

(1) Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and more populous than you: great cities with walls sky-high; (2) a people great and tall, the Anakites, of whom you have knowledge; for you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the children of Anak?” (3) Know then this day that none other than A-donai your G!d is crossing at your head, a devouring fire; it is [G!d] who will wipe them out. [G!d] will subdue them before you, that you may quickly dispossess and destroy them, as A-donai promised you. (4) And when A-donai your G!d has thrust them from your path, say not to yourselves, “A-donai has enabled us to possess this land because of our virtues”; it is rather because of the wickedness of those nations that A-donai is dispossessing them before you. (5) It is not because of your virtues and your rectitude that you will be able to possess their country; but it is because of their wickedness that A-donai your G!d is dispossessing those nations before you, and in order to fulfill the oath that A-donai made to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (6) Know, then, that it is not for any virtue of yours that A-donai your G!d is giving you this good land to possess; for you are a stiffnecked people. (7) Remember, never forget, how you provoked A-donai your G!d to anger in the wilderness: from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have continued defiant toward A-donai. (8) At Horeb you so provoked A-donai that A-donai was angry enough with you to have destroyed you.

(22) If, then, you faithfully keep all this Instruction that I command you, loving the A-doani your G!d, walking in all [G!d]'s ways, and holding fast to [G!d], (23) Adonai will dislodge before you all these nations: you will dispossess nations greater and more numerous than you. (24) Every spot on which your foot treads shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River—the Euphrates—to the Western Sea. (25) No man shall stand up to you: A-donai your G!d will put the dread and the fear of you over the whole land in which you set foot, as [G!d] promised you.

(1) When you enter the land that A-donai your G!d is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, (2) you shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that A-donai your G!d is giving you, put it in a basket and go to the place where A-donai your G!d will choose to establish [G!d]'s name. (3) You shall go to the priest in charge at that time and say to him, “I acknowledge this day before A-donai your G!d that I have entered the land that A-donai swore to our fathers to assign us.” (4) The priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down in front of the altar of A-donai your G!d.

(1) Moses went up from the steppes of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the summit of Pisgah, opposite Jericho, and A-donai showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan; (2) all Naphtali; the land of Ephraim and Manasseh; the whole land of Judah as far as the Western Sea; (3) the Negeb; and the Plain—the Valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees—as far as Zoar. (4) And A-donai said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ‘I will assign it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross there.” (5) So Moses the servant of A-donai died there, in the land of Moab, at the command of A-donai.