'Land' in the Bible

Your land lies desolate [because of your disobedience],Your cities are burned with fire,Your fields—strangers are devouring them in your very presence;It is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

“If you are willing and obedient,You shall eat the best of the land;

Their land has also been filled with silver and goldAnd there is no end to their treasures;Their land has also been filled with horsesAnd there is no end to their chariots.

Their land has also been filled with idols;They worship the work of their hands,That which their own fingers have made.

In that day the Branch of the Lord will be splendid and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be excellent and lovely to those of Israel who have survived.

Woe (judgment is coming) to those who join house to house and join field to field [to increase their holdings by depriving others],Until there is no more room [for others],So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!

And in that day they will roar against them (Judah) like the roaring of the sea.And if one looks to the land, in fact, there is darkness and distress;Even the light will be darkened by its clouds.

Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered,“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,And houses are without peopleAnd the land is utterly desolate,

The Lord has removed [His] people far away,And there are many deserted places in the midst of the land.

“And though a tenth [of the people] remain in the land,It will again be subject to destruction [consumed and burned],Like a massive terebinth tree or like an oakWhose stump remains when it is chopped down.The holy seed [the elect remnant] is its stump [the substance of Israel].”

For before the child will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land (Canaan) whose two kings you dread will be deserted [both Ephraim and Aram].

In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the mouth of the rivers and canals of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

and because of the abundance of milk produced he will eat curds, for everyone that is left in the land will eat [only] curds and [wild] honey.

People will come there [to hunt] with arrows and with bows because all the land will be briars and thorns.

“Then it will sweep on into Judah; it will overflow and pass through [the hills],Reaching even to the neck [of which Jerusalem is the head],And its outstretched wings (the armies of Assyria) will fill the width of Your land, O Immanuel.

They [who consult mediums and soothsayers] will pass through the land deeply distressed and hungry, and when they are hungry, they will become enraged and will curse their king and their God as they look upward.

But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish [for with judgment comes the promise of salvation]. In earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He will make them honored [by the presence of the Messiah], by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

The people who walk in [spiritual] darknessWill see a great Light;Those who live in the dark land,The Light will shine on them.

By the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is burned up,And the people are like fuel for the fire;No man spares his brother.

Ephraim and Judah will [unite and] swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines toward the west;Together they will plunder the sons (Arabs) of the east.They will possess Edom and Moab,And the sons of Ammon will be subject to them.

And there will be a highway from AssyriaFor the remnant of His people who will be left,Just as there was for IsraelIn the day when they came up out of the land of Egypt.

They are coming from a distant country,From the end of heaven [the farthest horizon]—The Lord and the weapons of His indignation—To destroy the whole land.

Listen carefully, the day of the Lord is coming,Cruel, with wrath and raging anger,To make the land a horror [of devastation];And He shall exterminate its sinners from it.

And like the hunted gazelle,Or like sheep that no man gathers,Each [foreign resident] will turn [and go back] to his own people,And each one flee to his own land.

For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob (the captives in Babylon) and will again choose Israel, and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners (Gentiles) will join them [as proselytes] and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob (Israel).

The peoples will take them along and bring them to their own place (Judea), and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the Lord as male and female servants; and they will take captive those whose captives they have been, and they will rule over their [former] oppressors.

“You will not be united with them in burial,Because you have destroyed your land,You have slain your people.May the descendants of evildoers never be named!

to break the Assyrian in My land, and on My mountains I will trample him underfoot. Then the Assyrian’s yoke will be removed from them (the people of Judah) and his burden removed from their shoulder.

For the waters of Dimon are full of blood;Yet I will bring even more woes on Dimon—A lion upon those of Moab who escape and upon the remnant of the land.

Send lambs to the ruler of the land [you Moabites],From Sela [that is, Petra in Edom] through the wilderness to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem).

“Let our outcasts of Moab live among you;Be a [sheltered] hiding place to them from the destroyer.”For the extortioner has come to an end, destruction has ceased,Oppressors [who trample men] have completely disappeared from the land,

“Yet gleanings will be left in the land [of Israel] like the shaking of the olive tree,Two or three olives on the topmost branch,Four or five on the [outermost] branches of the fruitful tree,”Declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

Woe (judgment is coming) to the land of whirring wingsWhich is beyond the rivers of Cush (Ethiopia),

Which sends ambassadors by the sea,Even in vessels of papyrus on the surface of the waters.Go, swift messengers, to a nation [of people] tall and smooth (clean shaven),To a people feared far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nationWhose land the rivers divide.

At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the Lord of hostsFrom a people tall and smooth (clean shaven),From a people feared far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nation,Whose land the rivers divide—To the place [of worship] of the name of the Lord of hosts, to Mount Zion [in Jerusalem].

The land of Judah [Assyria’s ally] will become a terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be in dread of it, because of the purpose of the Lord of hosts which He is planning against Egypt.

In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of [the Hebrews of] Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One [of them] will be called the City of Destruction.

In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a memorial stone to the Lord near its border.

It will become a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior, a [Great] Defender, and He will rescue them.

The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning the Desert of the Sea (the seasonally flooded plains just south of Babylon):As windstorms in the Negev (the South) sweep through,So it (God’s judgment) comes from the desert, from [the hostile armies of] a terrifying land.

Bring water for the thirsty [Dedanites],O inhabitants of the land of Tema [in Arabia];Meet the fugitive with bread.

The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Tyre:Wail, O ships of Tarshish,For Tyre is destroyed, without house, without harbor;It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus (Kittim).

Overflow your land like [the overflow of] the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish;There is no more restraint [on you to make you pay tribute to Tyre].

Now look at the land of the Chaldeans (Babylonia)—this is the people which was not; the Assyrians allocated Tyre for desert creatures—they set up their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin.

Behold, the Lord lays waste to the earth, devastates it, twists and distorts its face and scatters its inhabitants.

The earth will be completely laid waste and utterly pillaged, for the Lord has spoken this word.

The earth dries up and crumbles away, the world dries out and crumbles away, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away.

The earth also is polluted by its inhabitants, because they have transgressed laws, violated statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.

Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live on it suffer the punishment of their guilt. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned [under the curse of God’s wrath], and few people are left.

There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine;All jubilation is darkened,The joy of the earth is banished.

Like heat in a dry land, You will subdue the noise of foreigners [rejoicing over their enemies];Like heat in the shadow of a cloud, the song of the tyrants is silenced.

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:“We have a strong city;He sets up salvation as walls and ramparts.

Though the wicked is shown compassion and favor,He does not learn righteousness;In the land of uprightness he deals unjustly,And refuses to see the majesty of the Lord.

You have increased the nation, O Lord;You have increased the nation, You are glorified;You have extended all the borders of the land.

Your dead will live;Their dead bodies will rise.You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy!For your dew is a dew of [celestial] light [heavenly, supernatural],And the earth will give birth to the spirits of the dead.

It will come to pass in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost and perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Now do not carry on as scoffers,Or the bands which bind you will be made stronger;For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts [a decree]Of decisive destruction on all the earth.

A [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning the beasts of the Negev (the South):Through a land of trouble and anguish,From where come lioness and lion, viper and [fiery] flying serpent,They carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeysAnd their treasures on the humps of camels,To a people (Egyptians) who cannot benefit them.

Each [one of them] will be like a hiding place from the windAnd a shelter from the storm,Like streams of water in a dry land,Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched and weary land [to those who turn to them].

For the land of my people growing over with thorns and briars—Yes, [mourn] for all the houses of joy in the joyous city.

The land mourns and dries out,Lebanon is shamed and [its lush foliage] withers;Sharon is like a desert plain,And Bashan and [Mount] Carmel shake off their leaves.

Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;They will see a far-distant land.

The sword of the Lord is filled with blood [from sacrifices],It drips with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,With the fat of the kidneys of rams.For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah (Edom’s capital city)And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

Wild oxen will also fall with themAnd the young bulls with the strong bulls;And their land will be soaked with blood,And their dust made greasy with fat.

The streams [of Edom] will be turned into pitch,And its dust into brimstone,And its land will become burning pitch.

The wilderness and the dry land will be glad;The Arabah (desert) will shout in exultation and blossomLike the autumn crocus.

Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have now come up against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”’”

until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, “The Lord will rescue us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations [ever] rescued his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

Who among all the gods of these lands have rescued their land from my hand, that [you should think that] the Lord would rescue Jerusalem from my hand?’”

Listen carefully, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

It came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat [in Armenia]. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

I said, “I will not see the LordThe Lord in the land of the living;I will no longer see man among the inhabitants of the world.

“I will open rivers on the barren heightsAnd springs in the midst of the valleys;I will make the wilderness a reed-pool of waterAnd the dry land springs of water.

“I was first to say to Zion, ‘Listen carefully, here they are [the Jews who will be restored to their own land].’And to Jerusalem, ‘I will provide a messenger (Isaiah) to bring the good news [that Cyrus will be stirred up and put into action to save them].’

“I have not spoken in secret,In a corner of a land of darkness;I did not say to the descendants of Jacob,‘Seek Me in vain [with no benefit for yourselves].’I, the Lord, speak righteousness [the truth—trustworthy, a straightforward correlation between deeds and words],Declaring things that are upright.

This is what the Lord says,“In a favorable time I have answered You,And in a day of salvation I have helped You;And I will keep watch over You and give You for a covenant of the people,To restore the land [from its present state of ruin] and to apportion and give as inheritances the deserted hereditary lands,

“In fact, these will come from far away;And, lo, these shall come from the north and from the west,And these from the land of Aswan (southern Egypt).”

“For your ruins and desolate places and your land [once the scene] of destruction—Certainly now [in the coming years] will be too cramped for the inhabitants,And those who once engulfed you will be far away.

These two tragedies have befallen you;Who will show sympathy for you and mourn with you?The desolation and destruction [on the land and city], famine and sword [on the inhabitants];How shall I comfort you?

After oppression and judgment He was taken away;And as for His generation [His contemporaries], who [among them] concerned himself with the factThat He was cut off from the land of the living [by His death]For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke [of death] was due?

“When you cry out [for help], let your [ridiculous] collection of idols save you.But the wind will carry them all away,A [mere] breath will take them.But he who takes refuge in Me will possess the land [Judea]And will inherit My holy mountain.”

“Violence will not be heard again in your land,Nor devastation or destruction within your borders;But you will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise [to God].

“Then all your people will be [uncompromisingly and consistently] righteous;They will possess the land forever,The branch of My planting,The work of My hands,That I may be glorified.

Instead of your [former] shame you will have a double portion;And instead of humiliation your people will shout for joy over their portion.Therefore in their land they will possess double [what they had forfeited];Everlasting joy will be theirs.

It will no longer be said of you [Judah], “Azubah (Abandoned),”Nor will it any longer be said of your land, “Shemamah (Desolate)”;But you will be called, “Hephzibah (My Delight is in Her),”And your land, “Married”;For the Lord delights in you,And to Him your land will be married [owned and protected by the Lord].

“Because he who blesses himself on the earthWill bless himself by the God of truth and faithfulness;And he who swears [an oath] on the earthWill swear by the God of truth and faithfulness;Because the former troubles are forgotten,And because they are hidden from My sight.

“Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things?Can a land be born in one day?Or can a nation be brought forth in a moment?As soon as Zion was in labor, she also brought forth her sons.