'Land' in the Bible

And the second son he named Ephraim, meaning, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

Then the seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt came to an end,

and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in every country, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food.

Extreme hunger came to all the land of Egypt, and the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh told all Egypt, “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.”

Because the famine had spread across the whole country, Joseph opened up all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.

The sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them.“Where do you come from?” he asked.“From the land of Canaan to buy food,” they replied.

Joseph remembered his dreams about them and said to them, “You are spies. You have come to see the weakness of the land.”

“No,” he said to them. “You have come to see the weakness of the land.”

But they replied, “We, your servants, were 12 brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no longer living.”

When they reached their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them:

We were 12 brothers, sons of the same father. One is no longer living, and the youngest is now with our father in the land of Canaan.

Now the famine in the land was severe.

Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your packs and take them down to the man as a gift—some balsam and some honey, aromatic gum and resin, pistachios and almonds.

We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money we found at the top of our bags. How could we steal gold and silver from your master’s house?

For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.

God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.

Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

You can settle in the land of Goshen and be near me—you, your children, and grandchildren, your sheep, cattle, and all you have.

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and go on back to the land of Canaan.

Get your father and your families, and come back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you can eat from the richness of the land.’

You are also commanded, ‘Do this: Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your young children and your wives and bring your father here.

Do not be concerned about your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

So they went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.

They said, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them.

They also took their cattle and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Then Jacob and all his children went with him to Egypt.

Judah’s sons: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.Perez’s sons: Hezron and Hamul.

Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt. They were born to him by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, a priest at On.

Now Jacob had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to prepare for his arrival at Goshen. When they came to the land of Goshen,

Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and inform Pharaoh, telling him: My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

you are to say, ‘Your servants, both we and our fathers, have raised livestock from our youth until now.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen, since all shepherds are abhorrent to Egyptians.”

So Joseph went and informed Pharaoh: “My father and my brothers, with their sheep and cattle and all that they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in the land of Goshen.”

Then they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live in the land for a while because there is no grazing land for your servants’ sheep, since the famine in the land of Canaan has been severe. So now, please let your servants settle in the land of Goshen.”

the land of Egypt is open before you; settle your father and brothers in the best part of the land. They can live in the land of Goshen. If you know of any capable men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”

Then Joseph settled his father and brothers in the land of Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

But there was no food in that entire region, for the famine was very severe. The land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were exhausted by the famine.

Joseph collected all the money to be found in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain they were purchasing, and he brought the money to Pharaoh’s palace.

When the money from the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan was gone, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die here in front of you? The money is gone!”

When that year was over, they came the next year and said to him, “We cannot hide from our lord that the money is gone and that all our livestock belongs to our lord. There is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.

Why should we die here in front of you—both us and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. Then we with our land will become Pharaoh’s slaves. Give us seed so that we can live and not die, and so that the land won’t become desolate.”

In this way, Joseph acquired all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh, because every Egyptian sold his field since the famine was so severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s,

The only land he didn’t acquire was the priests’ portion, for it was given to them by Pharaoh. They lived off the rations Pharaoh had given them; therefore they did not sell their land.

Then Joseph said to the people, “Understand today that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you. Sow it in the land.

So Joseph made it a law, still in effect today in the land of Egypt, that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. Only the priests’ land does not belong to Pharaoh.

Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. They acquired property in it and became fruitful and very numerous.

Now Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years, and his life span was 147 years.

Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.

He said to me, ‘I will make you fruitful and numerous; I will make many nations come from you, and I will give this land as an eternal possession to your future descendants.’

Your two sons born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are now mine. Ephraim and Manasseh belong to me just as Reuben and Simeon do.

When I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way, some distance from Ephrath in the land of Canaan. I buried her there along the way to Ephrath,” (that is, Bethlehem).

the Angel who has redeemed me from all harm—may He bless these boys.And may they be called by my nameand the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,and may they grow to be numerous within the land.

Then Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.

He saw that his resting place was goodand that the land was pleasant,so he leaned his shoulder to bear a loadand became a forced laborer.

The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.

my father made me take an oath, saying, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me there in the tomb that I made for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now let me go and bury my father. Then I will return.”

Then Joseph went to bury his father, and all Pharaoh’s servants, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt went with him,

along with all Joseph’s household, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, their sheep, and their cattle were left in the land of Goshen.

When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a solemn mourning on the part of the Egyptians.” Therefore the place is named Abel-mizraim. It is across the Jordan.

They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite.

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will certainly come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land He promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous so that the land was filled with them.

When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.

She gave birth to a son whom he named Gershom, for he said, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.”

I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the territory of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

And I have promised you that I will bring you up from the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.

So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took God’s staff in his hand.

Pharaoh also said, “Look, the people of the land are so numerous, and you would stop them from working.”

So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.

But the Lord replied to Moses, “Now you are going to see what I will do to Pharaoh: he will let them go because of My strong hand; he will drive them out of his land because of My strong hand.”

I also established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land they lived in as foreigners.

I will bring you to the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as a possession. I am Yahweh.”

“Go and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go from his land.”

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them commands concerning both the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.

It was this Aaron and Moses whom the Lord told, “Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt according to their divisions.”

On the day the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt,

You must say whatever I command you; then Aaron your brother must declare it to Pharaoh so that he will let the Israelites go from his land.

But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.

Pharaoh will not listen to you, but I will put My hand on Egypt and bring the divisions of My people the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.

So the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron: Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over their rivers, canals, ponds, and all their water reservoirs—and they will become blood. There will be blood throughout the land of Egypt, even in wooden and stone containers.”

The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad the Egyptians could not drink water from it. There was blood throughout the land of Egypt.

The Lord then said to Moses, “Tell Aaron: Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, canals, and ponds, and cause the frogs to come up onto the land of Egypt.”

When Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.

But the magicians did the same thing by their occult practices and brought frogs up onto the land of Egypt.

They piled them in countless heaps, and there was a terrible odor in the land.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron: Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, and it will become gnats throughout the land of Egypt.”

And they did this. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and when he struck the dust of the earth, gnats were on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats throughout the land of Egypt.

But if you will not let My people go, then I will send swarms of flies against you, your officials, your people, and your houses. The Egyptians’ houses will swarm with flies, and so will the land where they live.

But on that day I will give special treatment to the land of Goshen, where My people are living; no flies will be there. This way you will know that I, Yahweh, am in the land.

And the Lord did this. Thick swarms of flies went into Pharaoh’s palace and his officials’ houses. Throughout Egypt the land was ruined because of the swarms of flies.

And the Lord set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.”

It will become fine dust over the entire land of Egypt. It will become festering boils on man and beast throughout the land of Egypt.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven and let there be hail throughout the land of Egypt—on man and beast and every plant of the field in the land of Egypt.”

So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail. Lightning struck the earth, and the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt.

The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

Throughout the land of Egypt, the hail struck down everything in the field, both man and beast. The hail beat down every plant of the field and shattered every tree in the field.

The only place it didn’t hail was in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were.

Moses went out from Pharaoh and the city, and extended his hands to the Lord. Then the thunder and hail ceased, and rain no longer poured down on the land.

They will cover the surface of the land so that no one will be able to see the land. They will eat the remainder left to you that escaped the hail; they will eat every tree you have growing in the fields.

They will fill your houses, all your officials’ houses, and the houses of all the Egyptians—something your fathers and ancestors never saw since the time they occupied the land until today.” Then he turned and left Pharaoh’s presence.

The Lord then said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt and the locusts will come up over it and eat every plant in the land, everything that the hail left.”