'Land' in the Bible

"These are the names of the men who are to allocate the land to you as an inheritance: Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun.

You must take one leader from every tribe to assist in allocating the land as an inheritance.

These are the ones whom the Lord commanded to divide up the inheritance among the Israelites in the land of Canaan.

"Instruct the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns.

"You must measure from outside the wall of the town on the east 1,000 yards, and on the south side 1,000 yards, and on the west side 1,000 yards, and on the north side 1,000 yards, with the town in the middle. This territory must belong to them as grazing land for the towns.

"Speak to the Israelites and tell them, 'When you cross over the Jordan River into the land of Canaan,

"You must give three towns on this side of the Jordan, and you must give three towns in the land of Canaan; they must be towns of refuge.

because the slayer should have stayed in his town of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer may return to the land of his possessions.

And you must not accept a ransom for anyone who has fled to a town of refuge, to allow him to return home and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.

"You must not pollute the land where you live, for blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there, except by the blood of the person who shed it.

Therefore do not defile the land that you will inhabit, in which I live, for I the Lord live among the Israelites."

They said, "The Lord commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the Israelites; and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

Look! I have already given the land to you. Go, occupy the territory that I, the Lord, promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants."

Look, he has placed the land in front of you! Go up, take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to do. Do not be afraid or discouraged!"

So all of you approached me and said, "Let's send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there."

Then they took some of the produce of the land and carried it back down to us. They also brought a report to us, saying, "The land that the Lord our God is about to give us is good."

"Not a single person of this evil generation will see the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors!

However, Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, will go. Encourage him, because he will enable Israel to inherit the land.

Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way, and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad, will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it.

Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea just as the Lord told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time.

Do not be hostile toward them, because I am not giving you any of their land, not even a footprint, for I have given Mount Seir as an inheritance for Esau.

Then the Lord said to me, "Do not harass Moab and provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as your territory. This is because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their possession.

Previously the Horites lived in Seir but the descendants of Esau dispossessed and destroyed them and settled in their place, just as Israel did to the land it came to possess, the land the Lord gave them.)

But when you come close to the Ammonites, do not harass or provoke them because I am not giving you any of the Ammonites' land as your possession; I have already given it to Lot's descendants as their possession.

(That also is considered to be a land of the Rephaites. The Rephaites lived there originally; the Ammonites call them Zamzummites.

Get up, make your way across Wadi Arnon. Look! I have already delivered over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Go ahead! Take it! Engage him in war!

"Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the roadway. I will not turn aside to the right or the left.

just as the descendants of Esau who live at Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land the Lord our God is giving us."

The Lord said to me, "Look! I have already begun to give over Sihon and his land to you. Start right now to take his land as your possession."

However, you did not approach the land of the Ammonites, the Wadi Jabbok, the cities of the hill country, or any place else forbidden by the Lord our God.

The Lord, however, said to me, "Don't be afraid of him because I have already given him, his whole army, and his land to you. You will do to him exactly what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon."

So at that time we took the land of the two Amorite kings in the Transjordan from Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon

This is the land we brought under our control at that time: The territory extending from Aroer by the Wadi Arnon and half the Gilead hill country with its cities I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites.

The rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh. (All the region of Argob, that is, all Bashan, is called the land of Rephaim.

At that time I instructed you as follows: "The Lord your God has given you this land for your possession. You warriors are to cross over before your fellow Israelites equipped for battle.

You must fight until the Lord gives your countrymen victory as he did you and they take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan River. Then each of you may return to his own territory that I have given you."

Let me please cross over to see the good land on the other side of the Jordan River -- this good hill country and the Lebanon!"

Commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, because he will lead these people over and will enable them to inherit the land you will see."

Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

Look! I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord my God told me to do, so that you might carry them out in the land you are about to enter and possess.

You stood before the Lord your God at Horeb and he said to me, "Assemble the people before me so that I can tell them my commands. Then they will learn to revere me all the days they live in the land, and they will instruct their children."

Moreover, at that same time the Lord commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to keep in the land which you are about to enter and possess.

any kind of land animal, any bird that flies in the sky,

But the Lord became angry with me because of you and vowed that I would never cross the Jordan nor enter the good land that he is about to give you.

So I must die here in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. But you are going over and will possess that good land.

After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him,

I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will surely and swiftly be removed from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be annihilated.

to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property.

Keep his statutes and commandments that I am setting forth today so that it may go well with you and your descendants and that you may enjoy longevity in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you as a permanent possession.

in the Transjordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. (It is he whom Moses and the Israelites attacked after they came out of Egypt.

They possessed his land and that of King Og of Bashan -- both of whom were Amorite kings in the Transjordan, to the east.

"I am the Lord your God, he who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery.

Recall that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by strength and power. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

Honor your father and your mother just as the Lord your God has commanded you to do, so that your days may be extended and that it may go well with you in the land that he is about to give you.

But as for you, remain here with me so I can declare to you all the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that you are to teach them, so that they can carry them out in the land I am about to give them."

Walk just as he has commanded you so that you may live, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land you are going to possess.

Now these are the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed

Pay attention, Israel, and be careful to do this so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in number -- as the Lord, God of your ancestors, said to you, you will have a land flowing with milk and honey.

Then when the Lord your God brings you to the land he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you -- a land with large, fine cities you did not build,

for the Lord your God, who is present among you, is a jealous God and his anger will erupt against you and remove you from the land.

Do whatever is proper and good before the Lord so that it may go well with you and that you may enter and occupy the good land that he promised your ancestors,

He delivered us from there so that he could give us the land he had promised our ancestors.

When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you -- Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you --

He will love and bless you, and make you numerous. He will bless you with many children, with the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the offspring of your oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land which he promised your ancestors to give you.

You must keep carefully all these commandments I am giving you today so that you may live, increase in number, and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors.

For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of brooks, springs, and fountains flowing forth in valleys and hills,

a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, of olive trees and honey,

a land where you may eat food in plenty and find no lack of anything, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you can mine copper.

You will eat your fill and then praise the Lord your God because of the good land he has given you.

be sure you do not feel self-important and forget the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery,

Do not think to yourself after the Lord your God has driven them out before you, "Because of my own righteousness the Lord has brought me here to possess this land." It is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out ahead of you.

It is not because of your righteousness, or even your inner uprightness, that you have come here to possess their land. Instead, because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out ahead of you in order to confirm the promise he made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Understand, therefore, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is about to give you this good land as a possession, for you are a stubborn people!

Remember -- don't ever forget -- how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert; from the time you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were constantly rebelling against him.

And when he sent you from Kadesh-Barnea and told you, "Go up and possess the land I have given you," you rebelled against the Lord your God and would neither believe nor obey him.

Otherwise the people of the land from which you brought us will say, "The Lord was unable to bring them to the land he promised them, and because of his hatred for them he has brought them out to kill them in the desert."

Then he said to me, "Get up, set out leading the people so they may go and possess the land I promised to give to their ancestors."

So you must love the resident foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

They did not see the awesome deeds he performed in the midst of Egypt against Pharaoh king of Egypt and his whole land,

Now pay attention to all the commandments I am giving you today, so that you may be strong enough to enter and possess the land where you are headed,

and that you may enjoy long life in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

For the land where you are headed is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, a land where you planted seed and which you irrigated by hand like a vegetable garden.

Instead, the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy is one of hills and valleys, a land that drinks in water from the rains,

a land the Lord your God looks after. He is constantly attentive to it from the beginning to the end of the year.

then he promises, "I will send rain for your land in its season, the autumn and the spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and olive oil.

Then the anger of the Lord will erupt against you and he will close up the sky so that it does not rain. The land will not yield its produce, and you will soon be removed from the good land that the Lord is about to give you.

so that your days and those of your descendants may be extended in the land which the Lord promised to give to your ancestors, like the days of heaven itself.

Nobody will be able to resist you; the Lord your God will spread the fear and terror of you over the whole land on which you walk, just as he promised you.

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are to possess, you must pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

Are they not across the Jordan River, toward the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the oak of Moreh?

For you are about to cross the Jordan to possess the land the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess and inhabit it.

These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess.

When you do go across the Jordan River and settle in the land he is granting you as an inheritance and you find relief from all the enemies who surround you, you will live in safety.

Be careful not to overlook the Levites as long as you live in the land.

When the Lord your God eliminates the nations from the place where you are headed and you dispossess them, you will settle down in their land.

As for that prophet or dreamer, he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge out evil from within.

You must stone him to death because he tried to entice you away from the Lord your God, who delivered you from the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.

However, there should not be any poor among you, for the Lord will surely bless you in the land that he is giving you as an inheritance,

If a fellow Israelite from one of your villages in the land that the Lord your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive to his impoverished condition.

There will never cease to be some poor people in the land; therefore, I am commanding you to make sure you open your hand to your fellow Israelites who are needy and poor in your land.