'Land' in the Bible

The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,

Then the Lord said to me, “Out of the north the evil will break forth on all the inhabitants of the land.

Now behold, I have made you today as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole land, to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests and to the people of the land.

“Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord,“I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth,The love of your betrothals,Your following after Me in the wilderness,Through a land not sown.

“They did not say, ‘Where is the LordWho brought us up out of the land of Egypt,Who led us through the wilderness,Through a land of deserts and of pits,Through a land of drought and of deep darkness,Through a land that no one crossedAnd where no man dwelt?’

“I brought you into the fruitful landTo eat its fruit and its good things.But you came and defiled My land,And My inheritance you made an abomination.

“The young lions have roared at him,They have roared loudly.And they have made his land a waste;His cities have been destroyed, without inhabitant.

“O generation, heed the word of the Lord.Have I been a wilderness to Israel,Or a land of thick darkness?Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam;We will no longer come to You’?

God says, “If a husband divorces his wifeAnd she goes from himAnd belongs to another man,Will he still return to her?Will not that land be completely polluted?But you are a harlot with many lovers;Yet you turn to Me,” declares the Lord.

“Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see;Where have you not been violated?By the roads you have sat for themLike an Arab in the desert,And you have polluted a landWith your harlotry and with your wickedness.

Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the Lord, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again.

In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

“Then I said,‘How I would set you among My sonsAnd give you a pleasant land,The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My Father,And not turn away from following Me.’

Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,“Blow the trumpet in the land;Cry aloud and say,‘Assemble yourselves, and let us goInto the fortified cities.’

“A lion has gone up from his thicket,And a destroyer of nations has set out;He has gone out from his placeTo make your land a waste.Your cities will be ruinsWithout inhabitant.

Disaster on disaster is proclaimed,For the whole land is devastated;Suddenly my tents are devastated,My curtains in an instant.

I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness,And all its cities were pulled downBefore the Lord, before His fierce anger.

For thus says the Lord,“The whole land shall be a desolation,Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.

It shall come about when they say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

“An appalling and horrible thingHas happened in the land:

“Be warned, O Jerusalem,Or I shall be alienated from you,And make you a desolation,A land not inhabited.”

“Their houses shall be turned over to others,Their fields and their wives together;For I will stretch out My handAgainst the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord.

“For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from ShebaAnd the sweet cane from a distant land?Your burnt offerings are not acceptableAnd your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”

Thus says the Lord,“Behold, a people is coming from the north land,And a great nation will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth.

then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.

Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them.

Then I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a ruin.

From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses;At the sound of the neighing of his stallionsThe whole land quakes;For they come and devour the land and its fullness,The city and its inhabitants.

Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land:“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not within her?”“Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, with foreign idols?”

“They bend their tongue like their bow;Lies and not truth prevail in the land;For they proceed from evil to evil,And they do not know Me,” declares the Lord.

Who is the wise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through?

“For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion,‘How are we ruined!We are put to great shame,For we have left the land,Because they have cast down our dwellings.’”

For thus says the Lord,“Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the landAt this time,And will cause them distress,That they may be found.”

The sound of a report! Behold, it comes—A great commotion out of the land of the north—To make the cities of JudahA desolation, a haunt of jackals.

which I commanded your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and do according to all which I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God,’

in order to confirm the oath which I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.”’” Then I said, “Amen, O Lord.”

For I solemnly warned your fathers in the day that I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, warning persistently, saying, “Listen to My voice.”

But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter;And I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying,“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,And let us cut him off from the land of the living,That his name be remembered no more.”

How long is the land to mournAnd the vegetation of the countryside to wither?For the wickedness of those who dwell in it,Animals and birds have been snatched away,Because men have said, “He will not see our latter ending.”

“If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out,Then how can you compete with horses?If you fall down in a land of peace,How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?

“It has been made a desolation,Desolate, it mourns before Me;The whole land has been made desolate,Because no man lays it to heart.

“On all the bare heights in the wildernessDestroyers have come,For a sword of the Lord is devouringFrom one end of the land even to the other;There is no peace for anyone.

Thus says the Lord concerning all My wicked neighbors who strike at the inheritance with which I have endowed My people Israel, “Behold I am about to uproot them from their land and will uproot the house of Judah from among them.

And it will come about that after I have uprooted them, I will again have compassion on them; and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land.

then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings that sit for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness!

“Because the ground is cracked,For there has been no rain on the land;The farmers have been put to shame,They have covered their heads.

“O Hope of Israel,Its Savior in time of distress,Why are You like a stranger in the landOr like a traveler who has pitched his tent for the night?

Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them—yet they keep saying, ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’—by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end!

‘If I go out to the country,Behold, those slain with the sword!Or if I enter the city,Behold, diseases of famine!For both prophet and priestHave gone roving about in the land that they do not know.’”

“I will winnow them with a winnowing forkAt the gates of the land;I will bereave them of children, I will destroy My people;They did not repent of their ways.

Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne meAs a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land!I have not lent, nor have men lent money to me,Yet everyone curses me.

“Then I will cause your enemies to bring itInto a land you do not know;For a fire has been kindled in My anger,It will burn upon you.”

For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bear them, and their fathers who beget them in this land:

Both great men and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, they will not be lamented, nor will anyone gash himself or shave his head for them.

So I will hurl you out of this land into the land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor.’

“Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.

I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.”

And you will, even of yourself, let go of your inheritanceThat I gave you;And I will make you serve your enemiesIn the land which you do not know;For you have kindled a fire in My angerWhich will burn forever.

“For he will be like a bush in the desertAnd will not see when prosperity comes,But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,A land of salt without inhabitant.

They will come in from the cities of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord.

‘Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country?Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever snatched away?

To make their land a desolation,An object of perpetual hissing;Everyone who passes by it will be astonishedAnd shake his head.

Do not weep for the dead or mourn for him,But weep continually for the one who goes away;For he will never returnOr see his native land.

but in the place where they led him captive, there he will die and not see this land again.

But as for the land to which they desire to return, they will not return to it.

“Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar?Or is he an undesirable vessel?Why have he and his descendants been hurled outAnd cast into a land that they had not known?

“O land, land, land,Hear the word of the Lord!

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,“When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch;And He will reign as king and act wiselyAnd do justice and righteousness in the land.

“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.”

For the land is full of adulterers;For the land mourns because of the curse.The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.Their course also is evilAnd their might is not right.

“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets,‘Behold, I am going to feed them wormwoodAnd make them drink poisonous water,For from the prophets of JerusalemPollution has gone forth into all the land.’”

“Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans.

For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not overthrow them, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.

‘But like the bad figs which cannot be eaten due to rottenness—indeed, thus says the Lord—so I will abandon Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and the ones who dwell in the land of Egypt.

I will send the sword, the famine and the pestilence upon them until they are destroyed from the land which I gave to them and their forefathers.’”

saying, ‘Turn now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell on the land which the Lord has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever;

behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

‘Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares the Lord, ‘for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.

I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.

and all the foreign people, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines (even Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod);

“He has left His hiding place like the lion;For their land has become a horrorBecause of the fierceness of the oppressing swordAnd because of His fierce anger.”

Then some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,

Indeed, there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land words similar to all those of Jeremiah.

All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will make him their servant.

For they prophesy a lie to you in order to remove you far from your land; and I will drive you out and you will perish.

But the nation which will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let remain on its land,” declares the Lord, “and they will till it and dwell in it.”’”

For behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah.’ The Lord says, ‘I will also bring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers and they shall possess it.’”

‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant,’ declares the Lord,‘And do not be dismayed, O Israel;For behold, I will save you from afarAnd your offspring from the land of their captivity.And Jacob will return and will be quiet and at ease,And no one will make him afraid.

Thus says the Lord,“Restrain your voice from weepingAnd your eyes from tears;For your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord,“And they will return from the land of the enemy.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Once again they will speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities when I restore their fortunes,‘The Lord bless you, O abode of righteousness,O holy hill!’

not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of the Lord and said to me, ‘Buy my field, please, that is at Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for you have the right of possession and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”’

who has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day both in Israel and among mankind; and You have made a name for Yourself, as at this day.

You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror;