Borders of the Promised Land

Promised Land is, as far as I know, unique to Judaism and the importance of divinely designated land does not appear independently in other religions.

Tanakh introduces Land very early in the First Book of Moses, Genesis, bereshit. Not only the Land as itself as in the burning bush story and Moses but Land with its owners, inhabitants. The Promised Land, Canaan, is promised to someone, Abram:

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.
Gen 12:1-9 KJV

The Land of Canaan is inhabited by the Canaanites and Abram journeys there much like Sinuhe the Egyptian did in 20th century BC.

The Lord promises to Abram in a later passage of Genesis a land from the river of Egypt to Euphrates.

In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
Gen 15:18-21 KJV



The boundaries of the Promised Land are given in various texts reflecting different times in the compilation of Tanakh and the political situation. There are tribal boundaries from the times of the the Judges, borders of the United Kingdom of David and Solomon and boundaries of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. The Land of Israel was then incorporated to Persian, Hellenistic and Roman empires under local leadership, with the short period of independence under the Maccabeans, until the great destruction finalized at the end of the Bar Kochba Revolt 132-136 AD.

The Abrahamic covenant includes the Land from "river of Egypt" which may rather be the Brook of Egypt, Wadi el-Arish in northern Sinai than Nile which is beyond the Reef Sea (Suez).

There are many highly elaborate Biblical descriptions of the boundaries from he southern border of the "Brook of Egypt", Wadi el-Arish, and to what was the Ottoman pashalik of Filastin, modern Israel, Gaza, West Bank and Jordan. The second promise to Abram would also include much of modern Syria.

These descriptions, listings of the cities and highly detailed ancient maps of routes in the Geography of the Bible indicate the centrality and great importance of the Land in Judaism.

It is an essential element in the Sinai covenant between the God of Israel and His people and directly connected to the Law. This is especially clear in the Deuteronomistic history where not only during the Conquest but also during later periods "living in the Promised Land" is conditional and deeply connected to the obedience of the nation to the divine Law.