Boundaries of the Promised Land

(Book of Numbers 33:50 - 34:29) 
When they were camped on the plains of Moab by the River Jordan, across from Jericho, Jehovah told Moses to tell the Israelites, "When you cross the River Jordan, drive out all the people living there.  Destroy their carved idols and brazen images.  Demolish their temples and shrines.  Take possession of the land and settle on it, for I have given it to you to be your property.  You must distribute the land to the clans by lot, proportionally: that is, a larger group will receive a larger parcel of land, a smaller group, a smaller parcel.  Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs.  In this way the land will be divided up among the ancestral tribes.  But if you fail to drive out the native inhabitants of the land, they will be a thorn in your side and give you trouble wherever you may live in the land.  Then I will do to you what I planned to do to them."

Jehovah told Moses to give these commands to the Israelites, "When you enter Canaan, the land that is your inheritance shall have these boundaries:

"Your southern border will include the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom.  The boundary line will begin in the east at the Dead Sea.  It will extend south to Scorpion Pass in the direction of Zin.  Its southernmost point will be Kardesh Barnea, from which it will go to Hazar Addar and then to Azmon.  From there it will turn toward the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Mediterranean Sea.

"For your western border you will have the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea; that's your western boundary.

"Your northern border will begin at the Mediterranean Sea and run east to Mount Hor, then to Lebo Hamath, on to Zedad and Ziphron, and then to Hazar Enan.  That will be the northern boundary.

"The eastern border will begin at Hazar Enan and run south to Shepham and then to Riblah on the east side of Ain.  From there it will run along the eastern edge of the Sea of Galilee and down the River Jordan, ending at the Dead Sea.

"These are the boundaries that encompass your country!"

Moses told the Israelites, "This is the legacy of land that will be divided by lot.  Jehovah has commanded that you divide it among the remain 9 1/2 tribes.  The ancestral clans of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh have already claimed their inheritance; these 2 1/2 tribes have received grants of land east of the River Jordan across from Jericho, toward the rising sun."

Jehovah instructed Moses, "Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun are the men who should supervise the division of the land grants.  And you should appoint a leader from each tribe to assist in this task.  The names of the men are as follows:

Caleb son of Jephunneh from the tribe of Judah
Shemuel son of Ammihud from the tribe of Simeon
Elidad son of Kislon from the tribe of Benjamin
Bukki son of Jogli, a leader from the tribe of Dan
Hanniel son of Ephod, a leader from the tribe of Manasseh
Kemuel son of Shiphtan, a leader from the tribe of Ephraim
Elizaphan son of Parnak, a leader from the tribe of Zebulun
Paltiel son of Azzan, a leader from the tribe o Issachar
Ahihud son of Shelomi, a leader from the tribe of Asher
Pedahel son of Ammihud, a leader from the tribe of Naphtali.”

These are the men that Jehovah assigned to oversee the division of the Israelite inheritance in the land of Canaan.

Notes
1. It is Jehovah's plan that the Israelites totally displace the present inhabitants of the Promised Land, the Canaanites, so that they may never be a problem to his people.  The Israelites are not to live in harmony with them, they are not to conquer and rule them, but are to expel or exterminate the Canaanites.  Considering the vast size of the territory involved and the number of people living there, it would be virtually impossible to empty the land and evict its population.  Where would the people go?  Could they all be driven into the desert or into the sea?  Indeed, Jehovah's plan and the promise of an easy conquest of Canaan is totally unrealistic.  Yet, he is setting the boundaries of a land that his people have not yet begun to conquer.

2. Pointedly, Jehovah orders his people to destroy the idols and altars of the Canaanites the Israelites are going to make war against.  The Canaanites not only have no right to live in their own ancestral lands, but have no right to worship the gods of their choosing.  Jehovah has constantly been at war with his rival gods.  There has never been a suggestion that these gods do not exist, only that Jehovah takes primacy over them.  Jehovah has made enemies with all the other gods and his Chosen People are used by him as tools to show up and punish them.

3. The borders of traditional Israel are roughly from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Jordan, from the Sea of Galilee to a line drawn from the lower end of the Dead Sea.  It includes the Left Bank, but not the Negev, which is part of modern Israel.