Promised Land boundaries

The Bible has different versions of the boundaries of the Promised Land, that God described to Abraham, Moses, and Joshua.

The promise to Abraham, found in Genesis 15:18-21, talks about of the land God will give to his descendants. God says he'll extend the land from the Euphrates River in the east, to the brook of Egypt in the west. This region would include the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

This promise established the idea of a homeland and set the stage for the future exodus from Egypt.

Moses, in Deuteronomy 34:1-4, reports a detailed description of the land promised to the Israelites. The boundaries mentioned in this passage include the Negev desert in the south, the Lebanon mountains in the north, the River Euphrates in the east, and the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

This version of the promise differed from Abraham’s in terms of the specific territories included.

Finally, in the book of Joshua, the promise is fulfilled as they enter the land of Canaan. According to Joshua 1:4, God promised the land promised from the great Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. However, the northernmost boundary fell far short of that: Mount Hermon. And the southern boundary extended to the desert of Paran.

Throughout ancient Jewish history, the actual boundaries varied greatly. King Solomon controlled the largest swath of land, controlling his neighboring nations to the far extend of God's promise to Abraham. But that boundary was short-lived. Israel disappeared when Assyrian and Babylonian invaders destroyed the cities and deported most survivors of the wars in the 700's and 500's BC.