Over the summer I read through the book of Deuteronomy and jotted down some ideas that came to me. Here I begin to develop those as time permits. I want to start with,
(Deuteronomy 1:7 KJV) Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.As you read through this passage you get a view for the vision God had for His people. He planned on giving them a land. This is quite a large chunk of territory. It would include a much larger area than modern Israel.
The exact lines are difficult to establish. Every scholar seems to have a slightly different understanding so let’s look at the terms that we are more familiar with. In verse 1 you have the KJV mentioning the Red Sea. Everyone I read agreed that the word “sea” is not in the Hebrew and it seems to refer to something else. The Amorites and Moab are mentioned as well as the Negev and Canaanites. This would mean the area to the east of the Dead Sea and south to the Gulf of Aqabah. In the North and East you have Lebanon and the Euphrates River mentioned.
This is obviously a larger area than modern Israel and covers areas that neither David or Solomon controlled.
So what is historic Israel? Larger than today. Does that give a right to conquest? History will be the judge of that.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.