'Open Country' in the Bible

Isaac went out to bow down [in prayer] in the field in the [early] evening; he raised his eyes and looked, and camels were coming.

So now, please take your [hunting] gear, your quiver [of arrows] and your bow, and go out into the open country and hunt game for me;

But Rebekah overheard what Isaac said to Esau his son; and when Esau had gone to the open country to hunt for game that he might bring back,

Now a certain man found Joseph, and saw that he was wandering around and had lost his way in the field; so the man asked him, “What are you looking for?”

“However, if the man finds the girl who is engaged (legally betrothed) in the [open] field, and seizes her and is intimate with her [by force], then only the man who lies with her shall be put to death.

When he found her in the [open] field, the engaged girl [may have] cried out for help, but there was no one to [hear and] save her.

The Benjamites went out against their army and were lured away from the city, and they began to strike and kill some of the people as at other times, on the highways, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah, and in the open country, about thirty men of Israel.

The Ammonites came out and lined up for battle at the entrance of the [city] gate, but the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were [stationed] by themselves in the field.

Then the king got up in the night and said to his servants, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know that we are hungry; so they have left the camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city.’”

The Ammonites came out and lined up in battle formation at the entrance of the city [Medeba], while the kings who had come were by themselves in the open country.

Now when all the commanders of the forces that were [scattered] in the open country [of Judah] and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land [of Judah] and had put him in charge of the men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been exiled to Babylon,

Moreover, Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were [scattered] in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah

and you will say, ‘I will go up against an open country; I will come against those who are at rest and peaceful, who live securely, all of them living without walls and having neither bars nor gates,

“The remaining [strip of] 5,000 cubits in width and 25,000 in length shall be for the city’s common (secular) use, for a place in which to live and for open country. The city shall be in the midst of it.

The city shall have open country: toward the north 250 cubits, and toward the south 250, toward the east 250, and toward the west 250.

“I will destroy her vines and her fig treesOf which she has said, ‘These are my wagesWhich my lovers have given me.’And I will make them a forest,And the animals of the open country will devour them.

“And in that day I will make a covenant for IsraelWith the animals of the open countryAnd with the birds of the heavensAnd with the creeping things of the ground.And I will abolish the bow and the sword and [banish] war from the landAnd will make them lie down in safety.

Therefore the land [continually] mourns,And everyone who lives in it languishes [in tragic suffering]Together with the animals of the open country and the birds of the heavens;Even the fish of the sea disappear.

Now Jacob (Israel) fled into the open country of Aram (Paddan-aram),And [there] Israel (Jacob) worked and served for a wife,And for a wife he kept sheep.

Therefore I [the Lord] shall make Samaria a heap of ruins [and of stones and arable land] in the open country,A place for planting vineyards;And I will pour her stones down into the ravineAnd lay bare her foundations.

“Writhe in pain and labor to give birth,O Daughter of Zion,Like a woman in childbirth;For now you shall go out of the city,Live in the field,And go to Babylon.There you will be rescued;There the Lord shall redeem youFrom the hand of your enemies.