'Land' in the Bible

The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, [one] of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,

Then the Lord said to me, “Out of the north the evil [which the prophets foretold as the result of national sin] will reveal itself and spill out on all the people of the land.

Now behold, I have made you today like a fortified city and like an iron pillar and like bronze walls against the whole land—against the [successive] kings of Judah, against its leaders, against its priests, and against the people of the land [giving you divine strength which no hostile power can overcome].

“Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord,“I remember [earnestly] the lovingkindness and devotion of your youth,Your time of betrothal [like that of a bride during the early years in Egypt and again at Sinai],When you followed Me in the wilderness,Through a land not sown.

“They did not say, ‘Where is the LordWho brought us up from the land of Egypt,Who led us through the wilderness,Through a land of deserts and of pits,Through a land of drought and of the deep darkness [of the shadow of death],Through a land that no man passed throughAnd where no man lived?’

“I brought you into a plentiful landTo eat its fruit and [enjoy] its good things.But you came and defiled My landAnd you made My inheritance repulsive.

“The young lions have roared at him,They have made their voices heard and roared loudly.And they have made his land a waste;His cities have been destroyed and are burned ruins, without inhabitant.

“O generation [that you are], consider and regard carefully the word of the Lord.Have I been a wilderness to Israel [like a land without food],A land of thick and deep darkness [like a path without light]?Why do My people say, ‘We [have broken loose and we] are free to roam [at will];We will no longer come to You’?

That is to say, “If a man divorces his wifeAnd she goes [away] from himAnd becomes another man’s [wife],Will he return to her again? [Of course not!]Will not that land [where such a thing happened] be completely desecrated?But you [rebelled against Me and you] are a prostitute with many lovers;Yet you turn to Me.” says the Lord.

“Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see;Where have you not been violated?You sat by the road waiting [eagerly] for them [those man-made gods]Like an Arab [tribesman who waits to attack] in the desert,And you have desecrated the landWith your [vile] prostitution and your wickedness (disobedience to God).

Because of the thoughtlessness of Israel’s prostitution [her immorality mattered little to her], she desecrated the land and committed adultery with [idols of] stones and trees.

It will be in those days when you have [repented and] multiplied and increased in the land,” says the Lord, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It will not come to mind, nor will they [seriously] remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again [for instead of the ark, which symbolized My presence, I will be present].

In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

“Then I said,‘How [gloriously and honorably] I would set you among My childrenAnd give you a pleasant land—a wonderful heritage,The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My FatherAnd not turn away from following Me.’

Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,“Blow the trumpet in the land;Cry aloud and say,‘Assemble yourselves, and let us goInto the fortified cities.’

“A lion has left his lair,And a destroyer of nations is on his way.He has gone out from his placeTo desolate your land;Your cities will be in ruinsWithout an inhabitant.

News of one [terrible] disaster comes close after another,For the whole land is devastated;Suddenly my tents are spoiled and destroyed,My [tent] curtains [ruined] in a moment.

I looked at the earth [in my vision], and behold, it was [as at the time of creation] formless and void;And to the heavens, and they had no light.

I looked, and behold, the fertile land was a wilderness,And all its cities were pulled downBefore the [presence of the] Lord, before His fierce anger.

Therefore says the Lord,“The whole land shall be a desolation,Yet I will not cause total destruction.

It will come about when your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall answer them, ‘As you have abandoned (rejected) Me,’ [says the Lord,] ‘and have served strange and foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

“An appalling and horrible thing [bringing desolation and destruction]Has come to pass in the land:

“Be wise and be warned, O Jerusalem,Or I will be alienated from you,And make you a desolation,An uninhabited land.”

“Their houses shall be turned over to others,Their fields and their wives together;For I will stretch out My handAgainst the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord.

then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers [to live in] forever and ever.

For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.

Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have [persistently] sent you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily, early [and late].

Then I will cause the voices of joy and gladness, and the voices of the bridegroom and the bride to vanish from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem; for the land will become a ruin—a wasteland.

The snorting of [Nebuchadnezzar’s] horses is heard from Dan [on Palestine’s northern border].At the sound of the neighing of his strong stallionsThe whole land quakes;For they come and devour the land and all that is in it,The city and those who live in it.

“They bend their tongue like their bow;[Their] lies and not truth prevail and grow strong in the land;For they proceed from evil to evil,And they do not know and understand and acknowledge Me,” says the Lord.

Who is the wise man who may understand this [without any doubt]? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

“For a sound of wailing is heard [coming] from Zion:‘How we are ruined!We are greatly perplexed and utterly shamed,Because we have left the land,Because they have torn down our dwellings.’”

For thus says the Lord;“Behold, I am slinging out at this time the people of this land,And will cause them [great] distress,That they may find it [to be as I have said].”

which I commanded your fathers at the time that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Listen to My voice and do according to all that I command you. So you shall be My people, and I will be your God,’

that I may complete the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land [of plenty] flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.”’” Then I answered, “Amen (so be it), O Lord.”

For I solemnly warned your fathers at the time that I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, warning them persistently, saying, “Obey My voice.”

But I was like a gentle and tame lamb brought to the slaughter;And I did not know that they had devised plots and schemes against me, saying,“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit;Let us cut him off from the land of the living,That his name be remembered no longer.”

How long must the land mournAnd the grass of the countryside wither?Because of the wickedness and hypocrisy of those who live in it,The beasts and the birds are consumed and are swept away [by the drought],Because men [mocking me] have said, “He will not [live long enough to] see [what happens at] our final end.”

[The Lord rebukes Jeremiah for his impatience, saying] “If you have raced with men on foot and they have tired you out,Then how can you compete with horses?If you fall down in a land of peace [where you feel secure],Then how will you do [among the lions] in the [flooded] thicket beside the Jordan?

“They have made it a wasteland,Desolate, it mourns before Me;The whole land has been made a wasteland,Because no man takes it to heart.

“Destroyers have comeOn all the caravan roads in the desert,For the sword of the Lord (Babylon) is devouringFrom one end of the land even to the other;No one has peace or a way of escape.

Thus says the Lord regarding all My evil neighbors (Gentile nations) who strike at the inheritance which I have granted to My people Israel, “Behold, I will uproot them from their land and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them.

And it shall come about that after I have uprooted them, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them back again, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land.

Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am about to fill with drunkenness all the people of this land, even the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets and all the people of Jerusalem.

“The ground is crackedBecause there has been no rain on the land;The farmers are distressed,And they have covered their heads [in shame].

“O Hope of Israel,Her Savior in time of distress and trouble,Why should You be like a sojourner (temporary resident) in the landOr like a traveler who turns aside and spreads his tent to linger [only] for a night?

Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the [false] prophets who are prophesying in My Name, although I did not send them—yet they keep saying, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land’: by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end and be consumed.

‘If I go out into the field,Then I gaze on those slaughtered with the sword!And if I enter the city,Then I gaze on [those tormented with] the diseases of famine!For both prophet and priest [who should have guided the people]Go about [bewildered and exiled] in a land (Babylon) that they do not know or understand.’”

“I will winnow (sort, separate) them with a winnowing forkAt the gates of the land;I will deprive them of children, I will destroy My people;They did not repent and turn from their [evil] ways.

“Then I will make your enemies bring [you along with] your possessionsInto a land which you do not know [for there you will serve your conquerors];For a fire has been kindled in My anger,Which will burn upon you.”

For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who give birth to them, and the fathers who father them in this land:

Both great men and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, nor will they be lamented (mourned over with expressions of grief in death), nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them [in mourning].

Therefore I will hurl you out of this land [of Judah] into the land [of the Babylonians] which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no compassion.’

“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries to which He had driven them.’ And I will bring them back to their land which I gave to their fathers.

I will first doubly repay and punish them for their wickedness and their sin [before I return them to their land], because they have profaned My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.”

And you will, through your own fault, let go of your [grip on your] inheritanceThat I gave you;And I will make you serve your enemiesIn a land which you do not know;For you have kindled a fire in My angerWhich will burn forever.

“For he will be like a shrub in the [parched] desert;And shall not see prosperity when it comes,But shall live in the rocky places of the wilderness,In an uninhabited salt land.

People will come from the cities of Judah and the places all around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country and from the South (the Negev), bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord.

‘Will the snow of [Mount] Lebanon melt and vanish from its rocks [which tower above Israel]?Will the cold, rushing waters of foreign lands [that flow down from the distant land] be dried up?

Making their land a desolation and a horror,A thing to be hissed at perpetually;Everyone who passes by will be astoundedAnd shake his head [in scorn].

he will die in the place where they led him captive and not see this land again.

But as for the land to which they long to return, they will not return to it.

“Is this man [King] Coniah a despised, broken jar?Is he a vessel in which no one takes pleasure?Why are he and his [royal] descendants hurled outAnd cast into a land which they do not know or understand?

“O land, land, land,Hear the word of the Lord!

“Behold (listen closely), the days are coming,” says the Lord,“When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch;And He will reign as King and act wiselyAnd will do [those things that accomplish] justice and righteousness in the land.

“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

but [they will say], ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries to which I had driven them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”

For the land is full of adulterers (unfaithful to God);The land mourns because of the curse [of God upon it].The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.The course of action [of the false prophets] is evil and they rush into wickedness;And their power is not right.

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts in regard to the prophets,‘Behold, I am going to feed them [the bitterness of] wormwoodAnd make them drink the poisonous water [of gall],For from the [counterfeit] prophets of JerusalemProfaneness and ungodliness have spread into all the land.’”

“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent from this place into the land of the Chaldeans.

For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not overwhelm them, and I will plant them and not uproot them.

‘And as for the bad figs, which are so rotten that they cannot be eaten,’ surely thus says the Lord, ‘so I will abandon Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and those who live in the land of Egypt.

I will send the sword, famine and virulent disease among them until they are consumed from the land which I gave to them and to their fathers.’”

saying, ‘Turn now everyone from his evil way and the evil of your actions [that you may not forfeit the right to] live in the land that the Lord has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever;

behold (hear this), I will send for all the families of the north,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will send for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant [to enact My plan], and I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing [that is, an object of warning and ridicule] and an everlasting desolation.

This whole land will be a waste and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

‘Then when seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans (Babylonia),’ says the Lord, ‘for their wickedness, and will make the land [of the Chaldeans] a perpetual waste.

I will bring on that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.

and all the foreign (mixed) population, all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines (and [their cities of] Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod);

“He has left His lair like the lion;For their land has become a horrorBecause of the fierceness of the oppressorAnd because of the Lord’s fierce anger.”

Then some of the elders of the land stood up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,

And there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land in words similar to all those of Jeremiah.

All nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the [appointed] time [of punishment] for his own land comes; then many nations and great kings shall make him their servant.

For they prophesy a lie to you which will cause you to be removed far from your land; and I will drive you out and you will perish.

But the nation which will bow its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, that nation I will let remain on its own land,” says the Lord, “to cultivate it and live in it.”’”

For behold (hear this), the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will return them to the land that I gave to their forefathers and they will take possession of it.’”

‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant,’ says the Lord,‘Nor be dismayed or downcast, O Israel;For behold, I will save you from a distant land [of exile]And your descendants from the land of their captivity.Jacob will return and will be quiet and at ease,And no one will make him afraid.

Thus says the Lord,“Restrain your voice from weepingAnd your eyes from tears,For your work will be rewarded,” says the Lord;“And your children will return from the enemy’s land.

“How long will you hesitate [to return],O you faithless and renegade daughter?For the Lord has created a new thing in the land [of Israel]:A woman will encompass (tenderly love) a man.”

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Once more they will speak these words in the land of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) and in her cities when I restore their fortunes and release them from exile,‘The Lord bless you, O habitation of justice and righteousness,O holy mountain!’

not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says the Lord.

Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard in accordance with the word of the Lord, and he said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is at Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin, for you have the right of inheritance and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Houses and fields and vineyards will again be purchased in this land.”’

who set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day [continues to do so] both in Israel and among mankind; and You have made a name for Yourself, as at this day.

You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror;

and gave them this land, which You swore to their forefathers to give them, a land [of plenty] flowing with milk and honey.

I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.

Fields will be bought in this land of which you say, “It is desolate, without man or animal; it is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.”

People will buy fields for money, sign deeds, seal them, and call in witnesses in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South (the Negev); for I will restore their fortunes and release them from exile,’ says the Lord.”