Transjordan Is Not the Promised Land, Even in Deuteronomy

Ezekiel’s map of the future settlement of the tribes in the Land of Canaan (Ezek 47:13-21) is based on the same source as Numbers 34.

For instance, in the passage describing the covenant between the parts, YHWH says to Abram:

^{בראשית טו:ז} וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו אֲנִי יְ־הֹוָה אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִיךָ מֵאוּר כַּשְׂדִּים לָתֶת לְךָ אֶת הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת לְרִשְׁתָּהּ... ^טו:יח בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא כָּרַת יְ־הֹוָה אֶת אַבְרָם בְּרִית לֵאמֹר לְזַרְעֲךָ נָתַתִּי אֶת הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת מִנְּהַר מִצְרַיִם עַד הַנָּהָר הַגָּדֹל נְהַר פְּרָת.

^{Gen 15:7} I am YHWH who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to assign this land to you as a possession.”... ^15:18 On that day YHWH made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I assign this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates...”

The passage draws the boundary lines on a map of the Levant like an artist using a marker with a broad nib, with the Euphrates River in the north, and the Nile River in the south. The boundaries on the east and west are unmentioned, but it stands to reason that these, too, were general: in the east, “the desert” and in the west, “the Great Sea,” i.e., the Mediterranean (cf. Josh 1:4). In a later revelation, YHWH confirms his covenant with the centenarian patriarch and refers to the land granted him as כל ארץ כנען “all of the Land of Canaan” (Gen 17:8), again without defined borders. The land grant in the Abrahamic covenant was reconfirmed with his son, Isaac (Gen 26:3), and his grandson, Jacob (Gen 35:12), still without further definition.

In her study of these patriarchal promises, Nili Wazana (Hebrew University) concluded:

The lack of any border specifications in the patriarchal narrative texts appears to constitute a deliberate and intentional ploy. The disjunction between the legal connotations these passages carry and the absence of precise border descriptions leaves the issue of the Land’s proportions undetermined. The validity of the promise consequently pertains to a land comprised of a delimited—but unspecified—area.”

Nili Wazana, All the Boundaries of the Land. The Promised Land in Biblical Thought in Light of the Ancient Near East (Eisenbrauns, 2013), 96. Still one wonders whether the extensive territory of the land grant draws on a historical period when these lands were ruled by any single political entity. Benjamin Mazar opined that Genesis 15 “reflects the political aspirations of David’s and Solomon’s time, and the premise of mastery over the Canaanite peoples” (Mazar, “The Historical Background of the Book of Genesis,” in idem, The Early Biblical Period. Historical Studies, S. Aḥituv and B.A. Levine, eds. [Israel Exploration Society, 1986], 51, 114-115). In any event, the boundaries ascribed to Solomon’s realm seem to be connected to the patriarchal grant: “Solomon's rule extended over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and the boundary of Egypt” (1 Kgs 5:1); a second reference to this realm a few verses later (v. 4) omits mention of Egypt and sets the limits at northern Sinai: “For he controlled the whole region west of the Euphrates – all the kings west of the Euphrates, from Tiphsah to Gaza.”

In contrast, the territory north of the Yarmuk River (the modern border of Jordan, Israel and Syria), biblical Bashan-Golan, is included in Canaan. This strange detail will be discussed in a later piece.

Many commentators have embraced Benjamin Mazar’s identification of these borders of the Land of Canaan as an Israelite adoption of the borders of the Egyptian province of Canaan documented as late as the 13th century B.C.E. (Mazar, “Lebo-hamath and the Northern Border of Canaan,” in idem, The Early Biblical Period, 191-198); see, for example, Baruch A. Levine, Numbers 21-36, AB 4A (Doubleday, 2000), 529; Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, The JPS Torah Commentary (The Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 501. In contrast to Mazar, Nili Wazana’s analysis of the linguistic and geo-historical elements in Numbers 34 led her to conclude that “the description of the borders of the ‘land of Canaan’ does not constitute evidence of a real-life source but is instead a literary and ideological composition intended to identify the allotment promised by God to the Israelites as part of their covenant relationship” (Wazana, All the Boundaries of the Land, 166). For a suggestion to date the borders to the late 7th century B.C.E., see Yigal Levin, “The Geopolitical Context Behind the Boundaries in Numbers 34,” TheTorah (2015).

On Israel’s circumvention of Edom, see David Glatt-Gilad, “Reimaging the Israelite-Edomite Encounter,” TheTorah (2016); David Ben-Gad HaCohen, “Ironing Out Israel’s Itinerary Through the Transjordan,” TheTorah (2016).

Translations come from NJPS with adjustments.

Hebrew ‘am is commonly translated “people”; but in military contexts it also carries the sense of a military unit, “people bearing arms” (BDB, 766b, sub 2d). NJPS recognized this nuance of ‘am, but unfortunately was inconsistent in its translations, slipping back to “people” on occasion. For the military sense, see, e.g., “men” (Ex 14:6); “fighting troops, force” (Josh 8:1, 3 ,11); “the troops” (1 Sam 11:11); “men” (1 Kgs 20:10).

NJPS notes: “Septuagint, ‘Jazer,’ cf. v. 32. Others ‘for the boundary of the Ammonites was strong.’” The city-land of Jazer (cf. Num 32:1) was on the border of kingdom of Ammon, located at Kh. eṣ-Ṣâr, 10 km. west of Rabbath-Ammon. After its capture (Num 21:32), it was settled by Gadites (Num 32:35).

On this episode, see Levine, Numbers 21-36, 477-507; Jacob L. Wright, “Redacting the Relationship to the Transjordanian Tribes,” TheTorah (2014); Liane Feldman, “Gad and Reuben Receive Land in the Transjordan: A Documentary Approach,” TheTorah (2018).

In addition to the commentaries on Numbers and Deuteronomy cited above, see the analysis of the Sihon affair by Marc Zvi Brettler, The Creation of History in Ancient Israel (Routledge, 1995), 71-78.

Like most of the book, this account is framed as part of Moses’ valedictory address, a depiction of select events of the generation-long stay in the Sinai Peninsula and Transjordan, from the point of view of the Deuteronomic school.

Weinfeld continues by explaining what he understands to be the historical context of this development:

When was this tradition fixed? It seems that the final crystallization of this tradition can easily be put in the Hezekian-Josianic period, the period of expansion. I refer to the literary-ideological formation and not to its historical antecedents. But it was the ideologist of the Hezekian-Josianic period, the so-called Deuteronomic author or school, who fixed an ideology about the extent of the promised land…[d]uring the awakening of national consciousness in Israel.

Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11, AB 5 (Doubleday, 1991), 173-178.

For example, Tigay, Deuteronomy, 30, at Deuteronomy 2:24.

Editor's note: For a different understanding of the Implications of this scene for Deuteronomy's conception of the Transjordan, see Angela Roskop Erisman, “Viewing the Promised Land, Moses Looks Even at the Transjordan,” TheTorah (2019).

In this, they were no different than the other tradents of the Pentateuchal traditions, all of whom considered the Jordan River as the eastern border.

His first decade was surely under the stewardship of mature leaders, perhaps those who had installed him in the first place (2 Kgs 22:1). The group that set Josiah on the throne is referred to as “the people of the land” עם הארץ (2 Kgs. 21:24). This seemingly bland term is, in fact, a societal label, “apparently the social and economic elite of Judah.” See, e.g., Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed. Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts (The Free Press, 2001), 273; and Mordechai Cogan and Hayim Tadmor, 2 Kings, AB 11 (Doubleday, 1988), 129-130 for further bibliography.

In Judah, twenty-year old males could be mobilized (Num 26:2).

An amplification of this thumbnail historical sketch is available in J. Maxwell Miller & John H. Hayes, A History of Ancient Israel and Judah, 2^nd ed. (Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 444-460; see earlier, Nadav Na’aman, “The Kingdom of Judah under Josiah,” TA 18 (1991), 3-71. A Janus-like position on the question of Judah’s expansion beyond the borders of Judah to other areas in the Land of Israel is held by Finkelstein and Silberman, The Bible Unearthed, 283-285 and 347-353.

At a later stage, Psammetichus I sent Egyptian forces to fight alongside Assyria in the last years of the empire. The Babylonian Chronicle of 616 B.C.E. reads: “In the month Tishri, the troops of Egypt and the troops of Assyria marched against the king of Akkad (i.e., Babylon) at Gablini” (Mordechai Cogan, The Raging Torrent, 3^rd ed. [Carta, 2026], 259, line 10).

See Abraham Malamat, “Josiah’s Bid for Armageddon: The Background of the Judean-Egyptian Encounter in 609 B.C.,” in idem, History of Biblical Israel. Major Problems and Minor Issues (Brill, 2001), 277-281; also Dan’el Kahn. “Why did Necho II Kill Josiah?”, in Jana Mynářová, Pavel Onderka and Peter Pavúk Charles (eds.), There and Back Again – the Crossroads II (Charles University in Prague, 2015), 511-528.

Among those who held of such a revival, see, for example, Frank Moore Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Harvard University Press, 1973), 283; John Bright, A History of Israel, 3^rd ed. (Westminster Press, 1981), 317, 324.

While Deuteronomy explains Sihon’s refusal to be the result of YHWH’s interference with Sihon’s ability to act rationally, another version told:

^{שופטים יא:כ} וְלֹא הֶאֱמִין סִיחוֹן אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל עֲבֹר בִּגְבֻלוֹ...

^{Judg 11:20} “But Sihon would not trust Israel to pass through his territory…

See discussion in David Ben-Gad HaCohen, “Jephthah’s Wandering Biblical Message to the King of Ammon,” TheTorah (2017).

Cf. Exod 9:12, 35; 10:20, 27. See in detail, Jefferey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy, The JPS Torah Commentary (The Jewish Publication Society, 1996), 31-32. Editor's note: For some discussion of this part of the exodus story, see David Frankel, “Taking Control of the Story: God Hardens Pharaoh’s Heart,” TheTorah (2016); Daniel M. Zucker, “Weighing Pharaoh’s Heavy Heart,” TheTorah (2021).

An echo of this theme can be found in the words put into the mouth of the Canaanite Rahab, who pleaded with the Israelite spies for clemency prior to the battle of Jericho:

^{יהושע ב:ט} וַתֹּאמֶר אֶל הָאֲנָשִׁים יָדַעְתִּי כִּי נָתַן יְ־הֹוָה לָכֶם אֶת הָאָרֶץ וְכִי נָפְלָה אֵימַתְכֶם עָלֵינוּ וְכִי נָמֹגוּ כׇּל יֹשְׁבֵי הָאָרֶץ מִפְּנֵיכֶם. ^ב:י כִּי שָׁמַעְנוּ אֵת אֲשֶׁר הוֹבִישׁ יְ־הֹוָה אֶת מֵי יַם סוּף מִפְּנֵיכֶם בְּצֵאתְכֶם מִמִּצְרָיִם וַאֲשֶׁר עֲשִׂיתֶם לִשְׁנֵי מַלְכֵי הָאֱמֹרִי אֲשֶׁר בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן לְסִיחֹן וּלְעוֹג אֲשֶׁר הֶחֱרַמְתֶּם אוֹתָם. ^ב:יא וַנִּשְׁמַע וַיִּמַּס לְבָבֵנוּ וְלֹא קָמָה עוֹד רוּחַ בְּאִישׁ מִפְּנֵיכֶם כִּי יְ־הֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם הוּא אֱלֹהִים בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל וְעַל הָאָרֶץ מִתָּחַת.

^{Josh 2:9} She said to the men, “I know that YHWH has given the country to you, because dread of you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land are quaking before you. ^2:10 For we have heard how YHWH dried up the waters of the Sea of Reeds for you when you left Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings across the Jordan, whom you doomed. ^2:11 When we heard about it, we lost heart, and no man had any more spirit left because of you; for YHWH your God is the only God in heaven above and on earth below.”

This reflects the thinking in the Song of Moses (Haʾazinu), according to which, it is YHWH, who allots lands to all humanity:

^{דברים לב:ח} בְּהַנְחֵל עֶלְיוֹן גּוֹיִם בְּהַפְרִידוֹ בְּנֵי אָדָם יַצֵּב גְּבֻלֹת עַמִּים לְמִסְפַּר בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.

^{Deut 32:8} When the Most High gave nations their homes and set the divisions of man, He fixed the boundaries of peoples in relation to Israel's numbers.

The enigmatic phrase in MT: “in relation to Israel's numbers” at the end of the verse appears as: “according to the number of the gods” (מספר בני אל/אלוהים) in Qumran manuscripts, as well as the Greek LXX. See the discussion of Emanuel Tov, “The Sons of Israel or God—Deuteronomy 32:8,” TheTorah (2023).

See my discussion of ḥerem in Mordechai Cogan, “Deuteronomy’s Herem Law: Protecting Israel at the Cost of Its Humanity,” TheTorah (2022).

The popular slogan of the Revisionist Zionist Movement, based on a line from a song of Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1929), has no relation whatsoever to the biblical boundaries of the Promised Land:

שתי גדות לירדן, זו שלנו זו גם כן

The Jordan has two banks; this one is ours and the other one, too.

This slogan was a political statement against the division of the original British mandate into two authorities, “Palestine,” west of the Jordan, and the “Emirate of Transjordan,” on the east.