The Size of the Original Israel As Per Biblical Directions: King Saul and David's Land of Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

               

  King Saul and King David's Land of Israel,60% desert land

Israel's frontiers were determined in the Bible.  The definitions of the limits of this territory vary between passages in the Hebrew Bible, with specific mentions in Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47. Nine times elsewhere in the Bible, the settled land is referred as "from Dan to Beersheba", and three times it is referred as "from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt" (1 Kings 8:65, 1 Chronicles 13:5 and 2 Chronicles 7:8).  Jews were told through Moses, and then Moses told Joshua, and it was written down by Moses as to the size of the land.  The Jews were given this immense responsibility.  

1. They are approximately on the West, the Mediterranean Sea:

2. On the East, the Syrian Desert;

3. On the South, the Brook of Egypt (Wadi El-  Arish to Kadesh Barnea, and to the Brook of Zin as far as the Valley Zoar South of the Dead Sea, and

4. In Transjordan from the River Arnon to Mt. Hermon, and to the Valley of Iyon.

Its total total surface is 17,500 square miles of which about 45% is in Transjordan.  The extent of the Promised Land, (Jewish Homeland)  reached the Pelusium arm of the Nile Delta, the Gulf of Elath, and the Euphrates River opposite Aleppo in Syria in the East. 

 It included most of Syria and altogether covered about 58,000 square miles.  This entire area was occupied by the Israelites under David and Solomon as written in I Kings 5:4.  

                                                                         

             What Joshua from the Exodus was confronted with and how they started:  Ammon were the ancient people and country in what would become Transjordan.  The capital was Rabbath Ammon (modern Amman).  They also were a Semitic tribe, related to the Israelites as told in Genesis 19:38.  They were eventually absorbed into Arab tribes.   The Ammorite kingdoms of Sihon and Og were founded in the North and Amnon, Moab and Edom in the South.  The Israelites defeated the northern kingdoms and the cattle-keeping tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh established themselves in their stead.  David conquered the whole of Transjordan, including the rich copper mines of the Arabah;  under the weak successors of Solomon these areas were lost again or only held temporarily.  Western Ammon was held for a time by a Jewish family, the Tobiads.  In the period after the destruction of the 1st Temple, the Edomites moved into S. Judah and their place was taken by the Nabateans.  

A series of Greek towns was established in northern Transjordan in Hellenistic times.  the Hasmoneans, from Jonathan to Alexander Yannai, conquered Golan, Gilead, and Moab.  After the Roman intervention, only a strip facing Judea on the east remained Jewish (Perea).  the Herodian dynasty ruled in northern Transjordan and many Jews settled in Golan and Bashan under its protection. 

                    Massachusetts is in New England upper right corner                            

                                      United States

 In the United States, Georgia is 57,919 square miles in size.

In the United States, Massachusetts is 7,838 square miles in size.

Israel has gone from the size of Georgia to the size of Massachusetts, also compared with New Jersey with 7,419 square miles.  If judged at 10,00 square miles, that would be similar to Maryland with 9,775 square miles.                          

Israel is approximately 21,937 sq km, while Texas is approximately 678,052 sq km, making Texas 2,991% larger than Israel. Meanwhile, the population of Israel is ~8.7 million people (16.5 million more people live in Texas).  One of the presidents was kidding around, saying that Israel could fit into his ranch's driveway.  

The actual area under Jewish control fluctuated, and there were extensive gentile enclaves within Jewish territory.

                              League of Nations Decision

1. The Jewish National Home under the British Mandate embraced only the area West of the Jordan excluding part of the Upper Galilee North of the ladder of Tyre which was given to Lebanon.  

2. The South Negev beyond the Rafia-Gulf of Elath line had been handed over by the Ottoman Empire (Turkish government) to Egypt for administration in 1906. 

                            United Nations Decision

1. The UN resolution of November 29, 1947 recommended the establishment of a Jewish state in the larger part of the mandated area of Western Palestine, although still with a complex frontier.

2. The Armistice agreements of 1949 left Israel with 8,000 square miles, a larger area than envisioned, although still with complicated borders.  Israel was attacked in a war in 1956 and again in 1967.

3. After the Six Day miracle War where All Muslim countries attacked little Israel and Israel won the war, Israel found herself in occupation of ALL of Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai up to the Suez Canal.  One must remember, Israel did not start this war.  She did not plan on having this war.  The Muslims tried to destroy her, push her into the sea and kill all, but it boomeranged on them.  It wasn't to be.

                                       Results

1. Sinai was returned to Egypt in the early 1980's. 

                                What the land is Made Up Of

1.  Historical Israel consists of 4 longitudinal belts---

     A. The Coastal Plains, twice interrupted by the Carmel promontory and the Ladder of Tyre with natural regions of the 

        1. Negev plain from the S frontier to the Brook of Besor or Wadi Gaza to

       2.  The plain of Judea--the ancient Philistia (Pelesheth) to the Ramlah-Jaffa road, 

      3. The Sharon to the Crocodile River

     4. The Carmel Coast to Haifa

     5. The plain of Haifa Bay (plain of Lower Galilee)

    6. The plain of Acre to the Ladder of Tyre (now the armistice frontier)

   7. The plain of Tyre

The breadth of the Coastal plain in the Negev averages 25 miles, in Judea 13miles, in the Sharon 11 miles, and elsewhere only a few miles.  

From the South frontier to Jaffa, sand-dunes extend 3-4.5 miles inland.

North of Tel Aviv there is continuous flat sand.  

The soil of the Negev coastal plain --where not sandy--is loess  further North it is generally red, sandy loam suitable for citriculture.

Swamps in the Sharon and Haifa Bay areas have been drained in the present century.  

The Western Highlands are divided by the plain of Jezreel and the Beersheba valley into 3 parts:

    1. Galilee;  divided by line from Acre to a point NE of Kephar Hananiah on the Sea of Galilee into Upper and Lower Galilee, the former being higher-Mt. meron-3,682 feet, and mostly of dissected highlands, causing difficulty of movement and ability of religious and ethnic groups to maintain an isolated existence.  

   2. Judea and Samaria (later becoming Transjordan with Samaria having (more broken mountains) with small valleys opening into coastal plain, more accessible than Judea, , higher rainfall, denser vegetation with Mt. Carmel of 1,660 feet and Mt. Gilboa of 1,525 feet extending to NW and NE.   with Judea which includes Jerusalem which was a village captured and developed by David in 1000 BCE.  

  3.  Negev, includes extensive plains around Beersheba.    More than 60 percent of Israel is desert. Negev, the largest desert in Israel, sits in the southern region of the country; it's home to the Ramon crater.

    B. The Western Highlands

    C. The Jordan Rift:   The Jordan Rift extends from the Iyon Valley to the Gulf of Eleath (Akaba) is about 265 miles long or 109 miles to the Dead Sea, of 50 miles. 

    D. The Eastern Highlands                                             

    What is left for Israel today, the white area, 10% of the original promised land.   

Resource;

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/texas-usa/israel#:~:text=Texas%20is%20about%2031%20times,more%20people%20live%20in%20Texas).

https://embassies.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Maps/Pages/Israel-Size-and-Dimension.aspx#:~:text=The%20total%20area%20of%20the,km%20is%20land%20area.

https://ffoz.org/discover/messiah-magazine/miracles-of-the-six-day-war.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B60O6Kcijso