The Torah mentions the borders of the Promised Land five times, but only gives specifics once. The other four times, the markers provided are quite ambiguous. For example, does “the desert” refer to the Negev and the Sinai Peninsula in the south, or to the Syrian Desert in the east? The Euphrates is both north and east of the Promised Land, originating in Turkey, flowing southeast and emptying into the Persian Gulf. Which part of the Euphrates is the boundary? Does the Torah really mean to include all of Lebanon and Jordan and parts of Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq in the Promised Land? Additionally, the ambiguous boundaries seem to be larger than the specific ones, with even the ambiguous boundaries differing from one another. How are they to be understood?
Unsurprisingly, the commentators give very different answers to these questions, and a full treatment of the subject would take numerous lengthy articles. Nevertheless, I’d like to share some thoughts on each of the Torah’s presentations of these boundaries.
In Bereishis (15:18), God promised Avram (his name hadn’t been changed to Avraham yet) that his descendants will get “this land, from the River of Egypt to the great river—the Euphrates River.” Although only two markers are given, since He was referring to “this land,” no western boundary was necessary, as the Mediterranean Sea is west of “this land.” Similarly, south of the Sinai Peninsula is the Yam Suf (Red Sea), so the only part of the south that needed to be clarified was the Negev and the Sinai Peninsula. Whether these were included in the “Promised Land” depends on whether the “River of Egypt” refers to Wadi el-Arish, which flows north and west through the northern Sinai Peninsula, emptying into the Mediterranean just south of Gaza or to the easternmost branch of the Nile Delta. The lands beyond the vast Syrian Desert to the east can’t be considered “this land,” so the part of the Euphrates to the east, which is beyond this desert, can’t be what God was referring to, leaving us with the part to the north (and perhaps northeast). Keep in mind, though, that (as R’ Yaakov Kamenetsky points out) Avraham’s descendants include Yishmael, Eisav and the sons of Keturah, so this area need not be designated just for the descendants of Yaakov (although this might be mitigated by 21:12). Another point to keep in mind is that “this land” is described as being inhabited by 10 nations (not just seven), so it must be a larger area than the specific boundaries delineated in Sefer Bamidbar. (And since many say the land of two of those three additional nations became Ammon and Moav, Avraham’s list of descendants can be expanded to include the descendants of his nephew, Lot.)
At Sinai (Shemos 23:31), God set the borders as being “from the Yam Suf to the Sea of the Plishtim, and from the desert to the river.” The Sea of the elishtim is clearly the Mediterranean Sea, even though it refers specifically to the southern coastline (since it’s likely how a nation that spent centuries in Egypt would refer to it). Does the “from-to” formulation indicate that God was first describing the boundaries from west to east—with the Yam Suf referring to the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, and then from south to north—with “the desert” referring to the Negev and/or the Sinai Peninsula, or did God give the boundaries in no particular order, starting from the south (referring to the entire Yam Suf, thereby including the entire Sinai Peninsula), moving to the west (the Mediterranean Sea), then to the desert in the east, and finally to the northern part of “the river” (the Euphrates)? Besides the “from-to” verbiage indicating that it was west to east and south to north, since they were at Sinai when these boundaries were given, if the Sinai Peninsula was within them, they would have already been in the Promised Land! Nevertheless, these boundaries are more extensive than those in Sefer Bamidbar, and were presented in the future tense (“I will set”), so they likely referred to potential/eventual boundaries, which were never realized—certainly not before the nation crossed the Jordan River and started conquering the land there.
At Arvos Moav (Bamidbar 34:1-15), the specific boundaries of the Promised Land are given clockwise (south-west-north-east). Included in the southern boundary is “the Wadi of Egypt,” which flows “into the Mediterranean Sea.” Is this the same as the earlier-mentioned River of Egypt that had, over the centuries, slowed from a river to a stream? Or was the River of Egypt the easternmost branch of the Nile Delta, while the Wadi of Egypt is Wadi el-Arish? The “Shichor,” which is the southern edge of the part of the land that wasn’t conquered during Yehoshua’s lifetime, is described as being “on the face of Egypt” (Yehoshua 13:3), indicating that this was the southern border, with Egypt on the other side. It was definitely the southern border of King David’s kingdom (Divrei Hayamim I 13:5), and his kingdom never extended beyond Wadi el-Arish, indicating that the Shichor is another name for the Wadi of Egypt, and refers to Wadi el-Arish. Wadi el-Arish also fits with the other southern boundary markers.
Significantly, the Euphrates is not included in the specific boundaries in Sefer Bamidbar, even though it’s included in the other four.
The boundaries given at Sinai/Choreiv are referenced again in Devarim (1:7), although the description here is mostly a list of areas included within the Promised Land, with the only boundary being the Euphrates. The context, with הלבנון being the last area mentioned, indicates that the Euphrates is the northern boundary, telling us how far north the Promised Land extends.
The final mention of the boundaries in the Torah (Devarim 11:24, which closely matches those given in Yehoshua 1:3-4) can be understood in a couple of ways. First, we’re told that wherever we tread on will be ours, then we seem to be given limits within which our treading makes it ours. It can also be understood as telling us the starting point (the minimally required boundaries), which can be expanded to “wherever we tread.” This is how the Sifri (51), referenced by Ramban (Devarim 11:24), understands it.
The boundaries given here are “from the desert and the Levanon, from the river—the Euphrates River—and until the last sea.” The “last sea” certainly refers to the Mediterranean Sea, with the most straightforward way of explaining these boundaries being “from the desert in the south until the Levanon in the north, with the northernmost part stretching from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea.” No eastern boundary was given, since they were in the east at the time (at Arvos Moav), and the full western boundary wasn’t necessary (it was obviously the Mediterranean Sea), so only the south-north boundaries were given, including the extent of the northern area (described from east to west).
It turns out, then, that the first three mentions of the Euphrates are using it as the northern boundary, while the fourth uses it as the eastern boundary of the northernmost section. What this means and why it was necessary will be discussed next week, God willing, along with the differences between the specific boundaries given in Bamidbar and the general boundaries given in Bereishis, Shemos and Devarim. For now, though, the takeaways should be that (1) there’s a difference between the general boundaries and the specific ones; (2) “the desert” refers to the Negev and at least the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula; (3) the “Wadi of Egypt” refers to Wadi el-Arish; and (4) the part of the Euphrates River being used as a boundary is its northern part.
Stay tuned as I expand upon these thoughts.
Rabbi Dov Kramer wrote a weekly dvar Torah from 5764-5776, most of which are archived at RabbiDMK.wordpress.com and AishDas.org/ta. He occasionally discussed geographic issues there too, including on this week’s parsha. RabbiDMK.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/parashas-va-eschanan-5770.
