[MissAmericanPie]

Actually they didn't have to buy it. They prefered to buy it rather than take it. The land had already been designated as theirs, they could have taxed what few land owner's there were out of existance, but they prefered to do things in a more fair way.

[traditionalist]

The land had already been designated as theirs

By whom exactly? And if your answer is God, read Romans 11. The Israelites ceased being God's chosen people when they rejected teh Messiah, who established a New Covenent that supercedes the Old.