Which parts of the Middle East did God give to the Jews?

And the Lord said unto Abram, after than Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art northward, and soutward, and eastward and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mam're, which is in Hebron, and built there an alter onto the Lord.

A few questions on this. Is there a standard interpretation of what the modern boundaries of this land grant are?

Would the children of Abram include the Arab nations as well as the Jews? Do both the Jews and Arabs agree on this? (guess that's a rhetorical question)

And the Lord spake unto Moses in the palins of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When ye are passed over the Jordan into the land of Cannan;THey ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down their high places; And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therin, for I have given you the land to possess it. ... But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; hten it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides and shall vex you in the land where you dwell.
More over it shall come to pass , that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Give these instructions to the Israelites: When you come into the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your special possession, these will be the boundaries.

The southern portion of your country will extend from the wilderness of Zin, along the edge of Edom. The southern boundary will begin on the east at the Dead Sea. It will then run south past Scorpion Pass in the direction of Zin. Its southernmost point will be Kadesh-barnea, from which it will go to Hazar-addar, and on to Azmon. From Azmon the boundary will turn toward the brook of Egypt and end at the Mediterranean Sea.

"Your northern boundary will begin at the Mediterranean Sea and run eastward to Mount Hor, then to Lebo-hamath, and on through Zedad and Ziphron to Hazar-enan. This will be your northern boundary.

"The eastern boundary will start at Hazar-enan and run south to Shepham, then down to Riblah on the east side of Ain. From there the boundary will run down along the eastern edge of the Sea of Galilee, and then along the Jordan River to the Dead Sea. These are the boundaries of your land." Then Moses told the Israelites, "This is the territory you are to divide among yourselves by sacred lot. The LORD commands that the land be divided up among the nine and a half remaining tribes. The families of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh have already received their inheritance of land on the east side of the Jordan River, across from Jericho."

>I'll just stick with the Word and its emphases.

Sounds good to me. Please tell me what you see in the following paragraphs that is all about "rabbit trails" and not Biblically based:

A 3-MINUTE HISTORY

Four Thousand years ago, Abraham (a great-great grandson of Shem, a son of Noah) and a small group of Hebrews (of which there were & are many varieties) migrated from southern Iraq to Canaan (~Palestine). Several generations later, around 1875 BC, his Grandson Jacob (who was renamed Israel) and his 12 Sons and families moved to Egypt. As offspring of Shem, they were called "Shemites" or " Semites", as were his many other offspring.

~1450 BC, now as the 12 Tribes of the 12 Sons of Israel, and over 3 Million strong, these Semites bailed out of Egypt in the well-documented EXODUS and fled back to Palestine. But the Tribes “couldn't all get along” there, so ~922 BC these 5 Million Israelites split into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.

(In actual numbers, 5 Million people is about the same size as Ireland, Norway, Denmark or Israel today, and was 10% of the estimated 50 Million world population at that time. The world population is now ONE HUNDRED times as large. Compared to todays 6 Billion people, the Israelites relative population would have been over twice as large as the United States of America!)

The very large Northern Kingdom was made up of 10 of the Tribes. Inheriting the names which applied to all 12 Tribes before the split, it is known as the Kingdom of Israel or House of Israel , and is led by the Tribe of Ephraim . These Northern Israelites were taken into captivity by the Assyrians ~722 BC and relocated to the northern Fertile Crescent area of Iraq/Iran. They were not good about keeping up with changes in their eMail addresses, thus were called, by some, the "Lost Tribes", or "Lost Sheep" or "Lost Children" of the Kingdom of Israel. (But at ~1/12 of the worlds population it seems unlikely they would really disappear, or get "lost". The global population ~75 Million.)

The much smaller Southern Kingdom was made up of the Tribe of Judah & a mix of Levites and Benjamites. It was also known as the Kingdom of Judah or House of Judah , and it's inhabitants were later called Jews , as are their offspring today. These Southern Kingdom of Judah Israelites were taken captive in ~587 BC and removed to Babylon. Only ~50,000 returned to Palestine ~70 years later.

The Amalekites were an ancient nomadic tribe of southern Palestine. They are related to Esau (Genesis 36:12) through their ancestor Amalek.

1Sa 15:7 And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah, [until] thou comest to Shur, that [is] over against Egypt.
1Sa 15:8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
1Sa 15:9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all [that was] good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing [that was] vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
1Sa 15:10 Then came the word of the LORD to Samuel, saying,
1Sa 15:11 I repent that I have set up Saul [to be] king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried to the LORD all night.
1Sa 15:12 And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set him up a place, and has gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
1Sa 15:13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said to him, Blessed [be] thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.
1Sa 15:14 And Samuel said, What [meaneth] then this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
1Sa 15:15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
1Sa 15:16 Then Samuel said to Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said to him, Say on.
1Sa 15:17 And Samuel said, When thou [wast] little in thy own sight, [wast] thou not [made] the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
1Sa 15:18 And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.
1Sa 15:19 Why then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
1Sa 15:20 And Saul said to Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
1Sa 15:21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
1Sa 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD [as great] delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey [is] better than sacrifice, [and] to hearken than the fat of rams.
1Sa 15:23 For rebellion [is as] the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness [is as] iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from [being] king.
1Sa 15:24 And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words; because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
1Sa 15:25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
1Sa 15:26 And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.
1Sa 15:27 And as Samuel turned about to depart, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.
1Sa 15:28 And Samuel said to him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine, [that is] better than thou.
1Sa 15:29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he [is] not a man, that he should repent.
1Sa 15:30 Then he said, I have sinned: [yet] honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.
1Sa 15:31 So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshiped the LORD.
1Sa 15:32 Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came to him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.
1Sa 15:33 And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
1Sa 15:34 Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.
1Sa 15:35 And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.