Promised Land

The Promised Land (, translit.: "ha'aretz hamuvtakhat"; , translit.: "ard al-mi'ad; also known as "The Land of Milk and Honey"") is the land which, according to the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament), God promised and subsequently gave to Abraham and to his descendants. In modern contexts the phrase "Promised Land" expresses an image and idea related both to the restored Homeland for the Jewish people and to salvation and liberation.
God first made the promise to Abraham ():
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."
He later confirmed the promise to Abraham's son Isaac (), and then to Isaac's son Jacob (). The Book of Exodus describes the Promised Land in terms of the territory from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates river (). The Israelites conquered and occupied a smaller area of former Canaanite land and land east of the Jordan River after Moses led the Exodus out of Egypt (), and the Book of Deuteronomy presents this occupation as God's fulfilment of the promise (). Moses anticipated that God might subsequently give the Israelites land reflecting the boundaries of God's original promise - if they were obedient to the covenant ().
The concept of the Promised Land is the central tenet of Zionism, whose discourse suggests that modern Jews descend from the Israelites and Maccabees through whom they inherit the right to re-establish their "national homeland".
Palestinians also claim partial descent from the Israelites and Maccabees, as well as from other peoples who have lived in the region.
African-American spirituals invoke the imagery of the "Promised Land" as heaven or paradise
and as an escape from slavery, which can often only be reached by death. The imagery and term also appear elsewhere in popular culture (see Promised Land (disambiguation)), in sermons, and in speeches such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 "I've Been to the Mountaintop":
Divine promise.
The promise that is the basis of the term is contained in several verses of Genesis in the Torah. In it is said:
and in :
Commentators have noted several problems with this promise and related ones: 
In the boundary of the Promised Land is clarified in terms of the territory of various ancient peoples, as follows:
The verse is said to describe what are known as "borders of the Land" ("Gevulot Ha-aretz"). In Jewish tradition, these borders define the maximum extent of the land promised to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob.
The promise was confirmed to Jacob at , though the borders are still vague and is in terms of "the land on which you are lying".
Other geographical borders are given in which describes borders as marked by the Red Sea, the "Sea of the Philistines" i.e. the Mediterranean, and the "River," (the Euphrates).
The promise is fulfilled in the biblical book of Joshua when the Israelites cross the Jordan river into the promised land for the first time. 
It took a long time before the Israelites could subdue the Canaanite inhabitants of the land. The furthest extent of the Land of Israel was achieved during the time of the united Kingdom of Israel under David. The actual land controlled by the Israelites has fluctuated considerably over time, and at times the land has been under the control of various empires. However, under Jewish tradition, even when it is not in Jewish occupation, the land has not lost its status as the Promised Land.
Descendants of Abraham.
Traditional Jewish interpretation, and that of most Christian commentators, define Abraham's descendants as Abraham's seed only through his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob, to the exclusion of Ishmael and Esau.
 This may however reflect an eisegesis or reconstruction of primary verses based on the later biblical emphasis of Jacob's descendants. The promises given to Abraham happened prior to the birth of Isaac and were given to all his offspring signified through the rite of circumcision. Johann Friedrich Karl Keil is less clear, as he states that the covenant is through Isaac, but notes that Ishmael's descendants have held much of that land through time.
Mainstream Jewish tradition regards the promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as having been given to all Jews, including proselytes and in turn their descendants, with the traditional view being that a convert becomes a child of Abraham, as in the term "ben Avraham".
Christian interpretation.
In the New Testament, the descent and promise is reinterpreted along religious lines. In the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul the Apostle draws attention to the formulation of the promise, avoiding the term "seeds" in the plural (meaning many people), choosing instead "seed," meaning one person, who, he understands to be Jesus (and those united with him). For example, in he notes: 
In Paul goes further, noting that the expansion of the promise from singular to the plural is not based on genetic/physical association, but a spiritual/religious one: 
In it is written: 
Boundaries from the Book of Numbers.
Under the name "Palestine", we comprehend the small country formerly inhabited by the Israelites, and which is today part of Acre and Damascus pachalics. It stretched between 31 and 33° N. latitude and between 32 and 35° degrees E. longitude, an area of about 1300 . Some zealous writers, to give the land of the Hebrews some political importance, have exaggerated the extent of Palestine; but we have an authority for us that one can not reject. St. Jerome, who had long traveled in this country, said in his letter to Dardanus (ep. 129) that the northern boundary to that of the southern, was a distance of 160 Roman miles, which is about 55 . He paid homage to the truth despite his fears, as he said himself, of availing the "Promised Land" to pagan mockery, "".