Ten Nations Promised to Abraham and Three Returned in the Days of the Messiah

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 78:2

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"To your offspring I have given this land" (Genesis 15:18). Rav Huna and Rabbi Dostai in the name of Rav Shmuel bar Nachmani said: even the mere utterance of the Holy One, blessed be He, is already a finished deed, as it says "I have given," for it is not written here "I will give" but rather "I have given." Likewise it is not written "Let the redeemed of the LORD say, whom He will redeem" but "whom He has redeemed." "For the LORD will ransom Jacob" is not written here, but "For He has ransomed" (Jeremiah 31:10). "I will whistle to them and gather them, for I will redeem them" is not written here, but "for I have redeemed them." "And the LORD will create over every dwelling place of Mount Zion" is not written here, but "and the LORD has created" (Isaiah 4:5), for it is already created and made ready. "The Kenite and the Kenizzite" (Genesis 15:19-21). Because the Hivvite is not mentioned here, He brings the Rephaim in their place. It arose in the mind of the Omnipresent to give Israel an inheritance of ten nations: the Kenite, the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite are three; and the others, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Rephaim, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Girgashite, and the Jebusite, making ten. Yet He gave them only the seven. Which are the three He did not give them? Rav says: the Arabians, the Shalmites, and the Nabateans. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai says: the Damascenes, the Asians, and the Spaniards. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: Asia, Turkey, and Carthage. The Sages say: Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon are the three He did not give them in this world, as it says of Edom "For I will not give you of his land as a possession" (Deuteronomy 2:5), and of Moab it is written "Do not harass Moab." The Kenite is Esau; the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite are Ammon and Moab. In the days of the Messiah they will return and belong to Israel, to fulfill the word of the Holy One, blessed be He: "They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them" (Isaiah 11:14). But for now He has given them the seven, as it says "seven nations greater and mightier than you" (Deuteronomy 7:1). Rav Yitzchak said: a sow grazes among ten, but a ewe lamb not even with one. All these the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham that He would give him, the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the rest, and still "Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children" (Genesis 16:1).

Themes

Holy LandRedemptionMessiah

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