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The Promised Land Had Borders Under the Great Sea

On the plains of Moab, Moses named a western edge no walker could pace. The line dropped through the sea into water older than the sky.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. He Gave Them the South First
  2. Snow, a Cave, and the Towers of Damascus
  3. The West Did Not Stop at the Water
  4. The First Name on the List
  5. The Wisdom That Walked Him Onto the Heights

Moses had the whole camp in front of him on the plains of Moab, and not one person there had ever set foot in the country he was about to give them.

The Promised Land Had Borders Under the Great Sea Click for full size

He did not show them a hill. He spoke a line into the air and asked them to live inside it.

He Gave Them the South First

From the Wilderness of Palms, along the iron mountain, down the edge of Edom, out to the far end of the Salt Sea on the east. Then the line bent. It went up the pass of Akrabbith, across to the palms of the iron mountain, south of Rekem Giah, on to the tower of Adar. From there it ran over to Kesam, around to the Nile of Egypt, and out to the west.

Nobody interrupted. These were sand people. They had eaten bread that fell out of the sky for forty years. Their sandals were the same sandals. A tower they had never seen was being offered as a corner of home.

Moses kept going. A country has to close or it is only a wish.

Snow, a Cave, and the Towers of Damascus

He gave them the north. From the Great Sea across to Mount Umanis, then along the road that climbs toward Tiberias, out past the two Kadkols. It ran past Divakinos and Tarnegola as far as Caesarea, up to Abelas of Cilicia. Then Keren Zekutha, then Gibra Hatmona, and the line ended between the towers of Hinvetha and Damascus.

He gave them the east. Down from Apamea to Daphne, down again to the cave of Panias, and from Panias to the mountain of snow. From the snow to Henan, around the plain of the river Arnon, into the wilderness and the palms of the iron mountain, taking in the Waters of Contention, resting at Ginesar. Then down the Jordan and out into the Salt Sea.

Four corners, if the west would behave.

The West Did Not Stop at the Water

The west was the Great Sea, and the Great Sea did not sit still like a fence.

Its capes belonged to them, and its harbors, its creeks and its coastal towns, its islands, its ports, its ships, and the coves nobody has ever bothered to name. That was the surface. Moses did not stop at the surface.

The border went down through the water. It went past the reach of any rope. Its limits, he told them, are the waters of the beginning, together with the waters of old that lie in its depth.

Under the shipping lanes, under the wrecks, under the sand at the bottom, the water keeps going, and it stops being water anyone has sailed. It becomes the water that was there when there was nothing else, before the sky was pushed up out of the middle of it. The far side of the inheritance was the second day of creation.

A man can walk a southern wadi. He cannot walk the floor of the first waters. Moses gave them that anyway. The Promised Land was not only fields and towns. It was a claim that ran off the map and into the dark under the waves.

The First Name on the List

Then Moses read out who would cut the country up.

Eleazar the priest. Joshua son of Nun. And one prince from each tribe, and the first name on the tribal list was Caleb son of Jephunneh, for Judah.

Everyone in earshot understood what had just happened, because everyone in earshot had buried a father.

Forty years back, twelve men had walked that country and come home, and ten of them had put out a report that broke the camp in half. The assembly went wild. It talked about a captain and a road back to Egypt, and it picked up stones. Two men stood into it. They held against six hundred thousand fighting men, they turned the anger off the congregation, and they finished the evil report.

Six hundred thousand died in the sand over the next four decades. The two of them did not.

The Wisdom That Walked Him Onto the Heights

Caleb had told them to go up at once and take it, back when going up meant walled towns and giants and no allies. He got wisdom out of that day, and it did not leave him when the rest of him got old. It stayed with him and walked him up onto the high ground of the land, and after him his children held what he had held.

He stood in the crowd at Moab and heard an old man read out his name among the men who would measure and divide. The same voice had already told him the western edge of his portion. Down through the sea, past the bottom, into water that has no bottom at all.

The camp would cross the Jordan without Moses. Caleb would still be walking. The borders would still include a depth no surveyor could chain. Seed of Jacob, the old wisdom said, it is good to follow after the Lord all the way. The all-the-way, on this afternoon, ran under the Great Sea.

JacobMosesTribesHoly LandCreation
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From the tradition

Sources

2 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Targum Jonathan on Numbers 34Targum Jonathan

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862 · Public Domain

The Targum's version of (Numbers 34) maps the Promised Land's borders with a level of geographic specificity that goes far beyond the Torah's terse boundary markers. The southern border ran from "the Wilderness of Palms, by the iron mountain, at the confines of Edom," through "the ascent of Akrabbith" and the "palms of the mountain of iron," then southward of "Rekem Giah" to "the tower of Adar" and onward to "Kesam." Where the Torah gives a handful of place names, the Targum provides a detailed route.

The western border is the most poetic. The Targum describes the Great Sea, the Mediterranean. And then expands: "its limits are the waters of the beginning with the waters of old which are in its depth; its capes and havens, its creeks and its cities, its islands and ports, its ships and its recesses." This is not just a boundary line. It is a portrait of an entire coastline, with its harbors and islands and hidden coves, all belonging to Israel's inheritance. The ocean itself, with its primordial depths, formed the wall of the western frontier.

The northern border reads like a Roman-era travel guide. From the Great Sea to Mount Umanis, then through landmarks including "Kadkor of Bar Zahama" and "Kadkol of Bar Sanigora" and "Divakinos and Tarnegola unto Kesarin", the Targum identifies Caesarea as a northern boundary marker, then up to "Abelas of Cilicia." The border continued to "Keren Zekutha" and "Gibra Hatmona," ending between "the towers of Hinvetha and Damascus."

The eastern border descended from Hinvetha to "Apamea", a Hellenistic city name, then to "Dophne," the "cavern of Panias" (modern Banias), the "mountain of snow" (Mount Hermon), and down to encompass "the Sea of Genesar" (the Sea of Galilee). The Jordan River formed the eastern wall, emptying into the Dead Sea.

The Targum then summarizes the entire land in four compass points: "Rekem Giah on the south, Mount Umanos on the north, the Great Sea on the west, the Sea of Salt on the east." The tribal princes appointed to divide the land are listed, with Caleb son of Jephunneh leading for Judah and Joshua son of Nun overseeing the whole operation alongside Elazar the priest.

Full source
Ben Sira 46:10Ben Sira

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Wisdom of Ben Sira, Cambridge University Press (1899) · CC-BY

Our story comes from the wisdom of Ben Sira, also known as Ecclesiasticus, a book of wisdom literature. It’s part of the Jewish writings of the Second Temple period, writings that are considered canonical by some, but not all, Jewish and some traditions. Here, Ben Sira sings the praises of heroes of old.

He tells us that Joshua, whose name was originally Hoshea (meaning "salvation") but was changed by Moses to Joshua (Yehoshua, meaning "the Lord is salvation"), was utterly devoted to God. He showed piety in the days of Moses, a time of incredible upheaval and testing for the Israelites. He wasn't alone, though. With him stood Caleb, son of Yefuneh.

These two men faced a daunting task. They had to stand strong against the "wild assembly," referring to the majority of the Israelites who, terrified by the reports of the spies, wanted to turn back to Egypt. The fear? To be surrounded by six hundred thousand infantry, all gripped by doubt and despair?

Ben Sira continues, highlighting their crucial role: to turn away God's anger from the congregation and to put an end to their negative report. Because of their unwavering faith, Joshua and Caleb were spared from the fate that befell the rest of that generation. – spared from the death that swept through the Israelites in the desert.

What was their reward? To lead the people into their inheritance, "a land flowing with milk and honey." A land promised to them, a land of abundance and blessing.

And Caleb, in particular, received a special gift: wisdom. Ben Sira tells us that this wisdom stayed with him until old age, guiding him as he led the people upon the "heights of the land." His descendants, too, inherited a portion of the land, evidence of his faithfulness.

The message is clear: that all the descendants of Jacob, all of us, should know that it is good, truly good, to fully follow after Adonai, the Lord.

It requires courage, resilience, and the willingness to stand apart from the crowd. It's about trusting in something bigger than ourselves, even when the path ahead seems uncertain. It's about remembering that even in the face of overwhelming odds, unwavering faith can lead us to our own promised land. What "land flowing with milk and honey" might be awaiting you? What "wild assembly" are you standing against today?

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