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The Promised Land Reached the Waters at the Beginning of Time

When Moses laid out the borders of the Promised Land, the western boundary reached all the way down to the primordial waters that existed before creation.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Survey at the Edge of the Wilderness
  2. The Waters Beneath the Waters
  3. Caleb and Joshua at the Borders
  4. What It Meant for the Land to Have No Bottom

The Survey at the Edge of the Wilderness

Moses stood on the far side of the Jordan and gave Israel its borders. The Torah's version of Numbers 34 is spare, almost impatient: the southern border runs from the wilderness of Zin to Kadesh-Barnea to the Brook of Egypt and ends at the sea. The eastern border follows the Jordan. The northern border cuts through a handful of named towns. The western border is the Great Sea. One body of water. One edge. The whole thing fits in fifteen verses.

The Targum Jonathan, the Aramaic expansion of the Torah composed and edited across the first millennium CE, was not satisfied with fifteen verses. Its survey of the same territory is a different document. The southern border alone runs through ten named locations, each one precisely situated in a landscape the Targum knows with the specificity of someone who had walked it. But the most extraordinary expansion in the Targum is not geographic at all. It concerns what the Great Sea actually contains.

The Waters Beneath the Waters

The Targum says the Great Sea's limits are the waters of the beginning with the waters of old in its depth, along with its capes and harbors, its creeks and cities, its islands and ports. The Mediterranean is not the boundary. The Mediterranean is the surface. Beneath it, connected to it, extending through it, are the primordial waters that existed before the world was organized. The western border of the Promised Land goes down through the sea all the way to the beginning of creation itself.

The waters of the beginning are the waters of Genesis 1:2, the formless deep over which the spirit of God moved before anything was made. On the second day of creation, God separated the waters above from the waters below, establishing the sky between them. The waters below became the seas. But they did not lose their original character. They remained, under the surface of every ocean, the same waters that had been there before land existed. The Targum's geographic claim is also a theological one: the western edge of the land God promised to Israel rests on the foundations of creation.

Caleb and Joshua at the Borders

The same passage in Numbers 34 that describes the borders also names the men appointed to help divide the land among the tribes. Caleb and Joshua head the list. They are the only two surviving members of the original spy mission, the only men of that generation who had seen the land and returned with a faithful report. Every other spy had seen the giants and the walled cities and advised against entry. Caleb and Joshua had stood against the majority and paid for it with forty years of wandering alongside a generation condemned to die in the wilderness.

Their presence at the border survey is not incidental. The Targum frames their appointment as the closing of a circle: the men who had told the truth about the land at the beginning were now among those charged with distributing it at the end. What they had seen and reported honestly, decades earlier, was now being realized. The borders they helped survey were the borders they had described to an unbelieving camp when description alone had been counted as treason against popular sentiment.

What It Meant for the Land to Have No Bottom

A land whose western boundary rests on primordial waters is a land whose foundation predates any human claim on it. The Targum's expansion of the western border is an argument about the character of the territory being divided. It is not simply a piece of geography that could be conquered and recaptured and traded and lost, the way territories normally worked in the ancient Near East. It is a territory whose deepest layer connects to the moment before time, to the waters that were present when God first spoke creation into existence.

This is what made the covenant meaningful in the Targum's framework. God was not giving Israel a parcel of real estate. God was giving Israel a territory that had been structured into the world at the level of its foundations. The land's connection to the waters of the beginning was not a poetic embellishment. It was a statement about why the promise was unconditional and why the borders could be stated with such precision: the territory was already defined, already held, already continuous with the deepest structure of what existed.

JacobMosesTribesHoly LandCreation
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From the tradition

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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Targum Jonathan on Numbers 34Targum Jonathan

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

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. Can you imagine the pressure? 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, a 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.

So, what does this mean for us today? It's a reminder that true faith isn't always easy. 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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