ABSTRACT
God's promise of the Land of Israel has never been free of problems. From the beginning others also saw the land as theirs. The Hebrew Bible is contradictory in its demarcation of the boundaries, and at no time was the land populated only by Jews. In much of the ancient period—like today—the Hebrews, Israelites, Judeans, or Jews of the Promised Land had to contend with unfriendly neighbors as well as powerful empires that looked on the land as something they should control.
