ABSTRACT
Families and clans gathered around their own standards and split into a multitude of diverse nations, and "the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth", forcing them to carry out the divine intent against their wishes. Abraham, a heroic figure endowed with extraordinary moral qualities, is ultimately chosen by God to serve as the human progenitor of the new nation. The territory selected by God to be the home for the new nation is ideally situated for the mission assigned to it. Since that mission is to serve as a model for other nations, it should be located in a place of great visibility. The Exodus consummating the national redemption of the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, followed by the enactment of the covenant between God and Israel, which established the latter's national ethos and mission. The process by which the nation of Israel was to come into being was to be unique.
