Deuteronomy 8:7-9

8:7 For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of brooks, ¹  springs, and fountains flowing forth in valleys and hills, 8:8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, of olive trees and honey, 8:9 a land where you may eat food ²  in plenty and find no lack of anything, a land whose stones are iron ³  and from whose hills you can mine copper.

Deuteronomy 11:11-12

11:11 Instead, the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy ⁴  is one of hills and valleys, a land that drinks in water from the rains, ⁵  11:12 a land the Lord your God looks after. ⁶  He is constantly attentive to it ⁷  from the beginning to the end of the year. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 3:19

3:19 “I thought to myself, ⁹ 

‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son! ¹⁰ 

What a joy it would be for me to give ¹¹  you a pleasant land,

the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’ ¹² 

I thought you would call me, ‘Father’ ¹³ 

and would never cease being loyal to me. ¹⁴ 

Ezekiel 20:6

20:6 On that day I swore ¹⁵  to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a land which I had picked out ¹⁶  for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, ¹⁷  the most beautiful of all lands.

¹ tn Or “wadis.”

² tn The Hebrew term may refer to “food” in a more general sense (cf. NASB, NCV, NLT) or “bread” in particular (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV).

³ sn A land whose stones are iron. Since iron deposits are few and far between in Palestine, the reference here is probably to iron ore found in mines as opposed to the meteorite iron more commonly known in that area.

⁴ tn Heb “which you are crossing over there to possess it.”

⁵ tn Heb “rain of heaven.”

⁶ tn Heb “seeks.” The statement reflects the ancient belief that God (Baal in Canaanite thinking) directly controlled storms and rainfall.

⁷ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it” (so NIV); NASB, NRSV “always on it.”

⁸ sn From the beginning to the end of the year. This refers to the agricultural year that was marked by the onset of the heavy rains, thus the autumn. See note on the phrase “the former and the latter rains” in v. 14.

⁹ tn Heb “I, myself, said.” See note on “I thought that she might come back to me” in 3:7.

¹⁰ tn Heb “How I would place you among the sons.” Israel appears to be addressed here contextually as the Lord’s wife (see the next verse). The pronouns of address in the first two lines are second feminine singular as are the readings of the two verbs preferred by the Masoretes (the Qere readings) in the third and fourth lines. The verbs that are written in the text in the third and fourth lines (the Kethib readings) are second masculine plural as is the verb describing Israel’s treachery in the next verse.

¹¹ tn The words “What a joy it would be for me to” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied in the parallel structure.

¹² tn Heb “the most beautiful heritage among the nations.”

¹³ tn Heb “my father.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “turn back from [following] after me.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand to them.”

¹⁶ tn Or “searched out.” The Hebrew word is used to describe the activity of the spies in “spying out” the land of Canaan (Num 13-14); cf. KJV “I had espied for them.”

¹⁷ sn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey,” a figure of speech describing the land’s abundant fertility, occurs in v. 15 as well as Exod 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3; Lev 20:24; Num 13:27; Deut 6:3; 11:9; 26:9; 27:3; Josh 5:6; Jer 11:5; 32:23 (see also Deut 1:25; 8:7-9).