Deuteronomy 4:21-22

4:21 But the Lord became angry with me because of you and vowed that I would never cross the Jordan nor enter the good land that he ¹  is about to give you. ²  4:22 So I must die here in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. But you are going over and will possess that ³  good land.

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 

Exodus 3:8

3:8 I have come down ⁹  to deliver them ¹⁰  from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a land that is both good and spacious, ¹¹  to a land flowing with milk and honey, ¹²  to the region of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ¹³ 

Numbers 32:5

32:5 So they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, ¹⁴  let this land be given to your servants for our inheritance. Do not have us cross ¹⁵  the Jordan River.” ¹⁶ 

Ezekiel 20:6

20:6 On that day I swore ¹⁷  to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a land which I had picked out ¹⁸  for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, ¹⁹  the most beautiful of all lands.

¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 4:3.

² tn The Hebrew text includes “(as) an inheritance,” or “(as) a possession.”

³ tn Heb “this.” The translation uses “that” to avoid confusion; earlier in the verse Moses refers to Transjordan as “this land.”

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 sn God’s coming down is a frequent anthropomorphism in Genesis and Exodus. It expresses his direct involvement, often in the exercise of judgment.

¹⁰ tn The Hiphil infinitive with the suffix is לְהַצִּילוֹ (lÿhatsilo, “to deliver them”). It expresses the purpose of God’s coming down. The verb itself is used for delivering or rescuing in the general sense, and snatching out of danger for the specific.

¹¹ tn Heb “to a land good and large”; NRSV “to a good and broad land.” In the translation the words “that is both” are supplied because in contemporary English “good and” combined with any additional descriptive term can be understood as elative (“good and large” = “very large”; “good and spacious” = “very spacious”; “good and ready” = “very ready”). The point made in the Hebrew text is that the land to which they are going is both good (in terms of quality) and large (in terms of size).

¹² tn This vibrant description of the promised land is a familiar one. Gesenius classifies “milk and honey” as epexegetical genitives because they provide more precise description following a verbal adjective in the construct state (GKC 418-19 §128.x). The land is modified by “flowing,” and “flowing” is explained by the genitives “milk and honey.” These two products will be in abundance in the land, and they therefore exemplify what a desirable land it is. The language is hyperbolic, as if the land were streaming with these products.

¹³ tn Each people group is joined to the preceding by the vav conjunction, “and.” Each also has the definite article, as in other similar lists (3:17; 13:5; 34:11). To repeat the conjunction and article in the translation seems to put more weight on the list in English than is necessary to its function in identifying what land God was giving the Israelites.

¹⁴ tn Heb “eyes.”

¹⁵ tn The verb is the Hiphil jussive from עָבַר (’avar, “to cross over”). The idea of “cause to cross” or “make us cross” might be too harsh, but “take across” with the rest of the nation is what they are trying to avoid.

¹⁶ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁷ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand to them.”

¹⁸ 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.”

¹⁹ 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).