The Neighbours

The Kingdom

The Neighbours

The small nations pressed against Israel, century after century

Israel never had an empty border. The same handful of peoples — Philistines on the coast, Moab and Ammon across the Jordan, Edom to the south-east, Aram to the north — are there in Judges, there under the kings, and still there when the prophets are writing. These are not the powers that ended the story. They are the ones that never went away.

The same land, seen the way it must have felt from the inside — pressed on every border at once.

It is worth pausing on. This is the situation into which the prophets spoke, and into which the promise of a coming King was made. The people who first heard those promises were not a great power waiting to become greater. They were a small nation running out of room.

Israel surroundedOriginal map of the nations that oppressed Israel during the period of the judges, with the direction each pressure came from.The Great SeaSea ofGalileeSaltSeaRiver JordanI S R A E LMesopotamiansAmmonitesMoabitesMidianitesPhilistinesCanaanitesJerusalemShilohHazorGazaBeershebaRabbahDibonMegiddoBeth ShanIsrael’s incomplete conquest left the nations it failed to drive outliving on every side of it — and each in turn became the rod.Judges 2:1–3, 20–23; 3:1–625 milesN
The nations left on every side — Judges 2–3.

More than real estate

The nation of Israel was surrounded not by friendly neighbours but threatened by constant attack.

As you become more familiar with the narrative going forward, it is worth noting that this land — promised in covenant to Abraham centuries before Israel took possession of it — has always been threatened by its enemies.

It is about more than real estate. It is the ongoing attempt to thwart God’s covenant promise.

The years were named in advance, and kept to the day. When God cut the covenant with Abraham He did not only promise the land — He told him how long it would be: his descendants would be strangers in a country not their own for four hundred years, and “in the fourth generation they will come back here” (Genesis 15:13–16).

Exodus then reports the finish of it with a precision that is easy to read past: “The Israelites had been living in Egypt for 430 years. After exactly 430 years all the LORD’s people left Egypt in organized family groups” (Exodus 12:40–41). Not roughly, not thereabouts — to the day.

Paul counts the same span from the other end: the Law came “430 years after God had already put his promise to Abraham into effect”, and did not cancel it (Galatians 3:17).

The delay was part of the promise, not a failure of it — and it ran to schedule.

The same neighbours, once the kingdom divided

The two kingdoms in their neighbourhood — Syria to the north, Ammon, Moab and Edom across the Jordan, Philistia on the coast, Egypt to the south.

Look at how small they are, and how many borders they have. Almost every war in Kings is with one of these neighbours, and the prophets address most of them by name. This is the map to have open when a prophecy turns suddenly to Moab or Edom and you wonder why.

The divided kingdom and the nations around itOriginal map of Israel and Judah with the surrounding kingdoms of the ninth and eighth centuries BC: Aram-Damascus, Phoenicia, Ammon, Moab, Edom and the Philistine cities.The Great SeaSea ofGalileeSaltSeaISRAELJUDAHARAM-DAMASCUSPHOENICIAAMMONMOABEDOMPHILISTINE CITIESSamariaShechemJerusalemDamascusTyreSidonDanHazorMegiddoJerichoHebronBeershebaGazaAshdodAshkelonRabbahDibonBethelPetraTwo small kingdoms where three continents meet — which is why everyone marched through them.Borders shifted constantly; this is the settled picture, not any one year.40 milesN
Israel and Judah, and the kingdoms on every side.
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