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148 Now arise and cross this Jordan, thou and all this people, the Children of Israel, unto the land which I do give to them. Every place where the soles of your feet shall tread upon have I given to you, just as I have spoken to Moses: From the Desert to the Lebanon, and from the great river, the River Euphrates, in the country of the Hittites, unto the Great Sea, where the sun sets— That shall be your boundary. Tacutta 19 4 With so much of the current political, military, and reli- gious turmoil taking place in the Lands of the Bible, and with the Bible itself serving as a key to the past and to the future, one must point out a caveat inserted by the biblical God in regard to the Promised Land. The boundaries, run- ning from the Wilderness in the south to the Lebanon range in the north, and from the Euphrates in the east to the Medi- terranean Sea in the west, were reconfirmed to Joshua. These, God said, were the promised boundaries. But to be- come an actual land grant, it had to be obtained by posses- sion. Akin to the “planting of the flag” by explorers in the recent past, the Israelites could possess and keep land where they actually set foot—‘tread with the soles of their feet”; therefore, God commanded the Israelites not to tarry and delay, but to cross the Jordan and fearlessly and systemati- cally settle the Promised Land. But when the twelve tribes under the leadership of Joshua were done with the conquest and settlement of Canaan, only part of the areas east of the Jordan were occupied; nor were all of the lands west of the Jordan captured and settled. As far as the two space-related sites were concerned, their stories are totally different: Jerusalem—which was specifically listed (Joshua 12: 10, 18: 28)—was firmly in the hands of the tribe of Benjamin. But whether the northward advance attained the Landing Place in Lebanon is in doubt. Subsequent biblical references to the site called it the “Crest of Zaphon’ (the “se- THE END OF DAYS JOSHUA I: 2-4