User:Dontuseurrealname/sandbox/Regions in the Bible

In the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, several geographical regions are mentioned and described. Most regions geographically correspond with modern nations.

Israel
A major part of the Old Testament, the term "Israel" carries several denotations, though it mainly refers to an area in the Southern Levant known as the Land of Israel. Other regions in the Land of Israel include Judah (which eventually led to the name of the city Jerusalem), Caanan, and Samaria. The region is first mentioned and described in Genesis 15:13–21 as the Promised Land, though it is never explicitly referred to as such in the paragraph. In the same text, a rough description of the region's borders is given, with the land stretching "from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates". A similar description is given in 2 Kings 24:7, where the territory's borders are described as "from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River". The location of the "Wadi of Egypt", commonly translated as the Brook of Egypt, has been subject to debate by various scholars; a common historic interpretation of the Brook is as the Wadi al-Arish, a 250-kilometer long river located in the Sinai Peninsula. Other interpretations, such as the one by Israeli historian Nadav Na'aman, view the Besor Stream as the river mentioned in Genesis 15.

Select territories inside the Land of Israel are mentioned in Hebrew text. The region of Gaza is first mentioned by name in Genesis 10:19, where it is said to be part of the territory of Caanan, a region located in the Land of Israel. It is later described as being under the rule of king Solomon in 1 Kings 4:24, where it is stated that "he ruled over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, and had peace on all sides". Later, in Judges 16, Samson is depicted to have been in Gaza, and is later captured by the Philistines inhabiting the area.

Mesopotamia
The region of Mesopotamia, located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, is a major focus in the Hebrew Bible. Several Mesopotamian countries are described to have existed; one of the most prominent is the kingdom of Babylon, with several biblical accounts of it being verified as historically correct.