The land which bled forth its bounty: An exile image of the land of Israel

Abstract

The expression: “a land flowing with milk and honey” appears some 20 times in the MT version of the Hebrew Bible and is generally thought to express the overall productivity of the Land of Israel. It is one of the few expressions which is used in many literary strata of the text as a distinctive term to describe the Land of Israel and its produce, although its absence from poetic, proverbs and wisdom literature indicates that it was not seen as a universally useful expression. Appearing in writings attributed to J, E, Dtr1 and Dtr2, as well as the writings of the prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the expression is understood by medieval and modem commentators as a metaphor for abundant grazing land and date palm honey (i.e. abundant flora and fauna). It's presence in different literary strata of four of the five books of the Torah, in particular, seems to point to the antiquity and long term utility of the expression. Further investigation of this expression reveals that it may not be a realistic perspective on the ancient land of Israel, but rather a rather poignant, nostalgic, exilic, and purely metaphoric view of the land written at a period after the land had passed through a significant devastation. This article will investigate the language of this passage and attempt to locate it in its original historical context.