It appears that when our Authorized Version was made, the English name Palestine was considered to be equivalent to Philistia, Thus Milton, with his usual accuracy in such points, mentions Dagon as
" dreaded through the coast Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon, And Accarou and Gaza's frontier bounds"
(Par. Lost, i, 464) ; and again as
" That twice-battered god of Palestine"
(Hymn on Nat. 199)
— where, if any proof be watited that his meaning is re- stricted to Philistia, it will be found in the fact that he has previously connected other deities with the other parts of the Holy Land. See also, still more decisively, Samson Ag. 144, 1098. But even without such evi- dence the passages themselves show how our translators understood the word. Thus in Exod. xv, 14, "Pales- tine," Edom, Moab, and Canaan are mentioned as the nations alarmed at the approach of Israel. In Isa. xiv, 29, 31, the prophet warns "Palestine" not to rejoice at the death of king Ahaz, who liad subdued it. In Joel iii, 4, Phoenicia and "Palestine" are upbraided with cruehies practiced on Judah and Jerusalem (RenneU, Geogr. of Herodot. p. 245 sq.).
Soon after the Christian a3ra we find the name Pa- Isestina in possession of the country. Ptolemy (A.D. 161) thus applies it (Geogr. v, 16). " The arbitrary di- visions of Palaestina Prima, Secunda, and Tertia, settled
at the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century (see the quotations from the Cod. fheodos. in Reland, p. 205), are still observed in the documents of the Eastern Church" (Smith, Diet, of Geogr. ii, 533a). Palasstina Tertia, of which Petra was the capital, was, however, out of the Biblical limits; and the portions of Pera;a not comprised in Palaestina Secunda were counted as in Arabia.
2. Canaan CjyJS; Xai/adr).— This is the oldest, and in the early books of Scripture the most common name of Palestine. It is derived from the son of Ham, by whose family the country was colonized (Gen. ix, 18 ; X, 15-19; Josephus, Ant. i, 6, 2). It is worthy of note, as tending to confirm the accuracy of the early ethno- logical notices in Genesis, that the ancient Phoenicians called themselves Canaanites (Kenrick's Phanicia, p. 40; Reland, p. 7). The name Canaan was confined to the district west of the Jordan ; the provinces east of the river were always distinguished from it (Numb. xxxiii, 51 ; Exod. xvi, 35, with Josh, v, 12 ; xxii, 9, 10). Its eastern boundary is thus within that of Palestine; but, on the other hand, it reached on the north to Ha- math (Gen. x, 18, with xvii, 8). and probably even far- ther, for the Arvadite is reckoned among the Canaan- ites, and the earliest name of Phoenicia was Cna or Cana. See Pucexicia. Wherever the country prom- ised to the Israelites, or dwelt in by the patriarchs, is mentioned in Scripture, it is called "the land of Ca- naan" (Exod. vi, 4 ; xv, 15 ; Lev. xiv, 34 ; Deut. xxxii, 39; Josh, xiv, 1 ; Psa. cv, 11), doubtless in reference to the promise originally made to Abraham (Gen. xvii, 8). See Canaan, Land of. In Amos (ii, 10) alone it is " the land of the Amorite ;" perhaps with a glance at Deut. i, 7. A parallel phrase is the "land of the Hit- tites" (Josh, i, 4) ; a remarkable expression, occurring here only in the Bible, though frequently used in the Egyptian records of Rameses II, in which Cheta or Chita appears to denote the whole country of Lower and Middle Syria (Brugsch, Geogr. Inschrift. ii, 21, etc.).
3. The Land of Promise. — This name originated in the divine promise to Abraham (Gen. xiii, 15). Its ex- tent and boundaries are given bj^ Moses (xv, 18-21; Exod. xxiii, 31), and have already been considered. The exact phrase, " Land of Promise," is not found in the O. T., and only once in the N. (Heb. xi, 9, >'/ y/} rriQ tirayyiXiac), but some analogous expression is often used by the sacred writers; thus in Numb, xxii, 11, "The land which I sware unto Abraham" (comp. Deut. xxxiv, 1-4; Gen. 1, 24; Ezek. xx, 42; Acts vii, 5). Such appellations were used when the object of the writer was to direct the people's attention to the Abra- hamic covenant, either in its certainty or in its fulfil- ment. It is now frequently employed by writers on Palestine who give special attention to prophecy (for a good account of it, see Reland, p. 18 sq.).
4. The Land of Jehovah. — This name is only found in Hos. ix, 3: "They shall not dwell in Jehovah's land." All the countries of the earth are the Lord's; but it appears, as Reland states (Palcest. p. 16), that in some peculiar way Palestine was especially God's land. Thus an express command was given, " The land shall not be sold forever: /'o/- the land is mine" (Lev. xxv, 23) ; and the Psalmist says, " Lord, thou hast been fa- vorable unto thy land" (Ixxxv, 1) ; and still more em- phatic are the words of Isaiah : " The stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Imman- uel" (viii, 8; comp. Joel i, 6; iii, 2; Jer. xvi, 18). The object of these and many similar expressions was to show that Jehovah claimed the sole disposal of Palestine. He reserved it for special and holy pur- poses; and he intended in all coming time to dispose of it, whether miraculously or providentially, for carry- ing out those purposes, either by the agency of the Jews or of others. It was the only land in which the Lord personally and visibly dwelt : first in the Shekinah