Promised Land
8
7.3
- proper noun
- Literature
:
Tierra Prometida
- You will wander the desert for forty years, and then you will come to the Promised Land.
This is kind of the idea in the Bible where Moses gets to the edge of the promised land and he's within sight of it, but he's just too old.
- This is kind of the idea in the Bible where Moses gets to the edge of the promised land and he's within sight of it, but he's just too old.
- Before we reach the majestic shores of the Promised Land, there is a frustrating and bewildering wilderness ahead.
Examples
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The Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt and their journey to the Promised Land is one of the most influential and important stories in all of world history.
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And Moses said, 'Who am I, that I should lead them to the Promised Land?'
Fiction book (1995) -
And deliver us To the Promised Land
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Deliver us To the Promised Land
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To the Promised Land, my son.
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The Bible clearly states that Jerusalem is the promised land of the Jews.
Blog text (15) -
But in Exodus, God sends Moses to bring the beauty of the Sabbath and the Promised Land to the poor, landless, and enslaved Hebrews.
Academic text (2010) -
They were enslaved by the pharaoh, then miraculously delivered out of Egypt and journeyed across the desert to conquer the Promised Land.
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Four hundred years ago, God delivered us to this Promised Land.
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Moses led our people from slavery to the gates of the Promised Land.
Synonyms
16
5.0
A region east of the Mediterranean Sea, mainly Israel and Palestine, that is sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims
15
9.3
An ancient region in the eastern Mediterranean around present-day Israel important in the Bible
7
6.2
An ancient region on the eastern Mediterranean coast considered holy by Jews, Christians, and Muslims
Surface Forms
Morphology
The basic idea of a 'land' that has been 'promised' is directly derivable from the constituents, so learners can infer a literal meaning (land that was promised to someone). However, the extended idiomatic and religious/metaphorical sense of an ultimate place of fulfillment or reward depends on cultural/biblical knowledge and metaphorical extension, so the full meaning is not fully predictable from the parts. Equivalent expressions exist in many languages (e.g., Spanish 'Tierra Prometida'), which helps comprehension but does not eliminate the idiomatic nuance.
Etymology
Promised Land comes from the Bible, where God promised a special land to Abraham and his people and the Israelites travelled there after a long journey. That story is why Promised Land refers to the land given by God in the Bible.