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25-638: West is a cardinal direction or compass point. West or The West may also refer to: West The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance languages ( ouest in French, oest in Catalan, ovest in Italian, oeste in Spanish and Portuguese). As in other languages, the word formation stems from the fact that west is the direction of the setting sun in the evening: 'west' derives from

50-522: A compass for navigation (in a place where magnetic north is the same direction as true north) one needs to set a bearing or azimuth of 270°. West is the direction opposite that of the Earth 's rotation on its axis, and is therefore the general direction towards which the Sun appears to constantly progress and eventually set. This is not true on the planet Venus , which rotates in the opposite direction from

75-550: A modern English Bible translates to: The Israelites lived in a smaller area of former Canaanite land and land east of the Jordan River after the legendary prophet Moses led the Israelite Exodus out of Egypt ( Numbers 34:1–12 ). The Torah's Book of Deuteronomy presents this occupation as their God's fulfillment of the promise ( Deuteronomy 1:8 ). Moses anticipated that their God might subsequently give

100-692: Is Middle Eastern land in the Levant that Abrahamic religions (which include Judaism , Christianity , Islam , and others) claim God promised and subsequently gave to Abraham (the legendary patriarch in Abrahamic religions) and several more times to his descendants. The concept of the Promised Land originates from a religious narrative written in the Hebrew religious text the Torah . God

125-490: Is claimed to have spoken the following promises to Abraham in several verses of Genesis (the first book of the Torah ), which a modern English Bible translates to: Later in what is called the covenant of the pieces , a verse is said to describe what are known as "borders of the Land" ( Gevulot Ha-aretz ): These allegedly divine promises were given prior to the birth of Abraham's sons. Abraham's family tree includes both

150-630: Is later renamed " Israel " ( Genesis 32:28 ) and his descendants are called the Children of Israel or the Twelve Tribes of Israel . The Torah's subsequent Book of Exodus describes it as "land flowing with milk and honey" ( Exodus 3:17 ) and gives verses on how to treat the prior occupants and marks the borders in terms of the Red Sea , the "Sea of the Philistines ", and the "River", which

175-518: Is written: German Lutheran Old Testament commentator Johann Friedrich Karl Keil states that the covenant is through Isaac, but notes that Ishmael 's descendants have held much of that land through time. Many European colonists saw America as the "Promised Land", representing a haven from religious conflicts and persecution . For instance, Puritan minister John Cotton 's 1630 sermon God's Promise to His Plantation gave colonizers departing England to Massachusetts repeated references to

200-597: The Ishmaelite tribes (the claimed ancestry of Arabs and of the Islamic prophet Muhammad ) through Abraham's first son Ishmael and the Israelite tribes (the claimed ancestry of Jews and Samaritans ) through Abraham's second son Isaac . God later confirms the promise to Abraham's son Isaac ( Genesis 26:3 ), and then to Isaac's son Jacob ( Genesis 28:13 ) in terms of "the land on which you are lying". Jacob

225-822: The Western Roman Empire and the Western Christianity . During the Cold War "the West" was often used to refer to the NATO camp as opposed to the Warsaw Pact and non-aligned nations . The expression survives, with an increasingly ambiguous meaning. In Chinese Buddhism , the West represents movement toward the Buddha or enlightenment (see Journey to the West ). The ancient Aztecs believed that

250-754: The middle latitudes (i.e. between 35 and 65 degrees latitude ) is from the west, known as the westerlies . The phrase "the West" is often spoken in reference to the Western world , which includes the European Union (also the EFTA countries), the United Kingdom, the Americas, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and (in part) South Africa. The concept of the Western part of the earth has its roots in

275-603: The "many nations before thee" when "He" brought them into the land "He" had discovered and promised to "His" "Chosen People" to "possess", and that this "right" was woven into US law through the 1823 Johnson v. McIntosh Supreme Court ruling. Mormonism teaches that the United States is the Biblical promised land, the U.S. Constitution divinely inspired, and Mormons God's chosen people. 1st century Roman–Jewish historian Flavius Josephus postulated that Ishmael

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300-519: The Earth ( retrograde rotation ). To an observer on the surface of Venus, the Sun would rise in the west and set in the east although Venus's opaque clouds prevent observing the Sun from the planet's surface. In a map with north at the top, west is on the left. Moving continuously west is following a circle of latitude . Due to the direction of the Earth's rotation, the prevailing wind in many places in

325-515: The Exodus story, and later German immigrants sang: "America ... is a beautiful land that God promised to Abraham." In a sermon celebrating independence in 1783 , Yale president Ezra Stiles implied Americans were chosen and delivered from bondage to a Promised Land: "the Lord shall have made his American Israel 'high above all nations which he hath made'," reflecting language from Deuteronomy of

350-487: The Indo-European root *wes reduced from *wes-pero 'evening, night', cognate with Ancient Greek ἕσπερος hesperos 'evening; evening star; western' and Latin vesper 'evening; west'. Examples of the same formation in other languages include Latin occidens 'west' from occidō 'to go down, to set' and Hebrew מַעֲרָב (maarav) 'west' from עֶרֶב (erev) 'evening'. West is sometimes abbreviated as W . To go west using

375-606: The Israelites land reflecting the boundaries of the original promise – if they were obedient to the covenant ( Deuteronomy 19:8–9 ). Commentators have noted several problems with this promise and related ones: The concept of the Promised Land is a central national myth of the Jewish People and a key tenet of Zionism , the Jewish national movement which established Israel . Mainstream Jewish tradition regards

400-597: The Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. Under the name Palestine , we comprehend the small country formerly inhabited by the Israelites, and which is today part of Acre and Damascus pachalics. It stretched between 31 and 33° N. latitude and between 32 and 35° degrees E. longitude, an area of about 1300 French : lieues carrées . Some zealous writers, to give

425-463: The West was the realm of the great goddess of water , mist, and maize . In Ancient Egypt , the West was considered to be the portal to the netherworld , and is the cardinal direction regarded in connection with death , though not always with a negative connotation. Ancient Egyptians also believed that the Goddess Amunet was a personification of the West. The Celts believed that beyond

450-562: The imagery of the "Promised Land" as heaven or paradise and as an escape from slavery , which could often only be reached by death. The imagery and term also appear elsewhere in popular culture , in sermons, and in speeches such as Martin Luther King Jr. 's 1968 " I've Been to the Mountaintop ", in which he said: I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen

475-502: The land of the Hebrews some political importance, have exaggerated the extent of Palestine; but we have an authority for us that one can not reject. St. Jerome, who had long traveled in this country, said in his letter to Dardanus (ep. 129) that the northern boundary to that of the southern, was a distance of 160 Roman miles, which is about 55 French : lieues . He paid homage to the truth despite his fears, as he said himself, of availing

500-632: The promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as applying to anyone a member of the Jewish people , including proselytes and in turn their descendants and is signified through the brit milah (rite of circumcision) . In the New Testament , the descent and promise is reinterpreted along religious lines. In the Epistle to the Galatians , Paul the Apostle draws attention to the formulation of

525-498: The promise, avoiding the term "seeds" in the plural (meaning many people), choosing instead "seed," meaning one person, who, he understands to be Jesus (and those united with him). For example, in Galatians 3:16 he notes: In Galatians 3:28 –29 Paul goes further, noting that the expansion of the promise from singular to the plural is not based on genetic/physical association, but a spiritual/religious one: In Romans 4:13 it

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550-591: The promise. Shawnee / Lenape scholar Steven Newcomb argued in his 2008 book Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery that Christendom 's discovery doctrine was also the same claim of "the right to kill and plunder non-Christians" found in this covenant tradition, whereby "the Lord" in Deuteronomy told his chosen people how they were to "utterly destroy"

575-706: The west as in respect to Mecca , Mecca is in the West-ward direction. In American literature (e.g., in The Great Gatsby ) moving West has sometimes symbolized gaining freedom , perhaps as an association with the settling of the Wild West (see also the American frontier and Manifest Destiny ). Promised Land The Promised Land ( Hebrew : הארץ המובטחת , translit. : ha'aretz hamuvtakhat ; Arabic : أرض الميعاد , translit. : ard al-mi'ad )

600-912: The western sea off the edges of all maps lay the Otherworld , or Afterlife. In Judaism , west is seen to be toward the Shekinah (presence) of God, as in Jewish history the Tabernacle and subsequent Jerusalem Temple faced east, with God's Presence in the Holy of Holies up the steps to the west. According to the Bible , the Israelites crossed the Jordan River westward into the Promised Land . In Islam , while in India, people pray facing towards

625-524: Was the founder of the Arab race. And according to Muslim tradition, Islam's founding prophet Muhammad was a Hanif (true monotheistic believer of the religion of Abraham). His tribe, the Quraysh , traces its ancestry to Ishmael . Some Palestinians claim partial descent from the Israelites and Maccabees , as well as from other peoples who have lived in the region. African-American spirituals invoke

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