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As a follow up to this M.Y. question, it seems that the first time in Tanac"h that the land is named ארץ ישראל occurs in Samuel. The Torah calls the land Cana'an or just describes its features as in "the land that I promised to your fathers" or "a land flowing with milk and honey".

Who first named the land "Israel"? (I am not referring to the country / nation that we currently have, in its current form. There are different reasons, in a sense, as to how it got its name. Please note the tag I used, as there is a similar one that I intentionally did not use.)

DanF
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    You mean who between Joshua and Samuel named it? The verses in that question don't say, so probably we don't know. – Double AA May 17 '17 at 14:47
  • Remember that later, after the death of Solomon, the land split into two kingdoms: Judah and Israel. – ezra May 17 '17 at 15:02
  • As per @ezra's comment, it seems plausible that, depending on context, the term "Eretz Yisrael" may mean "the Land of [the people] Israel" either corresponding to all of Jacob's descendants (e.g. in Samuel and Chronicles), or those not included under the kingdom of Judah (i.e. the 10 tribes; e.g. in Kings and Ezekiel). This perhaps underscores why, from when the Romans originally renamed the land to the modern day, those who wish to deny Judaeans rights to the land prefer to call it by names such as Palestine, the West Bank, and Jordan. – Loewian May 17 '17 at 17:23
  • Accordingly, it wouldn't have necessarily made so much sense to call it "the Land of Israel" before Israel actually inherited it. – Loewian May 17 '17 at 17:28
  • @Loewian (re last comment) - that's understood. I made a similar comment on that point in the linked question, as it would, of course, explain why the Torah doesn't use this term. But, one would think that after Joshua conquered and killed (most of) the inhabitants and portioned out the land to the tribes, he would have given it the name. It's unclear as to whether he did, as the term is not mentioned in Joshua at all. – DanF May 17 '17 at 18:45
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    The earliest source for the name is Yehoshua 11:22 although it is called over there Eretz Bnei Yisrael.

    לא נותר ענקים בארץ בני ישראל, רק בעזה בגת ובאשדוד נשארו

    The earliest source for the name Eretz Yisrael is Shmuel1 13:19

    וחרש לא ימצא בכל ארץ ישראל

     – Gershon Gold May 17 '17 at 19:57
  • I doubt anyone named it. More likely, once Yisrael was living there, that's what it naturally became known as. It's not like countries had official names that had to be used in all official correspondence, back then. – msh210 May 17 '17 at 22:15

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