File:Early-Historical-Israel-Dan-Beersheba-Judea.png

In this graphic about early historical Israel, the pink area is a rough approximate map of the near-maximum boundaries of the lands that were inhabited by Israelites or under direct central royal administration during the United Monarchy period of ancient history (according to the Bible) -- excluding states (such as Damascus, Geshur, Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistine city-states) which sometimes acknowledged some degree of Israelite suzerainty or overlordship, but were never integral or directly-administered parts of the unified Israelite kingdom of David or Solomon. This is basically what is referred to by the Biblical phrase "from Dan to Beersheba" (which occurs nine times in the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament -- at Judges 20:1, 1 Samuel 3:20, 2 Samuel 3:10, 2 Samuel 17:11, 2 Samuel 24:2, 2 Samuel 24:15, 1 Kings 4:25, 1 Chronicles 21:2, and 2 Chronicles 30:5). So the passage 1 Kings 4:24-25 (1 Kings 5:4-5 in Jewish verse numbering) describes Solomon's larger empire with the phrase "from Tiphsah to Gaza", these being the northeasternmost and southwesternmost noteworthy cities that recognized some allegiance to Solomon (Tiphsah was a trade outpost in northern Syria, at the bend in the Upper Euphrates) — but the actual land "where Judah and Israel dwelt in safety" was described as being "from Dan to Beersheba".

The dark red area in the graphic shows the central core of ancient Judea. This area (more or less the southern half of the west bank hill-chain, roughly from Ramallah to Hebron or slightly north of Hebron) was almost always part of a Jewish kingdom or a Jewish province within a larger empire for over a thousand years, from the days of King David down to 135 CE.