This land is consecrated to its righteous residents. Consecrate comes from Latin sacrare, meaning “to make holy”; in other words, this becomes a holy land to them, a land of liberty, a refuge against captivity—all based on their faithfulness.
The God of this land was actually protecting it for a time, “that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations.” Otherwise, “many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance” for those whom he specially guided to it. In later centuries the Lord allowed the Spanish, the Portuguese, and the English in particular to overrun the land so that the restored gospel could be spread primarily in these three languages instead of the hundreds of diverse languages of the native peoples.
The promise was that upon obedience to the Lord the inhabitants would be blessed. They would prosper and be kept safe, or as the biblical covenant stipulated, upon obedience they would be able to live “long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:12).
If the people turn away from their Lord, they will suffer his judgments, he will bring other peoples to displace them, and they will be “scattered and smitten.”