Page 11 - Biblical Backgrounds student textbook

Exodus 3:8

“and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand
of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to
a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and
honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the
Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”
(ESV)

Deuteronomy 8:8
“For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land,
a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs,
flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and
barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of
olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing,
a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full,
and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.” (ESV)

The term “Canaanite” is an overarching term with many sub-categories of people
within it. One may think of Canaan as the house under which many people in the
family find shelter. Numbers 13:29 says “The Amalekites dwell in the land of the
Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And
the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan. (ESV)”

The people groups listed above, and others were in the land of Canaan. They did
not own nation states as we do today. They were more tribal. When Abraham
came to the land of Canaan and was promised it the land was not full of mighty
cities. Voss explains that it was more rural and patriarchal. Five hundred or so
years later, when the Israelites returned from Egypt, they found large cities with
and fortified walls. To the right you will find a helpful chart showing the locations
of the people groups of the land of Canaan.
16

Government structure in Canaan:
During the time of the patriarchs there was no major power or centralized
government. Voss explains that:

“In a land and at a time when urban life had largely disappeared, the government that really
mattered, as far as Scripture is concerned, was that of the patriarch over his extended family.
Patriarch means literally “rule of the father.” And his rule was absolute; he controlled the
political, economic, military, religious, and social affairs of his clan. He even had the power of life
and death over them, as is clear from Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac (Genesis 22).
17
This reality is seen in the story of Jephthah and his daughter. The father bargains with God and sacrifices
his daughter as a result. It is interesting that God did not ask for Jephthah to bargain with Him. It is also

16 Map of Canaanite Nations used under free use license. https://www.bible-
history.com/maps/canaanite_nations.html
17 Voss, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Manners and Customs, 31.

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