Page 11 - Biblical Backgrounds

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 fortified walls. To the right, you
will find a helpful chart showing the locations of the people groups of the
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land of Canaan.

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
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Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac (Genesis 22).
This reality is seen in the story of Jephthah and his daughter. The father bargains with God and sacrifices
his daughter as a result. Interestingly, God did not ask Jephthah to bargain with Him. It is also interesting
that God clearly said not to sacrifice children to Him. Where did Jephthah get such an idea? He got it
from the religious practices of the Canaanite peoples. Let’s look at those next.

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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