Page 38 - Advanced Biblical Backgrounds Revised

Chapter 5: Conquering and Settling the Canaan
(Joshua, Judges, and Ruth)

Connect…

The Jewish people lived as nomads as they traveled to the Promised Land. This means that they were a
people who did not stay at one location for a long time. They would migrate from one place to another
in search of better pasture. They lived this lifestyle for about forty years in tents in various areas of
Mount Sinai. While they were attacked on occasion during their wandering, they had defeated these
enemies.

Canaan had changed greatly since the days of Abraham. The land now had armed cities throughout the
region. “One day Abraham roamed at will, seemingly, throughout Canaan, but now the region contained
kingdoms with well-defined territories.” They had developed alliances they would call upon to help in
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the event of a foreign invasion. The Hebrews, with two million people were a formidable enemy. Yet the
true fear was of the Jewish God. This is especially the case considering the stories they had heard about
the Hebrew God who had brought Egypt to its knees 40 years earlier. In this chapter, we will examine
some of the important backgrounds to the conquest and settling of the promised land.

Objectives…

1. Students should be able to identify the direction the Jews entered the promised land from and the
division of the land among the tribes of Israel.

2. Students should be able to describe the government structure in Canaanite and Jewish culture at the
time.

3. Students should be able to summarize the religious environment of the Jews in Canaan.

4. Students should be able to describe the important social and economics of the period.

5. Students should be able to identify the major people groups of the land that interacted with Israel
during the conquests.

74 Keith N. Schoville, “Canaanites and Amorites,” Peoples of the Old Testament World, edited by Alfred J. Hoerth
and others (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 167.

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