Where Was Canaan? Map and Bible Background

In Numbers 34 the southern border ran from the end of the Salt Sea, passing south of Kadesh-barnea, to the Brook of Egypt. The western border was the Great Sea, the Mediterranean. The northern line ran from the coast to a northern Mount Hor (not the Mount Hor where Aaron died) and on to Lebo-hamath and Zedad. The eastern border ran south from Hazar-enan by Shepham and Riblah to the Sea of Chinnereth, then down the Jordan to the Salt Sea. Genesis 10:19 gives an earlier, shorter outline, from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and toward Sodom and Gomorrah as far as Lasha.

The Bible names the peoples of the land as the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (Deuteronomy 7:1).

South of the Sea of Chinnereth, the Jordan was the eastern boundary (Numbers 34:12). Gilead and the other lands beyond the river lay outside Canaan, even after Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh settled there (Numbers 32:32; Joshua 22:9).

In the Late Bronze Age (about 1550 to 1200 BC) Canaan was a patchwork of walled city-states, each ruled by a local king who paid tribute to Egypt. Hazor, in the north, was the largest; Joshua 11:10 says it "formerly was the head of all those kingdoms" of the northern alliance. The Amarna Letters, written in the 14th century BC under Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, preserve letters from the rulers of Jerusalem and Gezer asking Pharaoh for help against their rivals and against raiders called the Habiru. The Merneptah Stele, set up late in the 13th century BC, names Israel as a people in Canaan. It is the earliest secure mention of Israel outside the Bible.

A debated point: when Israel entered. OTIC follows the early date, which counts 480 years back from Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6:1) to an Exodus in 1446 BC and an entry into Canaan in 1406 BC. Many scholars instead date the Exodus to the 13th century BC, with the entry about forty years later. Destruction layers at Jericho and Hazor are central to the debate, and their dating remains contested.

• Genesis 12:5-7. Abram reaches Shechem, and the LORD promises the land to his offspring.
• Numbers 13:17-29. The spies cross the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath, and report on its cities.
• Joshua 3-4. The crossing of the Jordan opposite Jericho.
• Judges 1. The cities taken and the Canaanite cities Israel did not drive out (1:19-36), which remained beside Israel into the time of the judges (Judges 3:1-6).