Map of the Canaanite nations

Geographical location

In ancient times, Canaan referred to a region stretching from Gaza in the south to Byblos in the north, from the Mediterranean to east of the Jordan River. Today, this area straddles the state of Israel, Palestine, part of Jordan, Lebanon and western Syria.

The population
The Canaanite civilization is very ancient, and the Canaanite population is its main component. But there were also populations such as the Huvites, Hittites, Amorite nomads and others about whom we know nothing.
In the 12th century BC, the invasion of the Sea Peoples led to the Philistines, driven back by the Egyptians, settling on the Mediterranean coast, while the Hebrews occupied the rest of Canaan.

In the biblical context
This territory is named after Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, himself the third son of Noah (Genesis 9:19 and 10:6). Leaving Ur in Chaldea, Abraham went to Canaan at the request of God, who promised this land to the patriarch and his descendants forever (Genesis 12:1-7), a promise repeated to Isaac and Jacob. It was then to Moses that God ordered the people of Israel to go to Canaan and take possession of it: «... I came down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good and large land, into a land flowing with milk and honey, into the places inhabited by the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites...» (Exodus 3:8).