Canaanites

Canaanites (c. 10,800–1,200 BCE)

• Location: Levant (modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan)
• Gods: Baal, El, Asherah
• Heroes: None specifically, though they frequently conflicted with the Israelites.
• Key Locations: Jericho View, Jerusalem View
• Summary: The Canaanites were diverse people with advanced urban centers and a polytheistic religion, frequently interacting with the Israelites.

Etymology

Modern Pronunciation: “Canaan” (/ˈkeɪnən/) has been used in English since around 1500 due to the Great Vowel Shift.

Hebrew Origin: From Hebrew כנען (Kənaʿan), passed through Koine Greek Χανααν and Latin Canaan.

Akkadian Usage: Appears as Kinâḫna in the Amarna letters (14th century BC) and Egyptian texts.

Greek Reference: Found as “Khna” (Χνᾶ) in Hecataeus‘ writings (c. 550–476 BC).

Phoenician Coins: Attested on 2nd century BC Phoenician coins from Berytus.

The etymology of the term “Canaan” is debated. One early explanation connects it to the Semitic root knʿ, meaning “to be low, humble, or subjugated,” possibly referring to either geographical “lowlands” in contrast to Aram (“highlands”) or a province of Egypt’s empire in the Levant. Another theory by Ephraim Avigdor Speiser suggests it comes from the Hurrian word Kinaḫḫu, which refers to the color purple, making “Canaan” synonymous with “Phoenicia,” a region known for its purple dye made from murex molluscs.

Canaanite Cities

1. Jericho

• View
• Verses:
• Joshua 6:1 – “Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in.”
• Joshua 6:20 – “So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the wall fell down flat.”
• Joshua 2:1 – “And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, ‘Go, view the land, especially Jericho.'”

2. Ai

• View
• Verses:
• Joshua 7:2 – “Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, ‘Go up and spy out the land.'”
• Joshua 8:28 – “So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation to this day.”
• Joshua 8:17 – “Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel; they left the city open and pursued Israel.”

3. Hazor

• View
• Verses:
• Joshua 11:10 – “And Joshua turned back at that time and captured Hazor and struck its king with the sword, for Hazor formerly was the head of all those kingdoms.”
• Joshua 11:11 – “And they struck with the sword all who were in it, devoting them to destruction; there was none left that breathed. And he burned Hazor with fire.”
• Judges 4:2 – “So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.”

4. Hebron

• View
• Verses:
• Joshua 14:13 – “Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance.”
• Genesis 23:2 – “And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.”
• 2 Samuel 2:11 – “And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.”

5. Shechem

• View
• Verses:
• Joshua 24:1 – “Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel.”
• Genesis 12:6 – “Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.”
• Judges 9:1 – “Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives and said to them, ‘Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem.'”

6. Bethel

• View
• Verses:
• Genesis 28:19 – “He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.”
• Judges 1:22 – “The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them.”
• 1 Kings 12:29 – “And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.”

7. Lachish

• View
• Verses:
• Joshua 10:31 – “Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Libnah to Lachish; he took up positions against it and attacked it.”
• 2 Kings 18:14 – “And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, ‘I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear.'”
• Jeremiah 34:7 – “When the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, Lachish and Azekah, for these were the only fortified cities of Judah that remained.”

8. Arad

• View
• Verses:
• Numbers 21:1 – “When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel.”
• Judges 1:16 – “And the descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad.”
• Numbers 33:40 – “And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard of the coming of the people of Israel.”

9. Gibeon

• View
• Verses:
• Joshua 10:2 – “He and his people were greatly alarmed, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters.”
• Joshua 9:3 – “But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai.”
• 2 Samuel 21:1 – “Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, ‘There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.'”

10. Jerusalem

• View
• Verses:
• Joshua 10:1 – “As soon as Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured Ai and had devoted it to destruction.”
• 2 Samuel 5:6 – “And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land.”
• 1 Kings 8:16 – “Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there, but I chose David to be over my people Israel.”

11. Gezer

• View
• Verses:
• Joshua 10:33 – “Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish, and Joshua struck him and his people, until he left none remaining.”
• 1 Kings 9:16 – “Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city.”
• Joshua 16:10 – “However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day but have been made to do forced labor.”

12. Megiddo

• View
• Verses:
• Judges 5:19 – “The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo.”
• 1 Kings 9:15 – “And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the LORD and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer.”
• 2 Kings 23:29 – “In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo, as soon as he saw him.”

13. Shiloh

• View
• Verses:
• Joshua 18:1 – “Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there.”
• 1 Samuel 1:3 – “Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the LORD.”
• Jeremiah 7:12 – “Go now to my place that was in Sh

iloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.”