Contemporary inscriptions and recent excavations make it possible
to form a very definite conception of conditions in Canaan when the
Hebrews crossed the Jordan. The dominant civilization was that of
the Canaanites, the descendants of the Semitic invaders from the
desert who entered Palestine centuries before the ancestors of the
Hebrews. Naturally they settled first along the fertile coast
plains that skirt the western Mediterranean. In later times these
were known as the Phoenicians. As the population increased, the
Canaanites pushed their outposts along the broad valleys that
penetrated the uplands of Palestine. These valleys were especially
fertile and attractive in the territory later known as Galilee and
Samaria. The wide Plain of Esdraelon and its eastward extension,
the Valley of Jezreel, cut straight across the central plateau of
Palestine. The Plain of Esdraelon was the strongest centre of the
Canaanite civilization. A few outposts were established in the
Jordan valley, as for example, Laish, later known as Dan, at the
foot of Mount Hermon, and Jericho, at the southern end of the
Jordan valley. Only a few Canaanite villages were found along the
more barren hills of Southern Canaan. There the peoples and
civilization still retained the imprint of their desert origin.
Along the coast plains and across the great Plain of Esdraelon ran
the main highways that connected the three earliest and most
nourishing centres of the world's civilization: the Egyptian on the
southwest, the Amorite on the north, probably between the southern
Lebanons, and the Babylonian to the east and northeast. For
centuries the Canaanites had absorbed the ideas, institutions, and
culture of these stronger peoples. So fundamentally had the
Babylonians impressed the Canaanites that practically all of the
inscriptions coming from this early period are written in the
Babylonian script. Even in writing to their Egyptian conqueror
during the fourteenth century, the Canaanite kings of Palestine
used this same Babylonian system of writing. The Amorite
civilization had so strongly influenced the Canaanites that to-day
it is difficult for the archaeologist to distinguish between the
two. By certain of the Biblical writers the terms Canaanite and
Amorite are used interchangeably. As early as 1600 B.C. Egypt,
under the ambitious conquering kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty, had
overrun Palestine and for the next three or four centuries ruled it
as a tributary province. The nearness of Egypt made its influence
still more powerful, so that in nearly every mound and Canaanite
ruin the excavator finds hundreds of reminders of the presence of
the Egyptian civilization.
The Canaanites had long since left behind them the nomadic state
and had developed a strong agricultural and commercial
civilization. Their life centered about certain important cities
like Megiddo on the southwestern side and Bethshean on the eastern
side of the Plain of Esdraelon. Their cities were usually built on
a low-lying hill in the midst of rich encircling plains. They were
provided with thick mud walls, behind which the inhabitants felt
secure from attack. Over each city ruled a petty king, whose
authority, however, did not extend far beyond the surrounding
fields that belonged to the inhabitants of the town. Generally
these city states were independent. In many cases they were
hostile to each other; and the long rule of Egypt had tended to
intensify this hostility, for Egypt had depended upon this local
jealousy to maintain its control. The diversified physical contour
of Palestine likewise strengthened this tendency toward separation
rather than unity.
This type of political organization favored the growth of
polytheism rather than the worship of one god. Each city had its
local god or baal, which was worshipped at a high place either
within the city or on some adjacent height, while in the larger
cities elaborate altars and temples were reared to them. These
local deities were regarded as the gods of fertility which gave to
their worshippers ample harvests and numerous offspring both of the
family and of the nock. The principle of generation occupied such
a prominent place in the Canaanite cults that in time they became
exceedingly immoral and debasing. To secure the favor of their
gods the Canaanites brought rich sacrifices to their altars and
observed certain great annual festivals with ceremonies very
similar to those later adopted by the Hebrews.
While the Canaanites were on a much higher plane of material
civilization than the Hebrews, they ultimately fell a prey to those
hardy invaders of the desert: (1) Because they were incapable of
strong united action, and (2) because their civilization was
corrupt and enervating. Courage and real patriotism were almost
unknown to them even as early as the seventeenth century B.C., when
the Egyptian king Thutmose III invaded the land of Palestine.
Their strong walls and their superior military equipment, however,
made their immediate conquest by the Hebrews impossible. This
explains why the earliest account of the initial conquest, now
found in Judges 1, is chiefly devoted to recounting the strong
Canaanite cities which the Hebrews failed to conquer.