Nadene Goldfoot
Canaan was populated by descendants of Canaan, son of Ham and were divided into 11 peoples who lived in the area between the Nile and the Euphrates Rivers. It appeared to be a mixture of Horites (Hurrians), Hittites and Hebrews, dating back to the Hyksos period of the 17th century BCE.
Canaan had fertility cults. When the Israelites entered Canaan, they found a land of farmers, not shepherds, as they had been in the wilderness. The land was fertile beyond anything the Hebrew nomads had ever seen. The Canaanites attributed this fertility to their god Baal,and that is where the Israelites problems began. Could the God who had led them out of Egypt and through the wilderness also provide fertile farms in the Promised Land? Or would the fertility god of Canaan have to be honored? Maybe, to be safe, they should worship both;Yahweh and Baal ??? This became a problem which they had to learn to overcome.
The Canaanites were almost entirely obliterated or assimilated by the Israelites during the 13th century BCE, including the Philistines along the coast in the 12th century BCE and the Arameans in the North in the 11th century. Remnants of the peoples were subjected by David and Solomon and subsequently absorbed. Later, the name of Canaanites were preserved only among the Sidonians and Phoenicians. They lived in their own individual city-states, not unified as a country or empire, scattered between the 2 major rivers of the Nile of Egypt and Euphrates of Mesopotamia.
The Hebrews were the descendants of Eber, grandson of Shem (Gen. 10:24). They came from the other side of the River Euphrates. Abraham was called "the Hebrew." Most likely, the Habiru and Hebrew are identical words. Hebrew was used interchangeably with "Jew" as implying greater dignity, though on the Continent of Europe, "Israelite" was more common. Hebrew was the origin of ebreo and Yevrei, the usual Italian and Russian words for Jew.
The Hittites were another ancient people living in Asia Minor. From the 15th century BCE, their power extended southward to Syria. Even after the main kingdom fell in about 1200 BCE, small Hittite kingdoms continued to flourish in Northern Syria and in the vicinity of the Euphrates River. These states were eventually overrun by the Armenians and the Assyrians. The bible connects the Hittites with the Canaanites (Gen 10:15) and indicates that some lived in Eretz Yisrael at an early period. The Hittites were one of the 11 peoples from whom the Israelites conquered Canaan. We have the story of a Hittite selling Abraham the land with the cave to bury Sarah in, and Solomon having Hittite wives. David had Hittite warriors.
The Horites originated South of the Caucasian mountains, who invaded Syria and Eretz Yisrael in the 17th century BCE. They transmitted Sumero-Akkadian culture to the Hittites and lived near Mt. Seir in Abraham's time, but their land was then conquered by the Edomites. (Gen 14-36:20-30; Deut 2:12, 22). Scholars have identified the Haru with the Horites and believe that they were pushed back by the Amorites and Canaanites to the Mt. Seir region where they were later driven by the Edomites.
The Hyksos were also a Semitic peoples who overran Egypt after the destruction of the Middle Kingdom. Excavations in Egypt have revealed royal Hyksos scarabs, etc, bearing names similar to Hebrew, while Hyksos remains have also been uncovered in Eretz Yisrael. The Hyksos ruled in Egypt from about 1720 to 1580 BCE (Christian dates differ from Jewish dates).
During this period, the Children of Israel entered the country. I figure Moses led them away in 1311 BCE. Jewish findings show Moses born in 1391 BCE and at age 80 returned to Egypt to free the slaves. Along with this, we have David ruling from 1010-970 BCE, and Solomon from 961-920 BCE, and Abraham living in the 2nd millennium BCE or about 1948 BCE.
According to the Book of Exodus, there was a famine in the land of Canaan (later known as Israel). Because of this famine, the Hebrew patriarch Jacob traveled with his extended family of 70 to Egypt, so both could live in better conditions and be with his son Joseph. Joseph’s wisdom had impressed the Pharaoh of Egypt to the point that he was appointed Viceroy of Egypt, which was second in power only to the Pharaoh. and were favorably treated; the period of bondage is believed to have begun after the expulsion of the Hyksos. From the beginning to when Moses led them away was 400 years which would have started in about 1311 BCE.
Hyksos is Egyptian, meaning "rulers of the foreign lands". It was first applied to his people people by Manetho, a 3rd century BCE Egyptian priest and author) who erroneously took the word to mean "shepherd kings." His Egyptian history included a story of expulsion of the lepers from Egypt, uncertain if ID of lepers with Israelites came from Manetho or Alexandrian anti-Semites.
Phoenicians were the ancient people of Syria and lived along the Syrian-Palestinian coast. Their main towns were Arvad, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, Gebal (Byblos), Simirro and Sin. Their language was similar to Hebrew. The Egyptians controlled the Phoenicians from the period after the expulsion of Hyksos in 1500 BCE down to the time of Rameses III, while the N. Phoenician cities were evidently ruled by the Hittites.
Update; 5/20/22- 6:30pm.
"The Bible refers to "Hittites" in several passages, ranging from Genesis to the post-Exilic Ezra–Nehemiah. The Hittites are usually depicted as a people living among the Israelites – Abraham purchases the Patriarchal burial-plot of Machpelah from "Ephron HaChiti", Ephron the Hittite; and Hittites serve as high military officers in David's army. In 2 Kings 7:6, however, they are a people with their own kingdoms (the passage refers to "kings" in the plural), apparently located outside geographic Canaan, and sufficiently powerful to put a Syrian army to flight.
It is a matter of considerable scholarly debate whether the biblical "Hittites" signified any or all of: 1) the original Hattians; 2) their Indo-European conquerors, who retained the name "Hatti" for Central Anatolia, and are today referred to as the "Hittites" (the subject of this article); or 3) a Canaanite group who may or may not have been related to either or both of the Anatolian groups, and who also may or may not be identical with the later Syro-Hittite states.
Other biblical scholars (following Max Müller) have argued that, rather than being connected with Heth, son of Canaan, the Anatolian land of Hatti was instead mentioned in Old Testament literature and apocrypha as "Kittim" (Chittim), a people said to be named for a son of Javan."Javan (Hebrew: יָוָן, Modern: Yavan, Tiberian: Yāwān) was the fourth son of Noah's son Japheth according to the "Generations of Noah" (Book of Genesis, chapter 10) in the Hebrew Bible. Josephus states the traditional belief that this individual was the ancestor of the Greeks.
Jews lived in Lebanon, where the Phoenicians had been. There had been Jewish communities in; Tripoli, Tyre and Sidon, and were engaged in commerce. Now most would be in Beirut, if there at all.
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittites
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
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