How did the Jews get the land from the Canaanites?

Answer 1

God promised it to Abraham (Genesis ch.15 and elsewhere), and instructed Joshua to conquer it (Joshua ch.1), which he did.

Answer 2

God promised Israel (Canaan) to the Israelites (Genesis ch.28, Exodus ch.3), and commanded them to take the land (Deuteronomy ch.1 and many other passages).

Note:

1) The Canaanites were exceptionally wicked (Leviticus ch.18, Deuteronomy ch.18).
2) The Israelites did not simply slaughter the Canaanites. They fought them in proper battle (Joshua ch.10) with miraculous assistance from God (Exodus ch.23).
3) They warned the Canaanites concerning God's command to take Canaan (Jerusalem Talmud, Shevi'it 6:1), and gave them a chance to leave the land (ibid). The Girgashites took the warning seriously and departed to Africa (ibid.), while the Gibeonites made a treaty with the Israelites (Joshua ch.9). The rest of the Canaanites insisted on fighting, and attacked the Israelites with a massive army (Joshua ch.11).
4) Whenever fighting, the Israelites never completely surrounded any town. They offered conditional peace, and then (if peace was rejected) left one area open for escape so that whoever wanted to flee could do so (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of kings and war ch.6).See also:

About Joshua

What difficulties did Joshua face?

Contents of the Book of Joshua

Timeline

Answer 3

Another Answer from our community:

The Israelites possessed the land of Canaan precisely as described in The Bible accounts in the book of Joshua.

In terms of the correlation between the events as recorded in the Bible and Archaeology, it is first necessary to have an understanding of what the Bible account states in order to compare it with what archaeology has discovered or not discovered.

There are only three cities which are recorded as being burnt during the period of the conquest. They are Jericho, Ai, and Hazor. This is because the intention was that the Israeilites came to inhabit the land and to live in the cities. In other words they did not come with a 'scorched earth' policy. The Bible record makes this plain.

With regard to Jericho when looked at objectively in the correct time-frame the evidence is striking in terms of a comparison between the Bible record of events and what archaeology has uncovered.

1. A strongly fortified city as recorded in Joshua 2:5,7,15; 6:5, 20

2. That the attack occurred just after harvest time in the spring as indicated in Joshua 2:1; 3:15; and 5:16.

3. The inhabitants had no opportunity to flee and remove their food as indicated in Joshua 6:1.The storehouses were full.

4. The seige was short as in Joshua 6:15 (together with 2 and 3 above, abundant remains would indicate that the inhabitants were not 'starved into surrender')

5. The walls were destroyed, possibly as the result of an earthquake. see Joshua 6:20

6. The city was not plundered of its material goods and food etc as detailed in Joshua 6:17 and 18.

7. The city was burned with fire as in Joshua 6:24.

8. Possibly a portion of the wall remained intact, as in Joshua 6:17,22 and 23.

Hazor also has evidence of being burnt during the correct time frame. What is interesting in connection with this is the discovery of cultic objects that have been desecrated by the attackers. This would tend to support the view that the religion of the newcomers was different from the inahbitants.

As stated above the pattern of conquest recorded in the Bible was not overall a very destructive one. Also, there were large portions of land which were not possessed until much later. The Bible also makes this plain. That the conquest was not completed until later specifically accounts or is 'blamed' (as well as their unfaithfulness to God) for many of the problems which the Israeilites had during the period of the Judges when they were oppressed by a number of enemies.

Thus the conquest had several periods of activity interspersed with a period of 'consolidation'. The initial conquest under Joshua did not involve the whole land. Although with its problems, the period of the Judges was one of 'living in the land' and of consolidation, although it could rightly be argued that the Israelites didn't do a very good job of that. Under the later Kings such as Saul, and particularly David, larger areas were conquered.

Another answer:

The Book of Joshua describes an army of 600,000 fighting men and their families sweeping into the land of the Canaanites and destroying all before them. The Bible confidently states that Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon's reign, which would mean that the conquest of the land of the Canaanites took place around 1404 BCE. However, archaeologists say there is no evidence of a military conquest. Some scholars have examined the evidence of every city mentioned in Joshua and which can be identified today. Several, like Jericho and Ai, had been abandoned long before the time the Israelites were said to have conquered them, and there is no evidence of simultaneous destruction of even a few cities.

The land into which the Hebrews settled was sparsely populated until around 1200 BCE, and the Hebrews themselves have been identified as Canaanite farmers from the region of the coastal cities. The archaeological evidence shows that small village settlements began to proliferate, but there were few large towns or cities at the early stage.

Answer 4

The Book of Joshua tells how the Israelites conquered Canaan, by conquering each city in turn, first Jericho, then Ai, then each city in turn.

A problem with the biblical account is that neither Jericho, nor Ai, nor the other cities mentioned in Joshua even existed at that time. Archaeologists find all the cities the Israelites conquered simply did not exist at that time. Egypt was the occupying power until around 1200 BCE, but there is no mention in Joshua of the Egyptian garrisons set up in Canaan to protect the client cities. So, scholars now believe that the Israelites were actually dispossessed rural Canaanites who moved peacefully into the largely uninhabited mountainous hinterland of Canaan, while the Canaanites and Philistines continued to occupy the rich coastal areas.

Answer 5

The land was won in battle.