Who led the Israelites into the promised land of Canaan?

Answer 1

• Joshua

The Book of Joshua describes how the Jews believed Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan, conquering and destroying Canaanite cities as he went.

• Caleb

A fragmentary, earlier account in the Book of Judges describes how Caleb destroyed the very same Canaanite cities as the Book of Joshua says that Joshua attacked and totally destroyed.

• No one

H. G. M. Williamson (The World of Ancient Israel, The concept of Israel in transition) says that various recent scholars agree that lsrael emerged peacefully in the the Palestinian hinterland as an inevitable consequence of the economic and social decline of late bronze age Canaan coinciding with the development of new agricultural techniques which enabled increasing numbers to withdraw from the city states and start settling in the hitherto sparsely populated hill country of Judah and Israel. F. S. Frick (The World of Ancient Israel, Israel as a tribal society) says that the hypothesis that the Israelites came from outside Canaan, peacefully or otherwise, has largely been abandoned. There was no biblical conquest.

Answer 2

AnswerAccording to the Book of Exodus, Moses and all his generation would die before the Israelites could enter Canaan. The Bible goes on to say that Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan.

Answer 3

The Assyrians conquered Israel, the northern Kingdom in the 600s BCE and forcibly removed the native inhabitants from their homes and communities. This resulted in the Ten Lost Tribes, whose location and connection to Judaism is unknown. When the Babylonians destroyed the first Great Temple in 586 BCE, they forcibly removed the upper-class of Judea to Babylon (a city in Iraq). Nearly 70 years later, Cyrus the Great of Persia allowed the Judeans to return to Canaan and rebuild the Great Temple. When religious zealots rose up against Rome in the 60s CE, the Romans destroyed the Second Great Temple and forcibly exiled the Jews from Judea to prevent them from rising up against Roman authority. Nobody ever "led" the Jews in a peaceful manner out of their homeland.

Answer 4

Joshua was the primary military leader during the period of entry into Canaan. Others led campaigns at different times as the land was not fully occupied until a much later period.

Answer 5

Moshe led the Israelites to Canaan. However, he couldn't enter the promised land himself because he broke the tablets the Esseret Hadibrot (10 Statements) were written on.

Answer 6

Joshua took over the leadership after Moses.

Answer 7

Moses was the leader from Egypt, but Joshua lead them to Canaan.

Answer 8

Moses led them out of Egypt (Exodus ch.12), and Joshua led them into the land of Canaan (Joshua ch.3-4).