Who lived in Canaan when King Nebuchadrezzar conquered it?

Answer 1

A:

When we think of Nebuchadrezzar's conquests of the former land of the Canaanites, we tend to think of Judah, an small inland enclave at the southern end and adjacent to the Dead Sea. This was occupied by Jews.

To the north of Judah was the Assyrian province of Samaria, which for several centuries until 722 BCE was called Israel and was the land of the Israelites. The occupants of this territory had become known as Samarians, or Samaritans, and were descendants in part of those Israelites who had not been deported or fled south to Judah or Egypt, and in part of the other peoples whom the Assyrians had introduced to Samaria as replacements for the Israelites taken into exile.

To the north again, was Galilee. The people were simply known as Galileans, although after the conversion of many Galileans to Judaism in the second century BCE, they were also Jews.

To the west of Judah, along the Mediterranean coast, were the Philistines. To the west of Samaria and Galilee were two small Assyrian provinces that were also conquered by King Nebuchadrezzar.