What were some factors that made the Canaan a good place for the Israelite's to settle?

Answer 1

The land known biblically as the land of the Canaanites is bounded on the west by the Mediterranean Sea and on the east by the Jordan River and the Jordanian Desert. It thus forms a strategic corridor between Egypt, to the south, and Syria and Mesopotamia, to the north and east. Control of this corridor provided a buffer state against invasion, or a springboard for invasion at the other end.

Answer 2

1) God promised it to them. 2) Many of the Torah's commands apply only there.

3) It is centrally located, and has important trade routes.

4) It was famously fertile (Deuteronomy ch.11).

Answer 3

The coastal land of the Canaanites was fertile and well-watered, but the hinterland in which we first meet the Israelites was mountainous, with rocky soil and, at least towards the south, less reliable rainfall. The Book of Joshua says the Israelites were easily capable of overrunning city after Canaanite city, with divine assistance, yet they supposedly only chose to settle in the less desirable hinterland.

Scholars now have the answer - there was no military conquest of Canaan because the Israelites were themselves rural Canaanites who left the region of the rich coastal cities and settled peacefully in the hitherto sparsely populated hinterland. A glorious but legendary history evolved centuries later, telling of conquests under Joshua.