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• The Phoenicians lived in a region at the
eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea
that was is now known as Palestine.
• It became the home of the Hebrews and
they referred it to it as Canaan.
• Ancient Palestine’s location made it a cultural crossroads of the
ancient world.
• To the east, there was Assyria and Babylonia
• To the west, there was Egypt.
• The Hebrews settled Canaan, it was between the Jordan River
and the Mediterranean Sea
• Let’s find out how the Hebrews migrated to
Most of what we know about the Hebrews, we
know from the first five books in the Hebrew
Bible
• The Torah
• The Old Testament
In the Torah, God chose Abraham to
be the father of the Hebrew people.
Origins of Hebrews in Canaan:
• God’s words to Abraham expressed a
promise of land.
• Abraham was a shepherd living in the city
of Ur.
• The book of Genesis tells its readers that
God commanded Abraham to move his
people to Canaan.
• Around 1800 B.C., Abraham, his family, and his
herds made their way to Canaan.
• Abraham and his family moved from Mesopotamia
to Canaan to Egypt and back to Canaan
• All the while, their God Yahweh watched over them.
• Unlike other religions at that time, the
Hebrews worshipped one God.
– Monotheism
• The Hebrews proclaimed the Yahweh was
the one and only God.
• In their eyes, Yahweh had power over all
people.
– To the Hebrews, God was not a physical being.
• According to the Bible, Yahweh looked after the
Hebrews because they obeyed and listened to the
orders he gave Abraham.
– No sacrifices
– No gifts
– No ritual ceremonies
*The covenant: Mutual promise between God and Abraham
• The Hebrews migrated to Egypt because a
drought in Canaan threatened a massive famine.
• At first, the Hebrews were given places of honor
in the Egyptian Kingdom.
• Later, however, they were forced into slavery.
• The Hebrews fled Egypt between 1300-1200 B.C.
• The event is known as the Exodus
• It’s celebrated every year during the festival of Passover
• The Torah says the man who led the escape was a man
named Moses.
• Moses was the adopted son of an Egyptian
princess, but he did not forget his Hebrew roots.
• When God commanded Moses to move the
Hebrews out of Egypt, he followed his command.
– A new covenant was born.
• During their escape from Egypt, Moses and the
Hebrews stopped on Sinai mountain.
• Moses climbed the mountain to talk to God.
• When he came down, he had two stone tablets
– The Ten Commandments
• The Ten Commandments became the basis for the
civil and religious laws of Judaism
• The Hebrew people believed that these new laws
created a new covenant between God and the
Hebrew people.
– God promised to protect the Hebrew people
– The Hebrews promised to follow the ten Commandments.
The Torah reads that the Hebrews wandered the Sinai
Desert for forty years
• After the death of Moses, the Hebrew people
returned to Canaan  where Abraham lived.
• The Hebrews evolved from a nomadic society to a
settled civilization.
• The Hebrews in Canaan were twelve
sparsely separated tribes.
• Occasionally the tribes would band
together and fight against the Philistines
• Another civilization in Canaan
• Eventually there was one large tribe left 
Came to be known as The Jews
– Their religion was transformed into Judaism
• 1020 to 922 B.C., the Hebrews united under three
kings.
– Saul
– David
– Solomon
Solomon
David
Saul
*The new Kingdom was called Israel.
• Saul was the first of the three Kings
• Became popular after he drove the Philistines from the central
hills of Palestine
………………………………………………………………………
• David was the son-in-law of Saul
• Extremely popular because he united the Jewish tribes
• Established Jerusalem as the capital city
• About 962 B.C., David was succeeded by Solomon.
• Solomon was the mightiest of the Hebrew Kings
– Established a trading empire with the Phoenicians
– Built a great temple in Jerusalem which housed the Ten
Commandment tablets
• The Temple was not large but inner walls were gold with
bronze pillars were outside  Displayed wealth
• Solomon’s building project called for
high taxes and forced labor.
• The distress ultimately caused a split
amongst the Jews.
• By 922 B.C., there were two Jewish
empires.
– The North: Israel
– The South: Judah
The next two hundred years, the two kingdoms of
Israel were kind of confusing.
• Sometimes they fought each other.
• Sometimes they joined forces to fight others.
• In 738 B.C., both Kingdoms began paying tributes to
more power Assyrians
– Tributes are peace payments.
• 725 B.C., the Assyrians began relentless sieges of
the two Jewish Kingdoms.
• By 722 B.C., Israel had fallen.
• Judah resisted for another 150 years but eventually
fell.
• The destruction of Judah came by the hands of the
Babylonians
– Attack led by King Nebuchadnezzar
– Solomon’s temple was destroyed.
• After the success of the Babylonian attacks, many
of the Jews were exiled to Babylon.
• During their exile, the bible describes that the
prophet Ezekiel urged his people to keep their
religion alive in the foreign land.
Ezekiel
• In 539 B.C., the Persian King Cyrus the Great
conquered Babylon.
• Cyrus allowed 40,000 exiles to return to Jerusalem
and they rebuilt the temple.
• In 445 B.C., the Walls of Jerusalem were built.
• Soon, however, other empires dominated
the region.
• First the Persians, then the Greeks, and
then the Romans
• These empires would all take control of
Palestine.