ng the entire coast line there is a continuous
coast plain. There are many mountains, the most important being
Hermon, Carmel and Gerizim.

(2) _Its inhabitants and the nations surrounding it_. That the
population was very dense is indicated by the mention of about three
hundred cities and towns a large number of which have been identified.
While there were many war-like people crowded into Palestine, seven,
the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the
Jebusites, the Amorites and the Canaanites, were the most important.
The Canaanites, who had been there about six centuries, and the
Amorites, who had lived there about ten centuries, were the two
peoples that furnished greatest resistance to Israel's occupancy of
the country. They were virtually one people.

Around Palestine were many kingdoms, some large and strong, some small
and weak. Among the more important were the Philistines, west of
Judah, the Phoenician kingdoms on the north, Arameans or Syrians on
the northeast, and on the east and southeast, the Ammonites, Moabites
and Edomites, the last three being kinsmen of the Hebrews.

(3) _Conditions favorable to its conquest_. Several circumstances
conspired to make it a suitable time for the Hebrews to enter Canaan:
(a) Egypt had crushed the Hittites and devastated their land; (b)
Northern hordes from and through Syria had broken the power of Egypt
and the Hittites and had also crushed the Canaanites; (c) Assyria had
increased her borders to the coasts of Phoenicia and was feared by all
other peoples; (d) Babylonia was not strong enough to displace Assyria
as an Asiatic power but strong enough to dispute her supremacy; (e)
For two hundred years, therefore, their weakness together with that of
Egypt and the Hittites gave the Hebrews ample time to develop and grow
strong.

The Crossing of the Jordan and the Fall of Jericho. To the Hebrews
these two incidents have always been of first importance. As the two
great events through which they gained entrance to their permanent
home, they have been given a place in Hebrew literature almost equal
to that of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The divine share
in these great accomplishments was fully recognized. He it was who
caused the waters of Jordan to separate and He it was who threw down
the walls of Jericho. Not only did Jericho occupy a strategic
position, being somewhat apart from other Canaanite cities, but the
marvelous manner of its fall