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So Joshua took all the land. Joshua11:16
In Genesis 15:16, God said to Abraham, "But in the fourth generation they (Abraham's descendants) shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." Hundreds of years later, Joshua and the children of Israel conquered most of the land of Canaan and the inhabitants thereof.
All the years I went to church, Sunday-school, and Bible-school, I always thought of the people that were conquered as simply wicked, ungodly tribes of people. I never realized that many of those people were distant relatives to those who conquered them.
We know that all the different tribes of people came from the three sons of Noah. Most of us consider his sons to be unconnected to Abraham and his daily life. This gives us a false concept of life and the happenings at that period of time in history. Shem (Noah's son) would have been alive at the same time as Abraham. They could have talked with each other, visited each other, and been close friends.
From what we can tell, Shem was also alive while Isaac was tending his sheep, when Ishmael was a famous archer, and when the sons of Abraham and Keturah were prosperous individuals. It is believed that Shem outlived Abraham by about twenty years.
So what does this have to do with the Israelites conquering the land of Canaan? It helps to give us a more accurate view of the struggle that went on when the Israelites left Egypt until they took control of the land of Palestine. The descendants of Midian (Abraham's son), were a thorn in the side to the Israelites. The Moabites, who descended from Lot (Abraham's nephew) were working with the Midianites to bring about the downfall of Israel.
In Joshua 11:17 it says about the conquest of Joshua; it also mentions Seir in that list. The land of Seir was occupied by the descendants of Esau. By now you are probably beginning to see that the Israelites journey from Egypt, until they took control of the land of Canaan, as a big family feud. When Joshua and his forces conquered the land, they were annihilating many of their distant relatives.
For thousands of years the land of Palestine (Canaan) was inhabited by Jewish and Arab people. For Jews, it was their ancestral home; but Palestinian Arabs also claimed the land. The Jews claim Abraham as their father, and most Arabs claim descent from Ishmael. The struggle over the land in the Middle-East continues today. It appears that this conflict and animosity will continue until the Sovereign Lord returns to earth