The Canaanites were descendants of Noah's son Ham through Ham's son Canaan born after the worldwide flood. They were also the early settlers of the region at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea including what would later be called the land of Israel. Because the Canaanites had ungodly practices and beliefs in idols and false gods and immorality the one true Creator God and the God of the Bible was willing to destroy the Canaanites and their authority over the promised land and give them to the Israelites the descedants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who followed the call of the one true God to start a chosen earthly people for Himself the Jews or children of Israel with their promised land the land of Israel in land that was originally the possession of the Canaanites. Because the Israelites only gave a partial fulfillment of God's command to wipe out the Canaanites when the Israelites came to possess the land, by the beginning of the time of the judges after Joshua the Canaanites were subdued but still in the midst of the Israelites. This led sometimes to intermarriage between the Israelites and the Canaanites and some of the Israelites following the culture and gods of the Canaanites. The last stronghold to be taken from the Canaanites was Jerusalem that was still in the hands of the Canaanites in the form of the Jebusites up to about 1000 BC when King David took it for Israel and made it the new political and then spiritual capital of the Jews with the building of his royal palace their and preparing for what became known as Solomon's Temple. This seems to have continued for the remainder of the time of the Israelites in the promised land up to 70 AD or 135 AD and the dispersion of the Jews to the nations. In the latter part of the Old Testament times it seems the Philistines were more of a military threat to Israel than the Canaanites. This could be why the Romans in 135 AD called the land of Israel Palestine instead of some version of Canaanite when they were looking for a non-Jewish name for the holy land.
Because the Israelites failed to totally defeat and destroy the Canaanites God allowed the Israelites to dwell among the Canaanites. God still expected the Israelites to be faithful to Him and His law and to be separate from the inhabitants of the land. In addition to the Israelites at that time becoming intermarried with the Canaanites against God's instructions in the law of Moses the Israelites then took the next logical step and started to worship the gods of the Canaanites instead of the true God and the God of the Bible. God foresaw all these steps in falling away from Him and the relation of Israel to Him by the Jews not destroying the pagan Canaanites and this is the reason he emphasized so strongly for them to do that. The customs of the Canaanites in their idolatry, violence and immorality etc. God says are reasons that he thrust them out from owning the promised land and was willing to give it to the Jews instead. The scripture reference from Judges 3 of the Canaanites still being left in the land and a test to Israel not to fall away from God to idolatry and paganism and lose their distinction as God's chosen earthly people is as follows:
And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites: And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods. Judges 3:5-6
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