Canaan (/ˈkeɪnən/; Northwest Semitic: knaʿn; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍; Biblical Hebrew: כנען / Knaʿn; Masoretic: כְּנָעַן / Kənā‘an) was, during the late 2nd millennium BC, a region in the Ancient Near East. In the Bible it corresponds to the Levant, in particular the areas of the Southern Levant that are the main setting of the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, i.e.