-- And Canaan begot Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth,
Genesis 10 lists the nations that spread out after the flood. Verse 15 names the sons of Canaan — a line already under Noah's curse, and the peoples Israel would meet later in the land God had promised.
Noah's curse had already marked this branch of the family. Yet its early history looked nothing like a curse at work.
The youngest branch of Ham's family now comes before us, already branded with the curse (Gen. 9:25), and the lowest of servants to his brothers. Yet for a long time no doom seemed more unlikely. They were more enterprising than anyone, and as ready to leave home as the sons of Cush. Who spread out as widely as they did? The name Canaan covered the whole group, but it belonged in a special way to the "lowlanders" of the country.
Commentators are careful here about timing. The curse was not a fortune-teller's prediction of the next few years, and its full outcome runs far past Genesis.
No doubt an evident curse, which none could deny but an unbeliever, fell on Canaan, when because of their enormous wickedness the guilty cities of the Plain were destroyed by fire out of heaven. But even this was far from being an event of Noah's age… Yet Scripture is plain that both the curse and the blessing are not complete till Israel re-enter the land under Messiah and the new covenant, to be rooted there and blessed as long as the earth endures.
Sidon and Heth stand apart from the rest of the list. The first name belongs to a man and to a city.
Of these races we need dwell on no more than the first two. These two can be separated more easily, because only they are personal names; the rest are names of nations. The name of the first, Sidon, means "fishing," and so does Saida, its modern name. The city stood on the northern slope of a spur that juts into the sea, and its citadel stood behind it on the south… In time Tyre, its daughter city, outshines it, as the later prophets show. In earlier days we hear of "great Zidon" (Joshua 11:8; 19:28)… They were skilled in manufacturing then, and later famous for their ships and their trade. But they corrupted even Solomon's house by their abominations.
The second son gives his name to a people Israel would know well — and whom Abraham would deal with face to face.
The descendants of Heth, a son of Canaan, and so descendants of Ham: a large race who lived in Palestine. In God's covenant with Abraham, his descendants were to take over their land (Gen. 15:20). When Sarah died, Abraham bought the field and cave of Machpelah from the Hittites. His dealings and contract with them show that they were a civilised race, used to commercial transactions (Gen. 23:3-20).
The name itself carries a lesson, drawn out from the burial ground Abraham purchased.
He reminds his sons that the purchase of the cave and the field had been made from the children of Heth, which means "fear." Those who are unsaved are the children of fear, who, through fear of death, are all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. 2:15).
The names are given in unusual detail because of where these people settled. God's plan for that ground had already been fixed.
Verse 15 speaks of Canaan and his descendants, who took up the land that God had already decided would be Israel's (v. 19)… God's sovereign choice for His people was absolute from the beginning. Whoever held their land in the meantime, this would have no effect on Israel owning it in the end. And God was clearly righteous when He drove out the Canaanites at the proper time, because of their idolatry and demon worship.
That later judgment was not random. It rested on what these nations had become.
Now the races of Canaan occupied that land which Jehovah intended for Israel… They were openly vile, worst of all the cities of the plain, whose wickedness was too shameful to name… Every unnatural evil, and idolatry too, had become their "customs," and Israel had to be kept clear of them. This was no question of cruelty. Israel was at fault for not removing them as fully as Jehovah commanded, so the ones they spared trapped and corrupted the chosen people into the same shame.
The two names of verse 15 reappear at the far end of the Bible's story — and not in judgment.
She belonged to a city which God had held up as a most guilty city (Matt. 11:21). She was a Syrophoenician — a Canaanite — from a race the Old Testament calls accursed (Gen. 9:25-27), a race no one could expect repentance from. The Lord comes into the region of Tyre and Sidon, peopled by the descendants of Canaan ("Cursed be Canaan"). That is where grace ever comes. And she was one of these outcasts in the fullest sense of the word. She had no privileges, no claims.
- Cursed — Noah's words marked this line from the start. Yet for a long time no people looked less doomed; they travelled and traded more than anyone.
- Named — Sidon means "fishing," a coastal city Tyre later outshone. Heth means "fear," and his descendants sold Abraham a burial field.
- Placed — these families settled on ground God had already assigned to Israel. No one else holding it could change that.
- Judged — God was righteous to remove them, because of what they had become. Israel spared some, and those left dragged the nation into the same evils.
- Reached — the Lord went to the region of Tyre and Sidon and met a woman with no claim at all. That is where grace always comes.
and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite,
Genesis 10:16 sits inside a family list, but its three names — Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites — are peoples Israel would later meet in the land God had promised. Why does Scripture record these branches of Canaan's family, and what did God plan to do about them?
One writer follows each of the three families into Israel's later history:
The Jebusites held Jerusalem. Joshua defeated them, but they were not driven out until David. The Amorite lived in the hill country of Judah, but pushed east. After their fall and expulsion, the two and a half tribes settled east of the Jordan. The Girgashites disappeared from view.
These families settled on land God had already marked out for someone else:
Scripture carefully points them out as races which took possession of the land destined for Israel. As the song of Moses puts it (Deut. 32:8), "When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel."
The chapter before records Noah's curse on Canaan. The sons listed here are where that curse begins to work out:
We must also remember that Noah spoke as a prophet when he said it. The later history of Canaan and his descendants fully justified his solemn words. Genesis 10 gives us the sons of Canaan. From them came the nations that lived east of the Mediterranean and just north of Egypt. That is how the region became known as the land of Canaan.
The list gives these families more attention than others. That detail has a purpose:
The record of the Canaanite families is more detailed, because God had in view His people, whose duty it was to execute judgment and drive them out of the promised land. They might be "spread abroad" or scattered, and seen to flourish for a while. Still the curse was on them. It rested on them from the first on moral grounds. At last their outrages against God and man made it worse — crimes which in His eyes called for extermination.
The Amorite of this verse marks God's timing. Judgment fell not when the sin began, but when it was full:
The races of Canaan were strikingly vile, most of all the cities of the plain, whose wickedness was not to be named... But at last the cup of the Amorites was full. The land became so unclean that the LORD had to visit its iniquity. So He was pleased to make Israel the executioner of His vengeance. It was no question of cruelty. It was Israel's fault not to wipe them out as completely as the LORD commanded, so that those they spared went on to trap and corrupt the chosen people into the same disgrace.
The delay was no one-off. Another writer sees the same principle at work today:
God was going to let the Amorites fill up the cup of their iniquity before He ejected and destroyed them. This is always the way He takes in His holy government. It accounts for the patience He extends to the guilty world we are living in. He knows the full nature of man's evil from the start. But He lets it develop fully, so that when His judgment falls in full severity, all created beings will see that it is just.
One writer takes the meanings of these names as a picture of what still hinders believers:
The names here, as everywhere, are surely significant. They suggest those powers of evil which occupy the ground and would keep us from enjoying our God-given inheritance in Christ... The Girgashites are "dwellers in clay." Sadly, we are prone to settle down in the dust of earth instead of rising to our heavenly portion. The Amorite is "the talker," not the doer of the Word... while the Jebusite, "the treader down," never rests until all divine things are put under his feet. All these are to be cast out. We must refuse any alliance with them.
The doom was real, but it was not sealed:
As to the literal history, even the doomed Canaanites might have escaped their doom. The way out was such a repentance and turning to God as was found in Rahab. The prophet later announced this principle openly (Jer. 18:7-8). It was a gospel of fact for every nation, before there could be a gospel of words.
- Curse — Noah spoke over Canaan as a prophet. The sons listed here are the first proof that his words came true.
- Squatters — the Jebusite, Amorite and Girgashite settled land the Most High had already assigned to Israel. They only ever borrowed it.
- Patience — judgment waited until the cup of the Amorites was full. The same patience explains why God bears with the world today.
- Pattern — the three names also picture evils that keep us from enjoying our inheritance in Christ: settling for earth, talking instead of doing, trampling on holy things.
- Mercy — Rahab shows the door was never shut. Repentance could have spared any Canaanite from that doom.