Who were the Canaanites?

The descendants of Canaan the son of Ham, of whom the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites were branches… Here and elsewhere the Canaanites are only one people of many; whereas in other places the term Canaanite appears to include any of the inhabitants of Canaan… The same Hebrew word is translated "merchant" in Job 41:6; Proverbs 31:24; Isaiah 23:8.

We must also bear in mind that in uttering it Noah spoke as a prophet, and the later history of Canaan and his descendants fully justified his solemn words. The next chapter gives us the sons of Canaan, and from them came the nations that lived in lands to the east of the Mediterranean and just north of Egypt, so that it became known as the land of Canaan.

But Canaan, named last, has the most unenviable place of all, as the early object of curse, and the fiercest enemy of Israel in the land assigned according to promise: a highly civilised race, but steeped in shameless idolatry and every moral corruption.

The enemies of Israel, the Canaanites, were usurpers of a land which did not belong to them. They were steeped in wickedness. Immoralities of the most abominable nature were connected with their idolatries. They practised sorcery and divinations; they consulted the dead and had familiar spirits.

These Canaanites were the most daring enemies against God, the most openly depraved and shameless on the face of the earth… If then God meant that the descendants of Abraham should be His people in the land, how could those who were the most infectious in evil, both moral and idolatrous, possibly be tolerated there? I repeat, they might have fled elsewhere if they did not repent of their sins.

God was going to permit the Amorites to fill up the cup of their iniquity before He removed and destroyed them. This is always the way He takes in His holy government, and it accounts for the patience He extends to the guilty world in which we are living.

Even the doomed Canaanites, according to a principle openly announced by the prophet afterwards (Jeremiah 18:7-8), might have escaped their doom by such repentance and turning to God as was found in Rahab. It was a gospel of fact for all and every nation, before there could be a gospel of words.

The Canaanites merely saw Israel. "Your terror is fallen upon us," she said, "all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you." Her attitude, however, was this: "I know that the Lord has given you the land." This was faith.

The meaning of Canaanites is "traffickers." They were holding possession of the land of promise, but they picture unbelievers who use the things of God for the purpose of making material gain, just like those whom the Lord threw out of the temple who were selling oxen, sheep and doves and changing money for profit. He told them, "Do not make my Father's house a house of trade" (John 2:16).