Who were the Canaanites?

A people established early in Canaan, the origin of whom is not known, except that they were descended from Canaan. Gen. 10:16; Gen. 15:21; Deut. 7:1; Joshua 3:10; Joshua 24:11; 1 Chr. 1:14; Neh. 9:8.

The descendants of Canaan the son of Ham, of whom the Jubusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites were branches. They were "spread abroad, and the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza: as thou goest unto Sodom and Gomorrha, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha." Gen. 10:15-19. In Gen. 15:18-21, where the land promised to Abram extends to the river Euphrates, there are ten nations mentioned: the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaims, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. Deut. 7:1; Joshua 3:10. 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, as in Joshua 17:12-13; Neh. 9:24; Obadiah 20; Zech. 14:21. The same Hebrew word is translated 'merchant' in Job 41:6; Prov. 31:24; Isa. 23:8; so the passage in Zech. 14:21 may signify "there shall no more be the merchant in the house of the Lord of hosts." cf. John 2:16.

The youngest branch of the Hamitic race now comes before us, already branded with curse (Gen. 9:25), and a bondman of bondmen to his brethren. Yet no doom long seemed more unlikely. They were enterprising beyond any, and no more disposed to tarry at home than the sons of Cush. Who spread themselves abroad as they? Canaan, who naturally gave the general designation, had a more special application to the "lowlanders" of the country. They are carefully pointed out as races which possessed themselves of the land destined for Israel. As the song of Moses so forcibly expresses it (Deut. 32:8), "When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For Jehovah's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance."

"The Canaanites were the most numerous of all these groups, and had they been able to amalgamate under a single king, or even to organize a lasting confederacy, it would have been impossible for the Egyptian armies to have broken through the barrier thus raised between them and the rest of Asia; but, unfortunately, so far from showing the slightest tendency towards unity or concentration, the Canaanites were more hopelessly divided than any of the surrounding nations. Their mountains contained nearly as many states as there were valleys, while in the plains each town represented a separate government, and was built on a spot carefully selected for purposes of defence. The land, indeed, was chequered by these petty states, and so closely were they crowded together, that a horseman travelling at leisure could easily pass through two or three of them in a day's journey." Of the richer country towards the north he writes: "Towns grew and multiplied upon this rich and loamy soil."

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, divinations; they asked the dead and had familiar spirits. Satan and his demons had complete control over them. They are the types of the "wicked spirits" with which a heavenly people wage their warfare. See Ephesians 6:10-13. All these typical applications we shall make in the annotations.

But Canaan, last named, has the most unenviable place of all, as the early object of curse, and the direst adversary of Israel in the land assigned according to promise: a highly civilised race, but steeped in shameless idolatry and every moral abomination, and therefore given up according to earthly righteousness to extermination, both because they deserved it, and as a safeguard lest Israel should be drawn into like iniquities; as indeed, failing to execute His sentence, they proved to their own sin, shame, and cost. More details we hope to have in due course.

We must also bear in mind that in uttering it Noah spoke as a prophet, and the subsequent 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 inhabited lands to the east of the Mediterranean and just north of Egypt, so that it became known as the land of Canaan. Centuries later these nations had become so abominable in their gross sinfulness that God issued an edict of extermination against them, and sent Israel in to inhabit their land. Only Israel's failure saved them from being completely wiped out.

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 as 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 merchandise!" (John 2:16). The same offensive practices are carried on today in many places that claim to be Christian churches, and by many radio and TV preachers. Believers are called upon to thoroughly refuse this Canaanite custom. The victory of Israel over the Canaanites was a contrast to Israel's sad defeat in Numbers 14:45, brightening for them the prospect of conquering the land. We too shall be blest if we refuse to allow merchandising in the house of God.

Six nations in which these cities were included are also mentioned in verse 8. Hittites are "the children of fear," and remind us of those "who through fear, of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb.2:15). Conquering the fear of death is part of true Christian character. The meaning of Amorites is "sayers." Sadly, such Amorite character was later found among the leaders of Israel, of whom the Lord Jesus said, "they say, and do not" (Mt.23:2-3). But let every believer fully judge the evil of a glib tongue without proper action to back it up. Canaanites means "traffickers," speaking of those who make merchandise of the things of God, such as we see when the Lord cast out of the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers (Jn.2:14-16). We too must judge fully the evil of using the precious truth of Christ as a means of material gain.

"Amorites" nearly all the learned now follow the lead of Simonis in supposing to mean "mountaineers;" and this, says Grove, "is quite in accordance with the notices in the text, which, except in a few instances, speak of the Amorites as dwelling in the elevated portions of the country. In this respect they are contrasted with the Canaanites, who were the dwellers in the lowlands; and the two thus formed the main broad divisions of the Holy Land." Spite of the consensus of commentators, this does not, however, seem so sure. "Canaanite" can hardly be "lowlander" as distinct from "Amorite," "highlander," when Canaan is the father of all, and "Canaanite" is too firmly identified with the thought of "trader" to allow the separation. Keil disputes both derivations, saying that "the derivation [of 'Amorite'] from amir, 'summit,' is not established." Indeed, no such word is in the Bible, according to which the Amorites would rather be "talkers," a meaning to which the terrible words of the epistle of James are not needed to give a bad sense. "Our tongues are our own," is the very language of rebellion; who is lord over us?"