CANAANITE
64
CANAANITE
Ca'na&Dlta (Heb., usnallj- in the sing., and with ' the art, hak-Kenadm^, "^^^SH, i. e. accurately accord- ing to Hebrew usage [Gesenios, Heb. Gram, § 107], **the Canaanite;" but in the Auth.yer8., with few exceptions, rendered as plural, and therefore indis- tinguishable from 0*^3993, KenaSmm', which also, but unfrequently, occurs ; Sept. generally XavavaXo^ [or XavavaXot] ; but ^oiwi^, Ezod. vi, 15 ; oomp. Josh. Y, 1 ; Vulg. Chammeus), properly a desi^poation of the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham and grandson of Noah, inhabitants of the land of Canaan and the adjoining districts. See Camaax.
1. Component 7V»6ef. — ^1. These are most fiwquent- ly enumerated in the formula used in the command and statement of their extermination by the Israel- ites, which, however, assumes the foUoidng different shapes:
(1.) Six nations: the Canaanites, Hittites, Amo- rites, Perlzzites, Hivites, and Jebnsites. This is the usual form, and, with some variation in the order of the names, it is found in Exod. iii, 8, 17; xxiii, 28; xxxiii, 2 ; xxxiv, 11 ; Dent, xx, 17 ; Josh, ix, 1 ; xii, 8 ; Judg. iii, 6. In Exod. xiii, 5, the same names are given with the omission of the Perizsites.
(2.) With the' addition of the Girgashites, making up the mystic number seven (Dent, vii, 1 ; Josh, iii, 10 ; xxiv, 11). The Girgashites are retained and the Hivites omitted in Neh. ix, 8 (comp. Ear. ix, 1).
(8.) In Exod. xxiii, 28, we find the Canaanite, tiie Hittite, and the Hivite.
(4.) The list often nations in Gen. xv, 19-21 (where the Kenites, the Kenizsites, and the Kadmonites are added), includes some on the east of Jordan, and prob- ably some on the south of Palestine.
(5.) In 1 Kings ix, 20, the Canaanites are omitted fh>m the list.
2. Besides these there were several tribes of the Canaanites who lived beyond the borders of the Prom- ised Land northward. These were the Arlutes, Si- nites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites (Gen. x, 17, 18), with whom, of course, the Israelites had no concern. There were also other tribes of Canaanitish origin (or possibly other names given to some of those already mentioned), who were dispossessed by the Is- raelites. The chief of these were the Amalekites, the Anakites, and the Rephaim (or **g^nts,'' as they are firequentiy called in our translation). See each of these, as well as the foregoing, in their alphabetical place.
II. Geographical DittrHmtum.—ln this respect the term '* Canaanite*' is used in two senses, a limited and a wide application.
1. For the tribe of '*the Canaanites'* only— the dwellers in the lowland, i. e. " who dwelt by the sea and by the coasts of Jordan" (Num. xiii, 29). The whole of the country west of Jordan might, as we have seen, be in some sense called a ** lowland" as compared with the loftier and more extended tracts on the east ; but there was a part of this western country which was still more emphatically a " lowland." (a.) There were the plains lying between the shore of the Medi- terranean and the foot of the hills of Benjamin, Judah, and Ephraim— the Shephelah, or plain of Philistia, on the south ; that of Sharon, between Jaffii and Carmel ; the great plain of Esdraelon, in the rear of the bay of Akka; and, lastiy, the pkin of Phoenicia, contain- ing Tyre, Sidon, and all the other cities of that nation. (6.) But separated entirely from these was the still lower region of the Jordan Valley, or Arabah (q. v.), the modem GMr^ a region which extended in length from the sea of Cinneroth (Gennesareth) to the south of the Dead Sea about 120 miles, with a width of fttmi 8 to 14. The climate of these sunken regions, espe- cially of the valley of the Jordan, is so peculiar, that it is natural to find them the special possession of one tribe. ** Amalek" — so runs one of the eariiest and
most precise statements in the ancient records of Bai|^ ture — '* Amalek dwells in the land of the south; and the Hittite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite dwell in the mountains ; and the Canaanite dwells by the sea, and by the side of Jordan" (Num. uii, 29). This describes the division of the country a few years only before the conquest. But there had been Uttle or no variation for centuries. In the notice which purports to be the earliest of all, the seats of the Canaanite tribe— as distinguished firom the sister tribes of Zidon, the Hittites, Amorites, and the other descendants of Canaan— are given as on the sea-shore from Zidon to Gasa, and in the Jordan Valley to Sodom, Gomomh, and Lasha (afterward Callirrfaoe), on the shore of the present Dead Sea (Gen. x, 18-20). In Josh, xi, 8, at a time when the Israelites were actually in the west- em country, this is expressed more broadly. ** The Canaanite on the east and the west" is carefully dis- tinguished from the Amorite who held "the moun- tain" in the centre of the country. In Josh, xiii, 2, 8, we are told with more detail that "all the 'circles' (n'lb*^^a) of the Philistines . . . tcom Sihor (? the Watfy eUArUK) unto Ekron northward, is counted to the Ca- naanite." Later still, the Canaanites are still dwell- ing in the upper part of tiie Jordan Valley — Betb- shean ; the plain of Esdraelon— Taanach, Ibleam, and Megiddo ; the plain of Sharon — Dor ; and also on tfaa plain of Phcenicia — ^Aocho and Zidon. Here were col- lected thtf chariots which formed a prominent part of their armies (Judg. i, 19; iv, 8; Josh, xvii, 16), and which could indeed be driven nowhere but in these level lowlands (Stanley, 8mm and Paktt, p. 184).