Canaan

VIEW:57 DATA:01-04-2020
merchant; trader; or that humbles and subdues
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


CANAAN.—See next art.; Ham, Palestine.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


From Ham came four main races; Cush (Ethiopia), Mizraim (Egypt), Phut (Nubia), and Canaan (originally before Abraham extending from Hamath in the N. to Gaza in the S.), comprising six chief tribes, the Hittites, Hivites, Amorites, Jebusites, Perizzites, and Girgashites; to which the Canaanites (in the narrow sense) being added make up the mystic number seven. Ten are specified in Gen_15:19-21, including some on E. of Jordan and S. of Palestine. The four Hamitic races occupied a continuous tract comprising the Nile valley, Palestine, S. Arabia, Babylonia, and Kissia. The Phoenicians were Semitic (from Shem), but the Canaanites preceded them in Palestine and Lower Syria. Sidon, Area, Arvad, and Zemara or Simra (Gen_15:19-21) originally were Canaanite; afterward they fell under the Phoenicians, who were immigrants into Syria from the shores of the Persian gulf, peaceable traffickers, skillful in navigation and the arts, and unwar-like except by sea.
With these the Israelites were on friendly terms; but with the Canaanites fierce and war-like, having chariots of iron, Israel was commanded never to be at peace, but utterly to root them out; not however the Arvadite. Arkite, Sinite, Zemarite, and Hamathite. The Semitic names Melchizedek, Hamer, Sisera, Salem, Ephrath are doubtless not the original Canaanite names, but their Hebraized forms. Ham, disliking his father's piety, exposed Noah's nakedness (when overtaken in the fault of intoxication) to his brethren. Contrast Shem and Japhet's conduct (compare 1Co_13:6 and 1Pe_4:8). Noah's prophetic curse was therefore to reach him in the person of Canaan his son (the sorest point to a parent), on whom the curse is thrice pronounced. His sin was to be his punishment; Canaan should be as undutiful to him as he had been to his father Noah.
In Ham's sin lies the stain of the whole Hamitic race, sexual profligacy, of which Sodom and Gomorrah furnish an awful example. Canaan probably shared in and prompted his father's guilt toward Noah; for Noah's "younger son" probably means his "grandson" (Gen_9:24), and the curse being pronounced upon Canaan, not Ham, implies Canaan's leading guilt, being the first to expose to Ham Noah's shame. Canaan's name also suggested his doom, from kaanah, "to stoop." Ham named his son from the abject obedience which he required, though he did not render it himself (Hengstenberg). So Canaan was to be "servant of servants," i.e. the most abject slave; such his race became to Israel (1Ki_9:20-21). Canaan more than any other of Ham's race came in contact with and obstructed Shem and Japhet in respect to the blessings foretold to them.
The Hamitic descent of Canaan was formerly questioned, but is now proved by the monuments. The ancients represent the Canaanites as having moved from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Mythology connects the Phoenicians' ancestors Agenor and Phoenix with Belus and Babylon, also with Egyptus, Danaus (the Ethiop), and Libya. The Canaanites acquired the Semitic tongue through Semitic and Hamitic races intermingling. Their civilization and worship was Hamite. The Shemites were pastoral nomads, like Seth's race; the Hamites, like Cain's race were city builders, mercantile, and progressive in a civilization of a corrupt kind. Contrast Israel and the Ishmaelite Arabs with the Hamitic Egypt, Babylon, Sidon, etc. The Canaanites were Scythic or Hamite. Inscriptions represent the Khatta or Hittites as the dominant Scythic race, which gave way slowly before the Aramaean Jews and the Phoenician immigrants.
Some think Canaan means "lowland", from Hebrew kana, "to depress." In Eze_17:4; Isa_23:8; Hos_12:7, Canaan is taken in the secondary sense," merchant," because the Hebrew bears that sense; but that was not the original sense. The iniquity of the Amorites was great in Abraham's time, but was "not yet full" (Gen_15:16). In spite of the awful warning given by the doom of Sodom and Gomorrah, Canaanite profligacy at last became a reproach to humanity; and the righteous Ruler of the world required that the land originally set apart for Shem, and where Jehovah was to be blessed as the God of Shem (Gen_9:26), should be wrested from "the families of the Canaanites spread abroad," and encroaching beyond their divinely assigned limits (Gen_10:18). The Hamite races, originally the most brilliant and enlightened (Egypt, Babylon, Canaan), had the greatest tendency to degenerate, because the most disinclined to true religion, the great preserver of men.
The races of Japhet tend to expand and improve, those of Shem to remain stationary. Procopius, Belisarius' secretary, confirms the Scripture account, of the expulsion of the Canaanites, for he mentions a monument in Tigitina (Tangiers) with the inscription, "We are exiles from before the face of Joshua the robber." Rabbi Samuel ben Nachman says: "Joshua. sent three letters to the Canaanites, before the Israelites invaded it, proposing three things: Let those who choose to fly, fly; let those who choose peace, enter into treaty; let those who choose war, take up arms. In consequence, the Girgashites, fearing the power of God, fled away into Africa; the Gibeonites entered into league, and continued inhabitants of Israel; the 31 kings made war and fell." So the Talmud states, says Selden, the Africans claimed part of Israel's land from Alexander the Great, as part of their paternal possession.
It is an undesigned coincidence that the Girgashites are never named (except in Jos_24:11, the recapitulation) as having fought against Israel in the detailed account of the wars. They are enumerated in Jos_24:11 in the general list, probably as having been originally arrayed against Israel (and some may have in the beginning joined those who actually "fought"), but they withdrew early from the conflict; hence elsewhere always the expression is "the Lord cast out the Girgashite," "He will drive out the Girgashite" (Deu_7:1; Jos_3:10; compare Gen_15:21; Neh_9:8). The warnings given to Israel against defiling themselves with the abominations of the previous occupiers of Canaan show that the Israelites were not ruthless invaders, but the divinely appointed instruments to purge the land of transgressors hopelessly depraved.
Lev_18:24; "Defile not yourselves in any of these things, for in all these the nations are defiled that I cast out before you, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants." The Canaanites had the respite of centuries, the awful example of the cities of the plain, and the godly example of Abraham, Melchizedek, and others; but all failed to lead them to repentance. The Israelites, in approaching the cities of the seven doomed nations, were to offer peace on condition of their emigrating forever from their own country, or else renouncing idolatry, embracing the Noachian patriarchal religion, resigning their land and nationality, and becoming slaves. But "there was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel save the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon; all other they took in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they might come against Israel in battle, that He might destroy them utterly and that they might have no favor, but that He might destroy them" (Jos_11:18-20).
All admit that the execution of the law's sentence on a condemned criminal is a duty, not a crime. That God may permit the innocent to suffer with the guilty is credible, because He does constantly in fact and daily experience permit it. The guilty parent often entails on the innocent offspring shame, disease, and suffering. A future life and the completion of the whole moral scheme at the righteous judgment will clear up all such seeming anomalies. The Israelites with reluctance executed the divine justice. So far was the extermination from being the effect of bloodthirstiness, that as soon as the terror of immediate punishment was withdrawn they neglected God's command by sparing the remnant of the Canaanites. The extermination of idolatry and its attendant pollution was God's object. Thus even a Hebrew city that apostatized to idolatry was to be exterminated (Deuteronomy 13).
The Israelites by being made the instruments of exterminating the idolatrous Canaanites were made to feel Jehovah's power to make man the instrument of punishing idolatry, and so were impressed with a salutary terror, preparing them for being governed without further miraculous interposition. Their constitution, encouraging agriculture, prohibiting horses, and requiring their attendance at the one house of God thrice a year, checked the spirit of conquest which otherwise the subjugation of Canaan might have engendered. Humanity and mercy breathe through the Mosaic law (Exo_23:4-5; Exo_23:9; Exo_23:11; Exo_22:22-24). (See Graves, Pentateuch.) The Canaanites' first settlement in Palestine was on the Mediterranean, in the region of Tyre and Sidon; thence they spread throughout the land.
A great branch of the Hittites in the valley of the Orontes is mentioned in inscriptions concerning the wars of Egypt with Assyria. (See EGYPT.) In Gen_12:6 "the Canaanite was then in the land" is no gloss (as if it meant the Canaanite was STILL in the land), nor proof of the Pentateuch's composition after Israel had driven them out, but implies that the aboriginal peoples (compare Gen_14:5-7) were by this time dispossessed, and the Canaanite settlers ALREADY in the land (compare Gen_13:7). Canaan is in Scripture made the type of the heavenly land of rest and inheritance (Heb_4:1-11). We must win it only under the heavenly Joshua, Jesus the Captain of our salvation, and by faith, the victory that overcomes the world and extirpates sin, self, and Satan (1Jn_4:4-5; 1Jn_5:4-5).
The new heaven and earth, purged of all them that offend, shall be the portion of those who, like Caleb and Joshua, have previously in faith trodden the earth occupied by the ungodly, of whom the Canaanites are the type. The lowland especially was the country of the Canaanites; the plains between the Mediterranean on one side, and the hills of Benjamin, Judah, and Ephraim on the other; the
shephelah, or low hills of Philistia, on the S.; the plain of Sharon and seashore between Jaffa and Carmel; that of Esdraelon, or Jezreel, behind the bay of Acta; that of Phoenicia containing Tyre and Sidon (Num_13:29). The Jordan valley, Arabah, now the Ghor, reaches from the sea of Chinneroth, or Galilee, to the S. of the Dead Sea, 120 miles, with a breadth from eight to 14; this, the most sunken region in Palestine, also was occupied by the Canaanite; Amalek occupied the S. region between Egypt and Palestine.
So too, Gen_10:18-20, the border of the Canaanites was the seashore from Sidon on the N. to Gaza on the S., and on the E. the Jordan valley to Sodom, Gomorrah, and Lasha (Callirhoe) by the Dead Sea. The Amorites occupied the mountainous country between (Jos_11:3; Jos_13:2-4). The chariots of iron could be used in the Canaanites' plains, but not in the mountains. So we find them in the upper Jordan valley at Bethshean, Esdraelon (Jezreel), Taanach, Ibleam, Megiddo, the Sharon plain, Dor, the Phoenician Accho and Sidon (Jos_17:16; Jdg_1:19; Jdg_4:3. Canaan in the larger sense is used for the whole country. The Arabah, reaching from the foot of mount Hermon to the gulf of Akabah, is the most remarkable depression on the earth.
The Jordan, rising in the slopes of Hermon, spreads out in the waters of Merom 126 feet above the level of the ocean; after ten miles' swift descent it enters the sea of Chinneroth, 650 feet below the ocean. From this the gorge holds the average breadth of ten miles, the river at last losing itself in the Dead Sea, the surface of which is 1,312 feet below the sea level, and the depth 1,300 feet below the surface. The ascent of Akrabbim (scorpions, Jos_15:3) or else mount Halak, a range of low cliffs, crosses the valley eight miles S. of the Dead Sea; thence the valley at a greater height gradually leads to Akabah. The plain or circle of Jordan on which Sodom and Gomorrah stood was probably, according to Grove, at the N. cud of the Dead Sea, but (See GOMORRAH.) Grove states there are no clear traces of volcanic action there, nor in the Holy Land or near it, except in the Leja, or Argob.
God's promise to Abraham was, "Unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river the river Euphrates, the Kenites, the Kenezites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaims, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites" (Gen_15:18-21). "The river (nahar) of Egypt" is the Nile, or Sihor, here representing (according to Grove) Egypt in general, as "Euphrates" represents Assyria (compare Isa_8:7-8). The Israelite kingdom even in Solomon's time did not literally reach to the Nile. The truth seems to be, his kingdom is but the type of the Israelite kingdom to come (Act_1:6), when Messiah her Prince shall be manifested (1Ki_4:21; 2Ch_9:26; compare Ezekiel 48; Psa_72:8; Num_34:5). "The border shall fetch a compass from Azmon unto the river (nachal) of Egypt."
The nachal, or brook, here is distinct from nahar above. The brook is generally thought to be the wady el Arish, the S.W. bound of the Holy Land. So also Jos_15:4. But Jos_13:3 expressly mentions Sihor, "the black turbid river," Nile, as the ultimately appointed border; this extended dominion twice foretold (for the simple language in histories as Genesis and Joshua hardly sanctions Grove's view that the river represents merely Egypt, in general), and so accurately defining the limits, awaits Israel in the last days (Isa_2:11; Zec_9:9-10). In Exo_23:31, "I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines (the Mediterranean), and from the desert (Paran and Shur) to the river" (Euphrates), the immediate territory of Israel in the Old Testament is assigned. So Deu_11:24; Jos_1:4.
Solomon accordingly possessed Tiphsah, the old ford of Euphrates on the N., and on the S. Ezion Geber and Elath, the Edomite ports of the Red Sea. In Num_34:1-12 the bounds of Canaan W. of Jordan are given from "the entrance of Hamath" between Lebanon and Antilebanon on the N., to Edom on the S. In Deu_1:7 the natural divisions are given, THE PLAIN, THE HILLS, THE VALE, THE SOUTH, THE SEASIDE; THE WILDERNESS also is mentioned (Jos_12:8), and the SPRINGS OF PISGAH (Deu_3:17). Thus there are in all seven physical divisions. THE SOUTH, or THE NEGEB, containing 29 cities (Jos_15:21-32), extended from mount Halak to a line from N.E. to S.W., a dry and thirsty land (Psa_126:4), liable to whirlwinds (Isa_21:1; Isa_30:6).
The WILDERNESS (midbar) of Judah, N.W. of the Dead Sea, had but six cities (Jos_15:61-62). The Hills (har), from the WILDERNESS to the S. of Lebanon, were once the home of the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites (Num_13:29); the cities are enumerated in Jos_15:48-60. The hill country abounds in traces of terraces which once kept up the soil on the side of the gray limestone, for tillage and vines. Also marks of forests, which must have caused there to be then much more of fertilizing rain than now. The fertility improves continually as one goes northward, and the valleys and uplands of Galilee are beautiful, and the slopes of Carmel park-like.
THE VALLEY, or LOW HILLS (shephelah), is the fertile region between the HIGHER HILLS and the coast, from Carmel to Gaza; including Philistia on the S. and the beautiful plain of Sharon from Joppa to Carmel on the N. Part of the shephelah was called Goshen, from its resembling in fertility the old Goshen at the mouth of the Nile (Jos_10:41; Jos_11:16); it perhaps contained Beersheba. THE SEA COAST is that N. of Carmel between Lebanon and the sea. The portion N. of Accho Israel never gained, but S. of Accho David gained by the conquest of the Philistines (Jdg_1:31). THE PLAIN or CHAMPAIGN (the Arabah, Jos_18:18, i.e. "the sterile place ") originally (Deu_2:8, where "the plain" is the ARABAH; compare Deu_1:1) comprehended the whole valley from Lebanon to the gulf of Akabah. The Arabs call its N. part the Jordan valley, the Ghor, and the part S. of the Holy Land wady el Arabah.
The SPRINGS OF (ASHDOTH) PISGAH may represent the peculiarly fertile circle round the head of the Dead Sea, on both sides of the Jordan (compare Jos_10:40; Jos_12:3; Jos_12:8; Deu_3:17; Deu_4:9). The land, as receiving its blessings so evidently by the gift of God, not as Egypt by the labor of man, and as being so continually by its narrowness within view of the desert, was well calculated to raise Israel's heart in gratitude to her divine Benefactor. It lay midway between the oldest world kingdoms, on one side Egypt and Ethiopia, on the other Babylon, Assyria, and India; then it had close by the Phoenicians, the great traffickers by sea, and the Ishmaelites the chief inland traders. So that though separated as a people dwelling alone, (Num_23:9) on the N. by mountains, by the desert on one hand, and by an almost harborless sea on the other, from too close contact with idolatrous neighbors, it yet could act, with a powerful influence, through many openings, on the whole world, if only it was faithful to its high calling.
"Instead of casting the seed of godliness on the swamps, God took in a little ground to be His seed plot. When His gracious purpose was answered, He broke down the wall of separation, and the field is now the world (Mat_13:38)." The long valley between the ranges of Lebanon, the valley of El Bukaa, leading to "the entering in of (i.e. to Palestine by) Hamath," opened out Palestine on the N. Roman roads, and the harbor made at Caesarea, at the exact time when it was required, made avenues for the gospel to go forth from Judaea into all lands. Tristram remarks, What has been observed of the physical geography of Palestine holds equally true of its fauna and flora. No spot on earth could have been selected which could have better supplied the writers of the book, intended to instruct the men of every climate, with illustrations familiar cue or other of them to dwellers in every region.
Ganneau derives the modern fellaheen from the Canaanites, arguing from their language, manners, customs, and superstitious, and the analogy which there is between Joshua's invasion and that of Caliph Omar. This view explains those prophecies which speak of those ancient nations existing in the last days and being then destroyed by God (Isa_11:14; Jeremiah 48; 49; Dan_11:41). The Israelite invaders as shepherds could not at once have become agriculturists, but would compel the subject Canaanites to until for them the land. The "places" (maqowm) which God commanded Israel to destroy, where the Canaanites "served their gods upon the high mountains, and hills, and under every green tree" (Deu_12:2), exactly answer to the fellaheen's Arabic makam (the same word as in Deuteronomy) in Palestine, or Mussulman kubbehs with little white topped cupolas dotted over the hills. Their fetishism also for certain isolated trees marks the site of the Canaanite worship which God forbade; an oath on their local sanctuary is far more binding to them than on the name of God.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Ca'naan. (low, flat).
1. The fourth son of Ham, Gen_10:6; 1Ch_1:8, the progenitor of the Phoenicians, see Zidon, or Sidon, and of the various nations who, before the Israelite conquest, people the seacoast of Palestine, and generally, the whoe of the country, westward of the Jordan. Gen_10:13; 1Ch_1:13. (B.C. 2347).
2. The name "Canaan" is sometimes employed for the country itself.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


the son of Ham. The Hebrews believe that Canaan, having first discovered Noah's nakedness, told his father Ham; and that Noah, when he awoke, having understood what had passed, cursed Canaan, the first author of the offence. Others are of opinion that Ham was punished in his son Canaan, Gen_9:25. For though Canaan is mentioned, Ham is not exempted from the malediction; on the contrary, he suffers more from it, since parents are more affected with their children's misfortunes than with their own; especially if the evils have been inflicted through some fault or folly of theirs. Some have thought that Canaan may be put elliptically for the father of Canaan, that is, Ham, as it is rendered in the Arabic and Septuagint translations.
The posterity of Canaan was numerous. His eldest son, Sidon, founded the city of Sidon, and was father of the Sidonians and Phenicians. Canaan had ten other sons, who were fathers of as many tribes, dwelling in Palestine and Syria; namely, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgasites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hemathites. It is believed that Canaan lived and died in Palestine, which from him was called the land of Canaan. Notwithstanding the curse is directed against Canaan the son, and not against Ham the father, it is often supposed that all the posterity of Ham were placed under the malediction, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.”
But the true reason why Canaan only was mentioned probably is, that the curse was in fact restricted to the posterity of Canaan. It is true that many Africans, descendants of other branches of Ham's family, have been largely and cruelly enslaved, but so have other tribes in different parts of the world. There is certainly no proof that the negro race were ever placed under this malediction. Had they been included in it, this would neither have justified their oppressors, nor proved that Christianity is not designed to remove the evil of slavery. But Canaan alone, in his descendants, is cursed, and Ham only in that branch of his posterity. It follows that the subjugation of the Canaanitish races to Israel fulfils the prophecy. To them it was limited, and with them it expired. Part of the seven nations of the Canaanites were made slaves to the Israelites, when they took possession of their land; and the remainder by Solomon.
CANAAN, LAND OF. In the map it presents the appearance of a narrow slip of country, extending along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean; from which, to the river Jordan, the utmost width does not exceed fifty miles. This river was the eastern boundary of the land of Canaan, or Palestine, properly so called, which derived its name from the Philistines or Palestines originally inhabiting the coast. To three of the twelve tribes, however, Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, portions of territory were assigned on the eastern side of the river, which were afterward extended by the subjugation of the neighbouring nations. The territory of Tyre and Sidon was its ancient border on the north-west; the range of the Libanus and Anti-libanus forms a natural boundary on the north and north-east; while in the south it is pressed upon by the Syrian and Arabian deserts. Within this circumscribed district, such were the physical advantages of the soil and climate, there existed, in the happiest periods of the Jewish nation, an immense population. The kingdom of David and Solomon, however, extended far beyond these narrow limits. In a north-eastern direction, it was bounded only by the river Euphrates, and included a considerable part of Syria. It is stated that Solomon had dominion over all the region on the western side of the Euphrates, from Thiphsah, or Thapsacus, on that river, in latitude 25 20', to Azzah, or Gaza. “Tadmore in the wilderness,” (Palmyra,) which the Jewish monarch is stated to have built, (that is, either founded or fortified,) is considerably to the north-east of Damascus, being only a day's journey from the Euphrates; and Hamath, the Epiphania of the Greeks, (still called Hamah,) in the territory belonging, to which city Solomon had several “store cities,” is seated on the Orontes, in latitude 34
45' N. On the east and south-east, the kingdom of Solomon was extended by the conquest of the country of Moab, that of the Ammonites, and Edom; and tracts which were either inhabited or pastured by the Israelites, lay still farther eastward. Maon, which belonged to the tribe of Judah, and was situated in or near the desert of Paran, is described by Abulfeda as the farthest city of Syria toward Arabia, being two days' journey beyond Zoar. In the time of David, the people of Israel, women and children included, amounted, on the lowest computation, to five millions; beside the tributary Canaanites, and other conquered nations.
The vast resources of the country, and the power of the Jewish monarch, may be estimated not only by the consideration in which he was held by the contemporary sovereigns of Egypt, Tyre, and Assyria, but by the strength of the several kingdoms into which the dominions of David were subsequently divided. Damascus revolted during the reign of Solomon, and shook off the Jewish yoke. At his death, ten of the tribes revolted under Jeroboam, and the country became divided into the two rival kingdoms of Judah and Israel, having for their capitals Jerusalem and Samaria. The kingdom of Israel fell before the Assyrian conqueror, in the year B.C. 721, after it had subsisted about two hundred and fifty years. That of Judah survived about one hundred and thirty years, Judea being finally subdued and laid waste by Nebuchadnezzar, and the temple burned B.C. 588. Idumea was conquered a few years after. From this period till the aera of Alexander the Great, Palestine remained subject to the Chaldean, Median, and Persian dynasties. At his death, Judea fell under the dominion of the kings of Syria, and, with some short and troubled intervals, remained subject either to the kings of Syria or of Egypt, till John Hyrcanus shook off the Syrian yoke, and assumed the diadem, B.C. 130. The Asmonean dynasty, which united, in the person of the monarch, the functions of king and pontiff, though tributary to Roman conquerors, lasted one hundred and twenty-six years, till the kingdom was given by Anthony to Herod the Great, of an Idumean family, B.C. 39.
2. At the time of the Christian aera, Palestine was divided into five provinces; Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Perea, and Idumea. On the death of Herod, Archelaus, his eldest son, succeeded to the government of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea, with the title of tetrarch; Galilee being assigned to Herod Antipas; and Perea, or the country beyond Jordan, to the third brother, Philip. But in less than ten years the dominions of Archelaus became annexed, on his disgrace, to the Roman province of Syria; and Judea was thenceforth governed by Roman procurators. Jerusalem, after its final destruction by Titus, A.D. 71, remained desolate and almost uninhabited, till the emperor Hadrian colonized it, and erected temples to Jupiter and Venus on its site. The empress Helena, in the fourth century, set the example of repairing in pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to visit the scenes consecrated by the Gospel narrative; and the country became enriched by the crowds of devotees who flocked there. In the beginning of the seventh century, it was overrun by the Saracens, who held it till Jerusalem was taken by the crusaders in the twelfth. The Latin kingdom of Jerusalem continued for about eighty years, during which the Holy Land streamed continually with Christian and Saracen blood. In 1187, Judea was conquered by the illustrious Saladin, on the decline of whose kingdom it passed through various revolutions, and at length, in 1317, was finally swallowed up in the Turkish empire.
Palestine is now distributed into pashalics. That of Acre or Akka extends from Djebail nearly to Jaffa; that of Gaza comprehends Jaffa and the adjacent plains; and these two being now united, all the coast is under the jurisdiction of the pasha of Acre. Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablous, Tiberias, and in fact, the greater part of Palestine, are included in the pashalic of Damascus, now held in conjunction with that of Aleppo; which renders the present pasha, in effect, the viceroy of Syria. Though both pashas continue to be dutiful subjects to the Grand Seignior in appearance, and annually transmit considerable sums to Constantinople to insure the yearly renewal of their office, they are to be considered as tributaries, rather than subjects of the Porte; and it is supposed to be the religious supremacy of the Sultan, as caliph and vicar of Mohammed, more than any apprehension of his power, which prevents them from declaring themselves independent. The reverence shown for the firmauns of the Porte throughout Syria attests the strong hold which the Sultan maintains, in this character, on the Turkish population. The pashas of Egypt and Bagdad are attached to the Turkish sovereign by the same ecclesiastical tie, which alone has kept the ill- compacted and feeble empire from crumbling to ruin.
3. A few additional remarks upon the topography and climate will tend to elucidate the force of many of those parts of Scripture which contain allusions to these topics. Dr. E. D. Clarke, after stating his resolve to make the Scriptures his only guide throughout this interesting territory, says, “The delight afforded by the internal evidences of truth, in every instance where their fidelity of description was proved by a comparison of existing documents, surpassed even all we had anticipated. Such extraordinary instances of coincidence even with the customs of the country as they are now exhibited, and so many wonderful examples of illustration afforded by contrasting the simple narrative with the appearances presented, made us only regret the shortness of our time, and the limited sphere of our abilities for the comparison.” Judea is beautifully diversified with hills and plains— hills now barren and gloomy, but once cultivated to their summits, and smiling in the variety of their produce, chiefly the olive and the vine; and plains, over which the Bedouin now roves to collect a scanty herbage for his cattle, but once yielding an abundance of which the inhabitants of a northern climate can form no idea. Rich in its soil; glowing in the sunshine of an almost perpetual summer; and abounding in scenery of the grandest, as well as of the most beautiful kind; this happy country was indeed a land which the Lord had blessed: but Mohammedan sloth and despotism, as the instruments employed to execute the curse of Heaven, have converted it into a waste of rock and desert, with the exception of some few spots, which remain to attest the veracity of the accounts formerly given of it.
The hills of Judea frequently rise into mountains; the most considerable of which are those of Lebanon and Hermon, on the north; those which surround the sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea, also attain a respectable elevation. The other mountains of note are, Carmel, Tabor, Ebal, and Gerizim, and the mountains of Gilboa, Gilead, and Abarim; with the summits of the latter, Nebo and Pisgah: a description of which will be found under their respective heads. Many of the hills and rocks abound in caverns, the refuge of the distressed, or the resorts of robbers.
4. From the paucity of rain which falls in Judea, and the heat and dryness of the atmosphere for the greater part of the year, it possesses but few rivers; and as these, have all their rise within its boundaries, their course is short, and their size inconsiderable: the principal is the Jordan, which runs about a hundred miles. The other remarkable streams are, the Arnon, the Jabbok, the Kishon, the Kedron, the Besor, the Sorek, and the stream called the river of Egypt. These, also, will be found described under their respective heads. This country was once adorned with woods and forests: as we read of the forest of cedars in Lebanon, the forest of oaks in Bashan, the forest or wood of Ephraim, and the forest of Hareth in the tribe of Judah. Of these, the woods of Bashan alone remain; the rest have been swept away by the ravages of time and of armies, and by the gradual consumption of the inhabitants, whose indolence and ignorance have prevented their planting others.
5. There are no volcanoes now existing in Judea or its vicinity: nor is mention made of any in history, although volcanic traces are found in many parts on its eastern side, as they are also in the mountains of Edom on the south, the Djebel Shera and Hesma, as noticed by Burckhardt. There can be no doubt that many of the sacred writers were familiarly acquainted with the phenomena of volcanoes; whence it may be inferred that they were presented to their observation at no great distance, and from which they drew some of their sublimest imagery. Mr. Horne has adduced the following instances: “The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence. His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him,” Nah_1:5-6. “Behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place,” Mic_1:3-4. “O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence. As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence. When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence,” Isa_64:1-3.
6. The climate of Judea, from the southern latitude of the country, is necessarily warm. The cold of winter is, indeed, sometimes greater than in European climates situated some degrees farther to the north; but it is of short duration, and the general character of the climate is that of heat. Both heat and cold are, however, tempered by the nature of the surface; the winter being scarcely felt in the valleys, while in the summer the heat is almost insupportable; and, on the contrary, in the more elevated parts, during the winter months, or rather weeks, frosts frequently occur, and snow sometimes falls, while the air in summer is comparatively cool and refreshing. Many winters pass without either snow or frost; and in the coldest weather which ever occurs, the sun in the middle of the day is generally warm, and often hot; so that the pain of cold is in reality but little felt, and the poor who cannot afford fires may enjoy, during several hours of the day, the more genial and invigorating influence of the sun. This is the ordinary character of the winters; though in some years, as will be seen presently, the cold is more severely felt during the short time that it prevails, which is never more than two months, and more frequently not so much as one. Toward the end of November, or beginning of December, domestic fires become agreeable. It was at this time that Jehoiakim, king of Judah, is represented by Jeremiah as sitting in his winter house, with a fire burning on the hearth before him, Jer_36:22. The same luxury, though frequently by no means necessary, is used by the wealthy till the end of March.
7. Rain only falls during the autumn, winter, and spring, when it sometimes descends with great violence: the greatest quantity, and that which properly constitutes the rainy season, happening between the autumnal equinox, or somewhat later, and the beginning of December; during which period, heavy clouds often obscure the sky, and several days of violent rain sometimes succeed each other with winds. This is what in Scripture is termed the early or the former rain. Showers continue to fall at uncertain intervals, with some cloudy but more fair weather, till toward the vernal equinox, when they become again more frequent and copious till the middle of April. These are the latter rains, Joe_2:23. From this time to the end of May, showers come on at irregular intervals, gradually decreasing as the season advances; the sky being for the most part serene, and the temperature of the air agreeable though sometimes acquiring a high degree of heat. From the end of May, or beginning of June, to the end of September, or middle of October, scarce a drop of rain falls, the sky being constantly unclouded, and the heat generally oppressive. During this period, the inhabitants commonly sleep on the tops of their houses. The storms, especially in the autumn, are preceded by short but violent gusts of wind, which, from the surface of a parched soil, raise great clouds of dust; which explains what is meant by, “Ye shall not see wind,” 2Ki_3:7. The continuation of the same passage likewise implies, that such circumscribed whirlwinds were generally considered as the precursors of rain; a circumstance likewise alluded to by Solomon, who says, “Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift, is like clouds and wind without rain,”
Pro_25:14. Another prognostic of an approaching storm is a small cloud rising in the west, and increasing until it overspreads the whole heavens. Such was the cloud, “like a man's hand,” which appeared to Elijah, on Mount Carmel; which spread “till the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain,” 1Ki_18:44. To this phenomenon, and the certainty of the prognostic, our Saviour alludes: “When ye see a cloud” (or the cloud, την νεφελην) “rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is,” Luk_12:54. The same appearance is noticed by Homer;—
‘Ως δ' οτ' απο σκοπιης ειδεν νεφος αιπολος ανηρ
‘Ερχομενον κατα ποντον υπο Ζεφυροιο ιωης,
Τω δε τ', ανευθεν εοντι, μελαντερον, ηυτι πισσα,
Φαινετ' ιον κατα ποντον, αγει δε τε λαιλαπα πολλην,
‘Ριγεσεν τε ιδων. κ.τ.λ.
Il. lib. v. 275.
“Slow from the main the heavy vapours rise, Spread in dim streams, and sail along the skies, Till black as night the swelling tempest shows, The cloud condensing as the west wind blows. He dreads the impending storm,” &c.
POPE.
Hail frequently falls in the winter and spring in very heavy, storms, and with hailstones of an enormous size. Dr. Russel says that he has seen some at Aleppo which measured two inches in diameter; but sometimes they are found to consist of irregularly shaped pieces, weighing near three ounces. The copious dew forms another peculiarity of this climate, frequently alluded to in Scripture: so copious, indeed, is it sometimes, as to resemble small rain, and to supply the wants of superficial vegetation. Mr.
Maundrell, when travelling near Mount Hermon, says, “We were instructed by experience what the Psalmist means by ‘the dew of Hermon,' Psa_133:3; our tents being as wet with it, as if it had rained all night.”
8. The seasons are often adverted to in Scripture, under the terms “seed time and harvest.” The former, for wheat, is about the middle of October to the middle or end of November: barley is put into the ground two and sometimes three months later. The wheat harvest commences about the twentieth of May, and early in June the whole is off the ground. The barley harvest, it is to be observed, is generally a fortnight earlier. A survey of the astonishing produce of this country, and of the manner in which its most rocky, and, to appearance, insuperably sterile parts, are made to yield to the wants of man, will be sufficient to refute the objections raised by skeptical writers against the possibility of its furnishing subsistence to the multitude of its former inhabitants recorded in Scripture. Dr. Clarke, when travelling from Napolose to Jerusalem, relates, “The road was mountainous, rocky, and full of loose stones; yet the cultivation was every where marvellous: it afforded one of the most striking pictures of human industry which it is possible to behold. The limestone rocks and stony valleys of Judea were entirely covered with plantations of figs, vines, and olive trees: not a single spot seemed to be neglected. The hills, from their bases to their upmost summits, were entirely covered with gardens: all of these were free from weeds, and in the highest state of agricultural perfection. Even the sides of the most barren mountains had been rendered fertile, by being divided into terraces, like steps rising one above another, whereon soil had been accumulated with astonishing labour. Among the standing crops, we noticed millet, cotton, linseed, and tobacco, and occasionally small fields of barley. A sight of this territory can alone convey any adequate idea of its surprising produce: it is truly the Eden of the east, rejoicing, in the abundance of its wealth. Under a wine and a beneficent government, the produce of the Holy Land would exceed all calculation. Its perennial harvest; the salubrity of its air; its limpid springs; its rivers, lakes, and matchless plains; its hills and dales;—all these, added to the serenity of its climate, prove this land to be indeed ‘a field which the Lord hath blessed: God hath given it of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.'” An oriental's ideas of fertility differ, however, from ours; for to him, plantations of figs, vines, and olives, with which the limestone rocks of Judea were once covered, would suggest the same associations of plenty and opulence that are called up in the mind of an Englishman by rich tracts of corn land. The land of Canaan is characterized as flowing with milk and honey; and it still answers to this description; for it contains extensive pasture lands of the richest quality, and the rocky country is covered with aromatic plants, yielding to the wild bees, who hive in the hollow of the rocks, such abundance of honey as to supply the poorer classes with an article of food. Honey from the rocks is repeatedly referred to in the Scriptures, as a delicious food, and an emblem of plenty, 1Sa_14:25; Psa_81:16. Dates are another important article of consumption; and the neighbourhood of Judea was famous for its numerous palm trees, which are found springing up from chance-sown kernels in the midst of the most arid districts. When to these wild productions we add the oil extracted from the olive, so essential an article to an oriental, we shall be at no loss to account for the ancient fertility of the most barren districts of Judea, or for the adequacy of the soil to the support of so numerous a population, notwithstanding the comparatively small proportion of arable land. There is no reason to doubt, however, that corn and rice would be imported by the Tyrian merchants; which the Israelites would have no difficulty in exchanging for the produce of the olive ground and the vineyard, or for their flocks and herds.
Delicious wine is still produced in some districts, and the valleys bear plentiful crops of tobacco, wheat, barley, and millet. Tacitus compares both the climate and the soil, indeed, to those of Italy; and he particularly specifies the palm tree and balsam tree as productions which gave the country an advantage over his own. Among other indigenous productions may be enumerated the cedar and other varieties of the pine, the cypress, the oak, the sycamore, the mulberry tree, the fig tree, the willow, the turpentine tree, the acacia, the aspen, the arbutus, the myrtle, the almond tree, the tamarisk, the oleander, the peach tree, the chaste tree, the carob or locust tree, the oskar, the doom, the mustard plant, the aloe, the citron, the apple, the pomegranate, and many flowering shrubs. The country about Jericho was celebrated for its balsam, as well as for its palm trees; and two plantations of it existed during the last war between the Jews and the Romans for which both parties fought desperately. But Gilead appears to have been the country in which it chiefly abounded: hence the name, “balm of Gilead.” Since the country has fallen under the Turkish dominion, it has ceased to be cultivated in Palestine, but is still found in Arabia. Other indigenous productions have either disappeared or are now confined to circumscribed districts. Iron is found in the mountain range of Libanus, and silk is produced in abundance in the plains of Samaria.
9. The grand distinction of Canaan, however, is, that it was the only part of the earth made, by divine institution, a type of heaven. So it was exhibited to Abraham, and also to the Jews. It pointed to the eternal rest which the spiritual seed of the father of the faithful were to enjoy after the pilgrimage of life; its holy city was the figure of the “Jerusalem above;” and Zion, with its solemn and joyful services, represented that “hill of the Lord” to which the redeemed shall come with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads; where they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall fly away.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


The land of Canaan took its name from Canaan the son of Ham, who in turn was a son of Noah (Gen_10:1; Gen_10:6). The territory stretched along the Mediterranean coast from Phoenicia (Sidon) in the north to Philistia (Gaza) in the south, and extended inland to the hills of Syria and the valley of the Jordan River (Gen_10:15-19).

This was the land that God promised to give to Abraham and his descendants (Israel) as a national homeland (Gen_12:5-7; Gen_13:12-17; cf. Exo_3:7-8; Exo_6:1-4; Num_13:2; Num_13:17). The land’s boundaries were more clearly defined some centuries later when the Israelites were about to take possession of it. The northern boundary went from the region of the Jordan’s headwaters to the coast. The southern boundary went from the Dead Sea through Kadesh-barnea to the Brook of Egypt, which it then followed to the coast. The eastern boundary was the Jordan River and the western boundary the Mediterranean Sea (Num_34:1-12). (For details of the physical features of the land see PALESTINE.)
The Canaanite people
In the time of Abraham many tribal groups lived in Canaan along with the original Canaanites. Many of these tribal peoples feature in the history of Israel’s origins and early development, but all were destined to lose their land to the Israelites (Gen_15:18-21; Exo_3:8; Num_23:29; see AMALEKITES; HITTITES; HIVITES; JEBUSITES; PERIZZITES; REPHAIM).
The most dominant of the peoples of Canaan were the Amorites. They had settled widely and intermarried extensively with the Canaanites, till the names ‘Canaanite’ and ‘Amorite’ became general terms that people used interchangeably to refer to the entire population of Canaan (Gen_12:5-7; Gen_15:16; Jos_24:3; Jos_24:18; see AMORITES).
Conquest of Canaan
Though all the Canaanite peoples were religiously and morally corrupt, God gave them ample time to repent before he finally executed his judgment upon them. It was several hundred years from the time God warned of judgment to the time the judgment actually fell. Only when the Canaanites’ wickedness had gone beyond the limits that God’s tolerance allowed did God command the Israelites to destroy them and possess their land (Gen_15:16; Deu_7:1-5; Deu_20:17-18).
When the Israelites conquered Canaan, they also conquered territory that bordered the Jordan River on the east and was occupied by the Amorites (Num_21:21-35). Two and a half of Israel’s twelve tribes settled in this trans-Jordan territory. This means that Canaan itself (i.e. the area west of Jordan extending to the Mediterranean Sea) was occupied by only nine and a half tribes (Num_32:29-33; Num_34:13-15). (Concerning Israel’s conquest of Canaan and subsequent history in the land see ISRAEL.)
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.


Ca?naan, son of Ham and grandson of Noah. The transgression of his father Ham (Gen_9:22-27), to which some suppose Canaan to have been in some way a party, gave occasion to Noah to pronounce that doom on the descendants of Canaan which was, perhaps, at that moment made known to him by one of those extemporaneous inspirations with which the patriarchal fathers appear in other instances to have been favored.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.


Gen_17:8 (c) This describes this country and compares it to the life of victory which should be the portion of every believer. In Canaan, the Lord gave rich possessions and fought all their battles for them. Many Christians stop at Jabesh-Gilead and never cross over Jordan to the land of grapes, figs, olives and victory. Canaan is called in several Scriptures the land that floweth with milk and honey. It probably represents typically the victorious life of the happy, radiant, conquering Christian. This person lives in constant fellowship with the living GOD and Father, has conscious communion with CHRIST JESUS, and receives daily blessings from the Holy Spirit. He has crossed over Jordan out of the desert into the life more abundant, the life that is life indeed.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.


Canaan
(Hebrews Kena'an, כְּנ — עִן, perhaps low; Sept. and N.T. Χαναάν; Josephus Χανάανος), the name of a man and of a country peopled by his descendants.
1. The fourth son of Ham, and grandson of Noah (Gen_10:6; 1Ch_1:8; comp. Josephus, Ant. 1:6, 4). B.C. post 2514. Thetransgression of his father Ham (Gen_9:22-27), to which some suppose Canaan to have been in some way a party, gave occasion to Noah to pronounce that doom on the descendants of Canaan which was, perhaps, at that moment made known to him by one of those extemporaneous inspirations with which the patriarchal fathers appear in other instances to have been favored. SEE BLESSING. That there is nojust ground for the conclusion that the descendants of Canaan were cursed as an immediate consequence of the transgression of Ham, is shown by Professor Bush, who, in his Notes on Genesis, has fairly met the difficulties of the subject. SEE HAM.
The posterity of Canaan was numerous. His eldest son, Zidon, founded the city of the same name, and was father of the Sidonians and Phoenicians. Canaan had ten other sons, who were fathers of as many tribes, dwelling in Palestine and Syria (Gen_10:15-19; 1Ch_1:13). It is believed that Canaan lived and died in Palestine, which from him was called the land of Canaan. SEE CANAANITE.
2. The simple name “Canaan” is sometimes employed for the country itself— more generally styled “the land of C.” It is so in Zep_2:5; and we also find “Language of C.” (Isa_19:18); “Wars of C.” (Jdg_3:1); “Inhabitants of C.” (Exo_15:15); “King of C.” (Jdg_4:2; Jdg_4:23-24; Jdg_5:19); “Daughters of C.” (Gen_28:1; Gen_28:6; Gen_28:8; Gen_36:2); “Kingdoms of C.” (Psa_135:11). In addition to the above, the word occurs in several passages where it is concealed in the Auth. Vers. by being translated. These are, Isa_23:8, “traffickers,” and Isa_23:11, “the merchant city;” Hos_12:2, “He is a merchant;” Zep_1:11, “merchant-people.” SEE COMMERCE.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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