CANAANITES the Canaanite collec tively ; sometimes also as a gentile adjective (Gen. xxxviii. 2, etc.) ; Sept. Ravavalot), the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham and grandson of Noah, inhabitants of the land of Canaan and the adjoin ing districts. A general account of the different nations included in the term is given in the present article, and a more detailed account of each will be found under their respective names.
The Israelites were delivered from Egypt by Moses, in order that they might take possession of the land which God had promised to their fathers. This country was then inhabited by the descend ants of Canaan, who were divided into six or seven distinct nations, viz., the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, IIivites, and Je busites (Exod. iii. 17, where the Girgashites are not mentioned ; Deut. vii. I, etc.) All these tribes are included in the most general acceptation of the term Canaanites ; but the word, in its more restricted sense, as applied to one tribe, designated those ' who dwelt by the sea, and by the coasts of Jordan' (Num. xiii. 29). Besides these `seven nations,' there were several tribes of the Canaanites who lived beyond the borders of the Promised Land, northward. These were the Arkites, Sin ites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites (Gen. x. 17, IS), 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 Israelites. The chief of these were the Amalekites, the Anakites, and the Rep haim (or 'giants,' as they are frequently called in our translation).* These nations, and especially the six or seven so frequently mentioned by name, the Israelites were commanded to dispossess and utterly to destroy (Exod. xxiii. 23 ; Num. xxxiii. 53 ; Deut. xx. 16, 17). The destruction, however, was not to be accomplished at once. The promise on the part of God was that he would ' put out those nations by little and little,' and the com mand to the Israelites corresponded with it ; the reason given being, `lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee' (Exod. xxiii. 29 ; Deut. vii. 22).
The destructive war commenced with an attack on the Israelites, by Arad, king of the Canaanites, which issued in the destruction of several cities in the extreme south of Palestine, to which the name of Hormah was given (Num. xxi. 1-3). The Israelites, however, did not follow up this victory, which was simply the consequence of an unpro voked assault on them ; but, turning back, and compassing the land of Edom, they attempted to pass through the country on the other side of the Jordan, inhabited by a tribe of the Amorites. Their passage being refused, and an attack made on them by Sihon, king of the Amorites, they not only forced their way through his land, but de stroyed its inhabitants, and proceeding onwards towards the adjoining kingdom of Bashan, they in like manner destroyed the inhabitants of that dis trict, and slew Og, their king, who was the last of the Rephaim, or giants (Dent. iii. 1). The tract
of which they thus became possessed was subse quently allotted to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh.
After the death of Moses the Israelites dossed the Jordan, and, under the conduct of Joshua, took possession of the greater part of the Promised Land, and destroyed its inhabitants. Several cities, how ever, still held out, particularly Jebus, afterwards Jerusalem, which was not taken till the time of David (2 Sam. v. 6), and Sidon, which seems never to have yielded to the tribe of Asher, to whom it was allotted ( Judg. i. 31). Scattered portions also of the Canaanitish nations escaped, and were frequently strong enough to harass, though not to dispossess, the Israelites. The inhabitants of Gibeon, a tribe of the Hivites, made peace by stratagem, and thus escaped the destruction of their fellow-countrymen. Individuals from amongst the Canaanites seem, in later times, to have united themselves, in some way, to the Israelites, and not only to have lived in peace, but to have been capable of holding places of honour and power ; thus Uriah, one of David's captains, was a Hittite (t Chron. xi. 41). In the time of Solomon, when the kingdom had attained its highest glory and greatest power, all the remnants of these nations were made tributary, and bond-service was exacted from them (t Kings ix. 20, 21). The Girgashites seem to have been .either wholly destroyed or ab sorbed in other tribes. We find no mention of them subsequent to the book of Joshua, and the opinion that the Gergesenes, or Gadarenes, in the time of our Lord, were their descendants, has very little evidence to support it (Rosemnfiller, Scholia in Gen. x. 16 ; Reland, Palwstina, i. 27, p. I3S). The Anakites I\ ere completely destroyed by Joshua, except in three cities, Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod (Josh. xi. 21-23) ; and the powerful nation of the Amalekites, many times defeated and continually harassing the Israelites, were at last totally de stroyed by the tribe of Simeon (I Chron. iv. 43). Even after the return of the Jews from the Baby lonish captivity, there were survivors of five of the Canaanitish nations with whom alliances had been made by the Jews, contrary to the commands which had been given them. Some of the Canaan ites, according to ancient tradition, left the land of Canaan on the approach of Joshua, and emi grated to the coast of Africa. Procopius (De Bello Vandalic°, ii. to) relates that there were in Numidia, at Tigisis (TIngis), two columns on which were inscribed, in Phoenician characters, AuEls e/r7u2v of Ou-y6yres din 71 poadnrov rol Xvirroii viol Natii)—` We are those who fled from the face of Joshua, the robber, the son of Naue.' (Bochart, Geogr. Sac., i. 24 ; Michaelis, Laws of Moses, art. 31, vol. i. p. 176, Smith's Trans]. ; Winer's Realworterbuch, arts. Canaaniter ' and Josua.')—F. W. G.