Canaan in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

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 Genesis 15:19-21, including some on E. of Jordan and S. of Israel. The four Hamitic races occupied a continuous tract comprising the Nile valley, Israel, S. Arabia, Babylonia, and Kissia. The Phoenicians were Semitic (from Shem), but the Canaanites preceded them in Israel and Lower Syria. Sidon, Area, Arvad, and Zemara or Simra (Genesis 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 1 Corinthians 13:6 and 1 Peter 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" (Genesis 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 (1 Kings 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...