כְּנַ֫עַן

From the study of Genesis 10:15

Range of meaning

(1) A person: Ham's son (Gen 9:18–27; 10:6). (2) The land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, roughly from Sidon to Gaza (10:19). (3) Its peoples together, 'the Canaanite(s)'. (4) Because Canaanites were known as traders, 'merchant' (Isa 23:8; Hos 12:7; Prov 31:24; Zeph 1:11).

Against the English

All English versions keep the name 'Canaan'. Readers easily forget that here the name means a person, a land and a group of peoples at once.

Used elsewhere in the period

Outside the Bible the name appears as Kinaḫḫi/Kinaḫna in the Amarna letters (14th century BC) and in Egyptian texts as p3-Kn'n, mostly for the Egyptian-controlled province in the southern Levant. Its origin is disputed: some link it to kinaḫḫu, a purple dye; others to a root meaning 'low' (lowland).

From the study of Hosea 12:7

Range of meaning

(1) The land west of the Jordan and its pre-Israelite people. (2) Because the coastal 'Canaanites,' the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon, were the great traders of the Levant, the word 'Canaan(ite)' came to mean 'merchant, trader' as well (HALOT, BDB).

Against the English

BSB, WEB, KJV, ESV, NASB and NIV give 'merchant' or 'trader' and lose the ethnic name. YLT gives 'Canaan!' and loses the trade sense. No single English word carries both.

How it drifted

English has no word that is both an ethnic name and a job title. Translators have to choose one, and most choose the commercial sense.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used of traders in Isaiah 23:8 ('whose traders are princes'), Zephaniah 1:11 ('all the people of Canaan,' i.e. merchants, are destroyed), Job 40:30 (Eng. 41:6, 'divide him among the merchants'), Proverbs 31:24 (the capable wife sells belts 'to the Canaanite/merchant'), and Ezekiel 16:29; 17:4. The LXX (Greek translation of the Old Testament) and the Vulgate (Latin) both keep the proper name here (Chanaan).

From the study of Numbers 32:30

Range of meaning

'The land of Canaan'. In the Torah this is the land west of the Jordan promised to the ancestors (Gen 17:8). Its borders are drawn in Num 34:1–12, with the Jordan and the Dead Sea as the eastern edge.

Against the English

English readers often treat 'Canaan' and 'the promised land' as the same as everywhere Israel lived. Numbers keeps 'the land of Canaan' (west) separate from 'the land of Gilead' (east).

Used elsewhere in the period

Num 33:51; 34:2, 12; 35:10, 14 ('three cities beyond the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan'); Josh 22:9–11, 32 (Gilead set against Canaan).