כְּנַעֲנִי

From the study of Exodus 33:2

Range of meaning

A fixed list of the peoples living in the promised land. Exodus usually gives six names (3:8, 3:17, 13:5, 23:23, 34:11). Deuteronomy 7:1 and Joshua 3:10 give seven by adding the Girgashites. Gen 15:19–21 gives ten. The order changes from list to list.

Against the English

BSB and other modern versions turn the singular names into plurals ('Canaanites'). KJV, WEB and YLT keep the Hebrew singular ('the Canaanite'), which treats each people as one body.

How it drifted

Readers who know ancient history may hear 'Hittites' as the Anatolian empire centred on Hattusa. The Bible's 'Hittites' in Canaan look like a local population, whatever their historical link to that empire.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Amorites (Amurru) and the Hittites (Hatti) are well known from cuneiform sources. Canaan (Kinahhi) appears in the Amarna letters. Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites are known almost only from the Bible. T. Ishida's study of these lists treats them as a stylised formula, not a census.

From the study of Exodus 3:17

Range of meaning

A conventional list of peoples living in the land before Israel. The lists vary between three and ten names (ten in Gen 15:19–21, seven in Deut 7:1, six here and in 3:8). Each name is singular with 'the' and stands for a whole people.

Against the English

BSB, NIV and ESV make the names plural ('Canaanites'). WEB and YLT keep the Hebrew singular ('the Canaanite').

Used elsewhere in the period

The same six names in the same order appear in Exod 3:8. Similar lists appear in Exod 13:5; 23:23; 33:2; 34:11; Josh 9:1. The Hittites of Hebron in Gen 23, the Hivites of Shechem in Gen 34 and the Jebusites of Jerusalem in 2 Sam 5 tie the list to the patriarch stories and the later monarchy.

From the study of Joshua 3:10

Range of meaning

A standard list of the peoples who held the land before Israel. Biblical lists vary between two and twelve names. The usual form has six. The seven-name form appears in Deut 7:1, here, and Josh 24:11, each time with the Girgashites added.

Against the English

English plurals ('Canaanites, Hittites…') smooth over the Hebrew singular-with-'the' form ('the Canaanite'), which treats each people as a single unit. The meaning is the same, but the Hebrew sounds more like a formal roll call.

Used elsewhere in the period

Gen 10:15–18 (the 'sons of Canaan'); Gen 15:19–21 (ten names, in the covenant with Abram); Exod 3:8, 17; 23:23; Deut 7:1 ('seven nations greater and mightier than you'); Josh 9:1; 11:3; 24:11. 'Canaan' appears as Kinaḫḫi/Kinaḫna in the Amarna letters (14th century BC). 'Amurru' appears in Mesopotamian and Egyptian sources as a region and a people.