The meaning of Canaanites in the Bible
(From Easton's Bible Dictionary)
the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham. Migrating from their original home, they seem to have reached the Persian Gulf, and to have there sojourned for some time. They thence "spread to the west, across the mountain chain of Lebanon to the very edge of the Mediterranean Sea, occupying all the land which later became Palestine, also to the north-west as far as the mountain chain of Taurus. This group was very numerous, and broken up into a great many peoples, as we can judge from the list of nations (Genesis 10), the 'sons of Canaan.'" Six different tribes are mentioned in Exodus 3:8,17; 23:23; 33:2; 34:11. In Exodus 13:5 the "Perizzites" are omitted. The "Girgashites" are mentioned in addition to the foregoing in Deuteronomy 7:1; Joshua 3:10.
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