Joshua 16:10,12-13  “And they did not drive out the Kena‛anites… But the children of Menashsheh were unable to drive out the inhabitants of those cities, for the Kena‛anites desired to dwell in that land. And it came to be, when the children of Yisra’ĕl were strong, that they put the Kena‛anites to compulsory labour, but did not utterly drive them out. For you are to drive out the Kena‛anites, though they have iron chariots and are strong.””

In the previous post, Joshua 12-15 (click to read here), it mentioned the Jebusites in Jerusalem, which were a Canaanite tribe. In 1 Chronicles 11 David will be fighting them and driving them out of Jerusalem. Joshua and Israel entered the “Promised Land” by defeating Jericho. The Promised Land was known as Canaan H3669 – kᵊnaʿănî. The word means merchant in Hebrew, but the root word Cana H3665 – kānaʿ means to bend the knee, humble, subjection. The word also hints at “reddish purple”, referring to the rich purple crimson dye produced in the area.

Canaan basically encompass the Palestine and Syria area, what we know today as the Land of Israel. Their important cities included Bet Sheʾan, Gezer, Hazor, Jericho, Jerusalem, Lachish, Megiddo, and Shechem. Canaanites are not to be confused with Philistines or Arabs of today.  The Philistines originated in the Aegean isles and inhabited the coastal plain of Israel in the south from Gaza. The Arab people were fathered by Abraham’s son Ishmael. The Canaanites are a distinct people group who can trace their lineage to Noah through his son Ham. Canaan was double cursed. Once by Noah in Genesis 9:25. The second time was when Canaan took a portion of his uncle Shem’s land, and his father and uncles begged and warned him not to. In the book of Jubilees it tells the story, and where Ham and his other sons curse Canaan for taking the family land of their brothers.

The Canaanites still recognized YHWH as Elohim, but they had many other gods too, including Baal, Anat, Astarte, and Dagon. Canaanite religious practices included animal sacrifice, veneration of the dead, and the worship of deities through shrines and sacred groves. Cattle were often sacrificed to YHWH and Ba’al together, and the Canaanites also performed human sacrifices, including children. Another important tradition in the Canaanite religion was rites of sexual fertility, which were condemned by YHWH as sinful. Many times so far in Scripture YHWH commanded that the Canaanites be destroyed.. why? Deuteronomy 20:18, “That they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against YHWH your God.”

Later in Jeremiah 7:31, 19:2–6 Israel is still reprimanded over living with or among the Canaanites. Because they remained in the land, it did not take long for the People of Israel to begin acting like Canaanites, worshipping Baal, Asherah, and other gods of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon with “sacred perversions,” like child sacrifice. Likewise, in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem, where God placed His name forever, the Israeli king Manasseh placed a carved image of Asherah. There and throughout the land, the people of Judah, even the priests, engaged in these cult sex acts (1 Kings 14:23–24; 2 Kings 21:7). But Israel couldn’t resist the seductive yet false idea that other gods like Baal and Asherah had the divine ability to produce good harvests for them.

Where Are the Canaanites Today?
A study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics on July 27, 2017 gives us a clue as to where the Canaanite bloodline dwells today. The DNA of five Canaanites buried nearly 4,000 years ago in Sidon (named after Canaans’ first born son) of ancient Lebanon were sequenced and compared with the DNA of 99 Lebanese people. A 93% match indicates that the Canaanite people stayed intact through the millenia in Lebanon, a portion of the land they occupied since the time of Canaan. Most Lebanese today are Muslim and believe in Allah and Mohammed.

Yeshua and the Canaanite woman
In Mark 7:27-28 a Canaanite woman bowed down before Yeshua and begged Him to cast a demon out of her daughter. At first, it seemed as if Yeshua utterly rejected her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered Him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

In referring to herself as a dog, she understood that as a Canaanite, she did not naturally deserve anything from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yet she persistently and earnestly sought the Divine intervention of His Son, Yeshua. After revealing her faith and trust in Yeshua’s divine identity, He restored her daughter’s peace. This demonstrates that the spiritual and demonic oppression that has brought such misery to the people of Lebanon (and even the rest of the world) through the curses of their ancestor, Canaan, and their ungodly religious practices can be overcome.