Canaanite כְּנַעֲנִי

We are in chapter thirty-three of Exodus with our word for today. כְּנַעֲנִי Canaanite, tradesman, merchant. It is used 73 times in the Old Testament. Our word is used in the sense of someone who travels for trade or profit. We see this in reference to the massive Leviathan and the woman who fears the Lord in proverbs. Job 41:6 Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the כְּֽנַעֲנִֽים merchants? Proverbs 31:24 She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes לַֽכְּנַעֲנִֽי to the merchant. Here are some other references. Notice how they are seen in a negative light. Isaiah 23:8 Who has purposed this against Tyre ... whose כִּנְעָנֶ֖יהָ traders were the honored of the earth? Zechariah 11:7 So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep לָכֵ֖ן עֲנִיֵּ֣י traders. Hosea 12:7 כְּנַ֗עַן A merchant, in whose hands are false balances, he loves to oppress. This negative perspective of this word leads us to how it is used most of the time to describe a nation of people who live by the sea along Jordan. Numbers 13:29 וְהַֽכְּנַעֲנִי֙ The Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan. Deuteronomy 1:5, 7 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying … Turn and take your journey, and go … by the seacoast, the land of הַֽכְּנַעֲנִי֙ the Canaanites. Deuteronomy 11:30 Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of הַֽכְּנַעֲנִ֔י the Canaanites? This is how our word is used in our chapter today. Exodus 33:2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out הַֽכְּנַעֲנִי֙ the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. This nation of people who lived by the sea along the Jordon is one group that was to be driven out so that the Israelites could be given the land. This was what God had promised. This nation, as well as the other ones listed, were driven out of the land because of their wickedness and sin which we have seen already and will also see several more times. This nation was referenced as people who Abraham’s servant was not to find a wife for his son (Genesis 24:3-4). This nation was so corrupt that God ordered that they, along with the other nations in our chapter, were to be completely destroyed. Deuteronomy 20:16-18 But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, הַכְּנַעֲנִ֣י the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, 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 the Lord your God. God knew the dangers of the influence of these nations and wanted that influence completely wiped out. This seems harsh to us but we don’t know all of what was going on. Only God does and we also don’t think sin is that bad or dangerous. God of course knows better. This is why he created the church for us to meet together and encourage each other to not let sin corrupt us and turn us away from God who loves us, saves us, and makes us holy like himself. I’ll close with this great reminder. Hebrews 10:24-27, 35-36 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries … Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.