what were the sins of the canaanites

And yet, the Israelites encountered the descendants of the Nephilim, among the Canaanites, when they entered the promised land much later on. In fact, the Canaanite people were Semitic just like the Israelites. A contributing writer for Salem Media since 2016, Meg is now thrilled to be a part of the editorial team. In contrast, the Bible gives very little detail of Israels battles, and the killing of the people is stated merely as a fact (Num. 16:4-22). They were descendants of Ham, who was a son of Noah, whom Noah had cursed. "However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. 7 all state the Canaanites will be in the kingdom of Yahweh), so that they might escape this judgment shows the love and mercy of Yahweh. We have no right as sinners, who hurt or destroy others on a regular basis, to accuse Yahweh, a righteous God who has no sin and loves perfectly, that He is unjust, with the very concept and sense of justice He created us to have. 20). %PDF-1.4 % First, the movement of the Israelites into Canaan was the fruition of God's promise to Abram that He would give that land to his children (Gen. 12:7). 0000050996 00000 n The ancient Sifra commentary on Lev. In Numbers 13, when the spies report back of the strong people who have large fortified cities, it is the Canaanites whom they are referring to. A God of love and justice, they say, could never command genocide, and therefore he must not exist. Additional Sources:NIV Study Bible, Copyright 1985, 1995, 2002, 2008, 2011 by Zondervan.Beck, John A. We would expect these people to be imprisoned or punished for the security of our families. Albrecht Goetze, ed. Leviticus 18:6, (2) They were having sex with their mothers. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998. Yahweh also placed Abraham and his family in the land of Canaan in order to witness to the Canaanites, as Noah had previously. From this point forward they serve as the backdrop to the promise of Abraham. Sexual Life in Ancient Egypt. God chose a place hostile to the Lord to give to Abraham and His chosen people as an inheritance. End of story. . In other places in Scripture where people did what displeased the Lord, we read of that in the narrative. Leviticus 18:22, (10) They were giving their children to be murdered in sacrifice to Molech. That is important to notice: these people were not punished because their forefather had done something wrong, but because their behavior was just as wicked as his. Hawk, Daniel. 0000003109 00000 n Certainly, it is to juxtapose it with that which is expected of Israel, but its also to set the stage for the just judgment of God against their wickedness. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.", Joshua 17:16: "The people of Joseph said, The hill country is not enough for us. Not only did they declare these acts as righteous morality, but they also participated in these acts in the worship of their gods as a means of gaining the gods approval. 0000009533 00000 n A fitting illustration might be to say it could be compared to the Ally invasion of Nazi Germany (I am indebted to The Bible Project for this illustration). Yahweh did not just in a blind rage punish people when they first did something wicked. True In fact, he made it clear that Israel, too, would be judged and would lose the land if they committed the same sins (Deut. His violent death will eventually put an end to all violent deaths. This is the role they play throughout this part of the Old Testament narrative. Manniche, Lise. The Hebrew word means "to devote something to total destruction." Law and Lawgiver Non-Christians often point to the Old Testament's erem laws to reject Christianity altogether. Why Does God Compare Our Relationship with Him to That of a Bride and Groom? . Remember, if the gods did it, then certainly the people who worship them would do it. He will rule with truth and justice. Nissinen, Marti. See Deuteronomy 20:11 and Deuteronomy 20:15 on the offer of peace to be made to the nations living at a distance from the Canaanites. The handing over reinforces the command that the Israelites were to make no treaties, show no mercy, and not intermarry with the Canaanites. Even here in the story of the Canaanites, we can see Gods intention to bless the nations through the seed of Abraham. 2:25). From the very beginning, Yahweh made it clear that the Canaanites were distinct from all the other nations. The Basic Bible Atlas. 7:3-4; 9:4-5). Deuteronomy 7:1-2 - When . (1988). The takeaway point in all this below is that the God of the Bible was totally justified in giving His command to Israel to totally destroy the Canaanites. Leviticus 18:6 (2) They were having sex with their mothers. 0000002574 00000 n Temple prostitutes were male and female priests who had dedicated their bodies to the gods and were considered holy priests. The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. He also said, Praise be to the LORD, the God of Shem! Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan, p. 21112. It shows that Yahweh did spare Rahab for her faith, and thus this is His true character. 19:22). Get the answers your looking for and save with code SPRINGSTUDY15! 7:1-6 teaches us is how much Yahweh hates sin and thus so should we. During which time they only grew worse. The fact that Rahab was spared just as the spies and Joshua had promised serves two purposes. Now The Canaanites Had Sunk To Bestiality. Where most cultures dehumanize the people they are destroying and make them out to be monsters to justify their slaughter, the narrator does not. xb```"6vAd`B~'p14:)mPP,dRsV%n=?*4H[K)m;?RYttY7b}K&8j]OEUKe=2IM*]W. This implies that Yahweh waits until nations or people have become wicked enough before He judges them. They were to first offer peace, and if the nation refused, they could kill only the adult males, while women, children, animals, and spoils may be taken as plunder. The Canaanites were a Semitic-speaking cultural group that lived in Canaan (comprising Lebanon, southern Syria, Israel and Transjordan) beginning in the second millennium B.C.E. [14] John Day. In Joshua 6, the narrator presents a wicked city that was being destroyed. The reason for the offer of peace was that these nations living at a distance from the Canaanites were morally salvageable and they were accordingly shown mercy if they would agree to make peace with the Israelites. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969. Not only did they worship these gods, but they worshiped these gods with acts of sex in the temples and called it holy and righteous. Today the church is not called to execute justice on the wicked in the same way. They wanted land. Leviticus 18:21. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. The fact that Jesus Christ was willing to be exterminated (Matt. Proving He is the God who does more than we can ask for or imagine, and always makes a way. The commands about how Israel was to conduct themselves in war with the surrounding nations appear in two major passagesDeut. The Bible says Noah, was righteous and blameless, but Genesis 6:12 says "all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth." No one would want to live and raise their children in a culture like this. Jericho should have served as an example of Yahwehs mercy to the rest of the cities, but, unfortunately, it did not. 0000002013 00000 n xref The LORD had said to Abram, Go from your country, your people and your fathers household to the land I will show you.Genesis 12:1. He used another nation to do it just as He had used Israel to judge the Canaanites (2 Kgs. Wright says it well: On the contrary, the refusal of the exodus generation to go ahead and do it (in the great rebellion of Kadesh Barnea in Numbers 14), and the failureof the following generations to complete the task properly, are condemned as disobedience to Gods will (Ps. Everyone, including women and, in some cases, children, were involved in the following practices. The Lord mentioned 7 nations by name who inhabited the land of Canaan in the time of Abraham unto the time of Joshua. 7:4, 7-11; 9:4-6; 13:16; 29:16-29; Josh. They have been abusing them for days and there is no end in sight. Leviticus 18:6 (2) They were having sex with their mothers. Yahweh wanted the lives of His people and their worship to remain completely pure. All rights reserved. In Joshua 6:1 we read that they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.. But Jesus conquers through the cross. The Canaanites are identified in Genesis as descendants of Ham, son of Noah. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different. When one reads records of the other nations conquests, they are self-glorifying and graphic. [3] See El, Ashertu and the Storm-god, trans. . It is the land where the Canaanites dwell that God promises to give to Abraham. We Dont Hate Sin So We Dont Understand What Happened to the Canaanites: An Addendum to Divine Genocide Arguments, in Philosophia Christi 11:1 (Spring 2009). 0000001321 00000 n The completely negative connotations of "genocide" make it hard to look at the biblical events without a jaundiced eye. 18:3 specifically says the Egyptians and Canaanites had same sex marriage contracts. [10] Hoffner, Incest, Sodomy and Bestiality in the Ancient Near East, p. 82. Joshua in 3D: A Commentary on Biblical Conquest and Manifest Destiny. This is unlike any other records of battles from the nations of the ancient world. Inside his stomach was a fire, and children would be placed in his arms for burning. The northerners mostly settled on the edge of the coastal plain; in the south, settlement spread eastward to the upland areas. Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual God will always be purposeful in all He does and allows. This kind of ritual cleansing before battle is not seen in the surrounding cultures. 11:30-40; 2 Kgs. There, Israel had sinned against the covenant they made with Yahweh, when they worshipped the golden calves. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (around 2100 BC) came 600 years before Israel destroyed the Canaanite nation. Most readers can understand the men being killed, but Yahwehs command of the death of the women and children is much harder to understand. 1. BibleGateway+ answers your Bible questions. Who Were the Canaanites, and Why Did God Order Their Destruction. There is never a glorification of the battle, only a record of its accomplishment. To the south, Canaanite territory stretched to the Negeb desert area, with no clear boundaries. Apparently, they had copied his moral decadence. Are they in the category of evil raiders, or uneventful settlers? [8] Text in brackes is provided because it was missing in the original document. There were many things in the cities that were to be devoted to Yahweh (Josh. [7] Godfrey Rolles Driver and John C. Miles, The Assyrian Laws, p. 38. Three of the ten were dealt with before Israel entered the land of Canaan, leaving seven after they entered the land. He gave it into their hands. They describe their conquests in great detail and brag about how they subjugated and destroyed other people groups. . 0000002540 00000 n The Canaanites represented a continuation of the corrupt line that led to the Flood, so it makes perfect sense that God would want that very specific line destroyed, because permitting them to continue on would only result in the earth becoming utterly corrupt again. Ugaritic Baal myth describes Anat as taking joy in slaughtering her enemies, cutting off their heads and hands and wearing them as a necklace and belt. All rights reserved. . How Can I Recognize and Understand the Holy Spirit Better? If you built a house, you were to lay one of your sacrificed children as the cornerstone to the building to ensure that the gods blessed the house and family all of its days. I wasn't familiar with either, but I was curious, so I started doing a little research and it all ties into this thread pretty neatly. The Canaanites descend from the grandson of Noah, Canaan. This shows that Israel themselves were now a thing for destruction. But they would no longer be thus when their sin had been dealt with. War isnt part of the Garden of Eden. ***totally justified in giving His command to Israel to totally destroy the Canaanites.***. The women were killed because they participated in the violence, child sacrifices, bestiality, and sexual immorality just as much as the men did. Canaan, Canaanites. 3. The main focus of Deut. 30:33; 57:9). 0000002826 00000 n These people were so evil that Yahweh commanded their extermination specifically in the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua. 33:6; Ezk. Here is the list of the sins of the Canaanites: (1) They were having sex with their close family members. Yet the majority of Canaanites, in their hardness of hearts, refused to receive His mercy and so fell under his judgment, as had the 3,000 Israelites who were executed in Ex. 2; Jam. so eager for sin that you have not even demanded payment. 9; Eph. Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because they had become so evil that even the other Canaanites were complaining about how evil they were (Gen. 18:20). 0 Through Canaan, we are reminded of the danger of having idols and the importance of keeping God genuinely first and foremost in our lives. Thats the point. Josh 7:11 shows the seriousness of the situation. SourcesElwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. Her liver swelled with laughter, her heart was full of joy, the liver of Anath (was full of) exultation. These initiates from the midst of a heathen cult. The Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, Hivites, Perizzites, and Girgashites. . Genesis 6:4. Shortly after the flood, Noah cursed his grandson, Canaan (it's a long story), the ancestor of the Canaanites. 7:1-4 does not seem to be focused on the sole extermination of the Canaanites but on the theological principle of separation from the Canaanites and protection of the Israelites from their influence. 6:10-12). . From my memory, I think the following reasons can be gleaned from scripture: (1) to test his people's love for Him via testing their trust and obedience to him and (2) to glorify His name such that the other nations would fear the God of Israel. However, Israel failed to do this and so became like all the other nations and was judged by Yahweh for their sins. More insights from your Bible study - Get Started with Logos Bible Software for Free! Why did God command the Israelites to completely destroy the Midianites in Numbers 31:17? Always active in her community and the local church, Meg also leads Bible study and serves as a leader for teen girls. 0000000696 00000 n He is replacing all sin and unbelief with passionate worship of Jesus. were already out of Egypt. 1989. Some statements in the Babylonian magical text (pre-seventh-century BC) say: There was also a form of homosexuality that was far more violent and subjugating than what we know today. Canaan is here singled out from Hams descendants as the object of Noahs curse, NIV Study Bible explains, Israel would experience firsthand the depth of Canaanite sin and the harshness of Gods judgment on it.. The righteousness of Yahweh and His covenant with the family of Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3; 15) is what led to Tamar leaving her Canaanite culture and joining the family and covenant of Abraham (Gen. 38). The names Canaan and Canaanite occur in cuneiform, Egyptian, and Phoenician writings from about the 15th century bce as well as in the Old Testament. He forces the reader to deal with the tension between a wicked city that must be destroyed in obedience to Yahwehs commands and a city of humans, the children of God, some who are willing to come to Yahweh in faith. Revised Standard Version (RSV). all humans are born guilty and corrupt, Kyle Dillon wrote for TGC, This was especially true of the Canaanite societies steeped in abominable practices like child sacrifice and cult prostitution. The Canaanite society serves as a sad reminder of the serious of sin, and the glorious truth we live in to day through the New Covenant, to have the opportunity to turn and repent, confess and be forgiven for wayward sinfulness. 18:7-8). She is also the author of Friends with Everyone, Friendship within the Love of Christ,Surface, Unlocking the Gift of Sensitivity,andGlory Up, The Everyday Pursuit of Praise,andHome, Finding Our Identity in Christ.She earned a Marketing/PR degree from Ashland University, but stepped out of the business world to stay home and raise her two daughters which led her to pursue her writing passion. 13:34-35). Joshua decided that showing mercy and honoring oaths takes priority over the Mosaic Law to exterminate everything. The Canaanite people worshipped many gods. End quote. Consider the bloodlust and violence of the Canaanite deity Anath, the patroness of both war and sex. Yes, this means that conquest of evil is necessary. Decade after decade, He will allow the sins of Israel to go unpunished. 0000001112 00000 n In the second, the law states that Israel was to attack other nations outside the land of Canaan only if they were attacked first. The destruction of the Canaanites is a difficult story within Scripture. It includes the sexual promiscuity and perversion particularly associated with fertility cults as well as the callousness of child sacrifice. The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent The ritual describes the woman not only doing grotesque things with the animal but enjoying it. The strategic location where the Canaanites were settled carries. This idea continues in the book of Judges with the many different foreign nations, including the Canaanites, that Yahweh allowed to oppress Israel for their sins of idolatry and social injustice. Suddenly a plane from a neighboring country is seen over the horizon. First it must be understood that the extermination of the Canaanites had nothing to do with race, religion, or land. 1 Answer. However, in Canaanite culture these sins were pretty much universally practiced and accepted because this is what their gods were like. Yet all the Canaanites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-shean and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezreel.. This is also the mission of God through Jesus Christ. Genesis 15:18-21: "On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.", Genesis 9:25-27: "He said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. He also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3114473/jewish/Memoirs-of-Og-the-Not-So-Gentle-Giant.htm. 16:3; 21:6; 23:10; 2 Chr. (Rom. As a just and righteous God, Yahweh cannot tolerate evil and sin. Sometimes Scripture will use a dominant tribe's name to include several tribes of the same category. The women would often fight in battles and participate with the men in the cutting off of their enemies heads and hands. The destruction of the children is much harder to understand. Yahweh was willing to show mercy to the Canaanites in the same way He had with Israel previously. In Gen. 15:16, Yahweh stated that Abrahams descendants could not take the land of Canaan because the Canaanites were not yet evil enough to be destroyed. Just as Jesus fights for the people of God and does battle with the demonic forces (Matt. 3:1-11; Rev. The Canaanites Were Not Salvageable --- They Had Sunk To The Very Bottom On The Immorality Scale: {C} Murdered Their Own Children {Molech}. Yahweh was extremely patient, waiting for hundreds of years for them to reach a certain point of immorality before He judged them, for Yahweh is slow to anger (Ex. [2] For a discussion of how the Roman Empire by the Second Testament was just as bad as the Canaanites, see Sarah Ruden, Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time, 2010. Enter code SPRINGSTUDY15 to save 15% for life!. [9] Mark S. Smith, trans., in Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, ed. 5:13-15; 28:19; Acts 1:8). Yahweh made it clear that Israel was not allowed to attack any of the other nations unless the other nation attacked first (Deut. 106:24-35). The Amorites and other Canaanites were exceedingly wicked (for a list of some of their sins, see Leviticus 18 ). Though on the surface Yahwehs command to exterminate the Canaanites may leave us emotionally uncomfortable, we must realize that we really do want a God who hates sin and punishes evil justly. __Deuteronomy 20:16-18. . Translated by Kirsi Stjerna. Sometimes the Amorites were named in the same way. What Every Christian Should Know about the Protestant Reformation. The Sin of Achan. So how do we make sense of this story? We already know that certain people are more genetically predisposed to alcoholism and other addictive tendencies; scientists are even trying to find a gay gene. Ultimately, this question can be answered only when one comes to understand that Yahweh is good and that a God who is willing to die for useven for the Canaanitesis a God who can be trusted with where babies and children go when they die. Yahweh gave Israel the land of Canaan as a reward for their obedience to Him but not because He was playing favorites. We might not agree with His form of justice, but our very sense of justice on which we base our accusations of Him comes from Him as our Creator. 7:13) and to destroy all the idols (Deut. 19:23-25; Zech. I dont think there are any Canaanites today. startxref The Official Catholic Scripture Study International Bible, Largeprint, Bonded Leather, Black - Imperfectly Imprinted Bibles, RSV Didache Bible with Commentaries Based on the RC Cathechism, Ignatius Catholic Bible (RSV): Compact Edition - Imitation leather, Burgundy with Zipper. Also, this language of killing everyone may have been hyperbolic and reserved for the main political and military cities in which, by nature, all the women and children there would be more corrupt simply because of where they lived. Ezra 9:1-4 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful. Join her on the journey as she launches her new siteJoy Overflowing, or join her longstanding community atSunny&80. The point of this discussion is not to provide a complete and satisfactory answer, for there is so much we do not understand about this time period, and it is genuinely an emotionally difficult concept to reconcile. Not only was bestiality practiced and dreams about it seen as good omens, but it was also practiced as a form of worship. 0000006193 00000 n Its supposed to be unsettling. Where Do We See the Canaanites in the Bible? Because we have the Holy Spirit, we have been called to go into the world and be a righteous light among the nations, making disciples of all people (Matt. 7:10-15), Yahweh made it clear that all of Israel had sinned, and He punished Israel by allowing them to be defeated by the Canaanites in the same way they were now defeating the Canaanites. 17:7-23; 24:20-25:30). 1, p. 406). Simon B. Parker, p. 148. Copyright 2020. 0000001192 00000 n God will get his people to the promise land. The way that one proved his worth to lead others in politics or in the military was through dominating rape. They were a people who worshipped many gods and had many detestable practices. New York: Routledge, 1994. 2. And yet, God gave them a 400 year reprieve while Israel was in Egypt. 32:25-29 because they refused to accept the mercy of Yahweh. The basic principles of divine intervention in conflict situations were stated by G.E. It is God who is given credit for the fall of Jericho. Israel was called to be a distinct and holy nation with their own government and to remain separate from the rest of the nations. The reality is that this topic is perhaps one of the most difficult issues in the Bible to understand, justify, and digest. A. Kirk Grayson and Donald Redford, Papyrus and Tablet, p. 152:149. Just as fantasies of incest were seen as good omens, so was homosexuality. We are to live such righteous lives through the power of the Holy Spirit that those around us, like those living around Israel, will want to leave behind their old ways and worldviews and join the fellowship of Christians. Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and Sacrificial Monuments in their Mediterranean Context. of If He had not created us with His sense of justice, then we would not have a sense that what He was doing was unjust. Israel was never commanded in the Bible to kill the Canaanites merely to take control of the land. So although the Hivites are not named at Gen. 15:19-21, they are part of the equation. Canaan, the progenitor of the Canaanites, first appears in the story of Noah as one who did not cover their fathers shame. Day, John. And just as the Israelites were to deal with their own sin in a just way, so is the Church. To the north, Canaan extended to Latakia, just south of Ugarit, and inland to Hamath. 10 Things You Need to Know about the Number 666, 10 Books of the Bible You Should Read Again and Again, 10 Most Encouraging Bible Verses That Will Uplift Your Heart and Soul, 5 Things That Hurt Relationships with Grandkids, 30 Morning Prayers to Start Each Day with God, How to Have Joy in Your Golden Years Despite These 10 Life Losses, 4 Things You Should Know about Big George Foreman, 8 Ways You Are Belittling Your Husband and What God Says about It, Maybe Money Can Buy Happiness, but Not Joy. It seems reasonable that if all flesh was corrupt, except for Noah, then someone else on the ark must have been the source for the post-Flood appearance of the Nephilim. Leviticus 18:7, (3) They were having sex with their sisters. exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. Nor did Yahweh command Israel to exterminate everyone who did not convert to Judaism. Rather, Yahweh made it clear that the Canaanite people were being destroyed for their sin. Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning. Later, Mot, the god of the grave, attacked Baal in order to gain power.

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