1 Chronicles 1:13

THE CITY ZIDON AND THE TEN RACES OF CANAAN (1Ch_1:13-16).

(13) Canaan begat Zidon his firstborn.—Or, in modern phrase, Zidon is the oldest city of Canaan. It is usually mentioned along with Tyre, the ruling city in later times. Sennacherib speaks of the flight of Lulî, “king of Zidon,” from Tyre. Esarhaddon mentions Baal of Tyre as a tributary. Of the eleven “sons of Canaan all but three or four have been identified in the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria.

And Heth—that is, the Hittite race, called Heta by the Egyptians, and Hatti by the Assyrians. (See 1Ch_1:8, Note.) The Hittites were once the dominant race of Syria and Palestine. Carchemish, on the Euphrates, and Kadesh, as well as Hamath, appear to have been Hittite cities. Their kings had commercial relations with Solomon (1Ki_10:29). Inscriptions, in a kind of mixed hieroglyph, have been found at Hamath and Carchemish, but they still await decipherment.

(14) The Jebusite.—The men of Jebus, or Jerusalem (1Ch_11:4).

Amorite.—The hill-men of the trans-Jordan.

Girgashite.—Perhaps of Gergesa (Mat_8:28).

(15) Hivite.—On the slopes of Lebanon (Jos_11:3), “under Hermon,” but also in Gibeon and Shechem (Jos_9:7; Gen_34:2). Delitzsch suggests that the name is connected with Hamath (Assyrian, Hammath as Hawath).

Arkite, and the Sinite.—Tribes living to the west of northern Lebanon. A fragment of the annals of Tiglath-pileser mentions along with Simyra the towns of Arqâ and Sianu “on the sea-coast” (B C, 739). Jose-phus mentions a town Arka, which is otherwise known as the birthplace of the emperor Alexander Severus (Ruins: Tell’Araci).

(16) Arvadite.—Arvad, or Aradus, now Ruâd, an island off Phoenicia. Assurnâçirpal (B.C. 885) calls it “Arvada in the mid-sea.” Its king submitted to Sennacherib.

Zemarite.—The people of Simyra, on the coast of Phoenicia, south-east of Arvad. Simyra (Assyrian, Cimirra) was a fortified town commanding the road from the coast to the upper valley of the Orontes (Ruins: Sumra).

Hamathite.—The people of Hamath (Hamah) on the Orontes, a Hittite state which made alliance with David (circ. 1040 B.C. ).

On a review of 1Ch_1:8-16 we see that the “sons of Ham” include Ethiopia, Egypt, and the neighbouring shores of Arabia, and perhaps the founders of Babylon (1Ch_1:8-10). The tribes of Egypt and Canaan are enumerated in 1Ch_1:11-16.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:13 ancestor of the Hittites: Hebrew ancestor of Heth.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 13. Canaan begat Zidon] "Canaan begat Bothniam, his first-born, who built Sidon." - T.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. Canaan begat Zidon his firstborn] From the time of David downwards Tyre takes precedence of Zidon in any mention of the Phœnician cities in the O.T., but Zidon may still have been the older of the two cities, as indeed the Roman historian Justin (1Ch_18:3) asserts. So we find the Phœnicians in the earlier books of the O.T. called Zidonians, not Tyrians (e.g. Jdg_3:3; 1Ki_5:6).

Heth] i.e. the Hittites, who for centuries were the great power of Northern Syria, having their capital at Kadesh in the Orontes valley and a territory reaching from the Orontes to the Euphrates. Only an offshoot from them seems to have settled in Palestine.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Sidon

This is the name of a man (See: How to Translate Names)

Hittites ... Jebusites ... Amorites ... Girgashites ... Hivites ... Arkites ... Sinites ... Arvadites ... Zemarites ... Hamathites

names of people groups (See: How to Translate Names)

translationWords

Sidon

firstborn

Jebus

Amorite

Girgashites

Hivite

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

And Canaan begot, etc. They are eleven, and with Canaan they are twelve. This is what is written: “He set up the boundaries of the peoples.” He set up the boundaries of the peoples corresponding to the tribes of Israel, for they too are twelve; corresponding to the tribes of Israel, He set up the boundaries of the peoples, on the pattern of (Gen. 21:29): “... that you set up (הִצַּבְתָּ) by themselves.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.