1 Chronicles 1:13-16

THE CITY ZIDON AND THE TEN RACES OF CANAAN (1 Chronicles 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 1 Chronicles 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 (1 Kings 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 (1 Chronicles 11:4).

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

Girgashite.—Perhaps of Gergesa (Matthew 8:28).

(15) Hivite.—On the slopes of Lebanon (Joshua 11:3), “under Hermon,” but also in Gibeon and Shechem (Joshua 9:7; Genesis 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 1 Chronicles 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 (1 Chronicles 1:8-10). The tribes of Egypt and Canaan are enumerated in 1 Chronicles 1:11-16.