Genesis 10:19
And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.
The verse traces the boundary of the Canaanites from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim as far as Lasha. It belongs to the table of the nations after the Flood, placing the Canaanites as descendants of Canaan within the Hamitic division of mankind from Noah's three sons. That record is true and trustworthy history, not myth or late tradition, and its certainty upholds confidence in the whole Bible. After the Flood mankind multiplied and forgot God, uniting under Nimrod in defiance to build Babel until God judged them by confounding their language, leaving only a handful of godly persons by the fourth century after the Flood and making necessary the separation of Abraham's faithful family to preserve true worship. The curse upon Canaan was not arbitrary but declared what Ham's weakness of character would bring upon his descendants, yet from that curse there has always been redemption in Christ Jesus, and their service meant tribute or temple labor and gives no refuge for buying and selling people as chattels.
Land and Lineage Defined
The border of the Canaanites ran from Sidon toward Gerar unto Gaza, then toward Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. The verse belongs to the table of nations and genealogy of Noah's sons, placing the Canaanites as descendants of Canaan within the Hamitic division of mankind descended from Noah's three sons after the Flood. It is part of the list in Genesis 10:6-20 that traces the ethnological branches of the Hamitic branch of Noah's family, with its family-group distinctions of Hamites, Shemites, and Japhethites, and its genealogies can be followed alongside other parts of the Bible and history to identify the origins of nations and the scattering of Noah's descendants throughout the earth. The Canaanites settled in Canaan, distinct from the Cushites and not Africans, and they are the peoples and lands later dispossessed by Israel or made tributary, with the Gibeonites assigned temple service.
The verse is part of the account of the gradual peopling of the earth from a small beginning at a common center near where the ark rested, as men multiplied and colonies pushed out to found cities, tribes, kingdoms and empires and spread throughout the earth. Strong intellectual men founded cities and nuclei for other companies till they built cities, tribes, kingdoms, and empires, and in this spreading the extent of Canaanite territory developed after the Flood. Ham's descendants pushed into Canaan, Arabia, Africa and Egypt. Nimrod, Noah's great-grandson, founded Babylon, Erech, Accad and Calneh and built Babylon as the center of the oldest world civilization known after the Flood, Mizraim founded Egypt, and a westward and southward company of great giants founded Hebron in Canaan seven years before a new colony passing by Hebron founded Zoan in Egypt.
Egypt's apparent lack of connection with eastern civilizations came because Mizraim's company may have been driven out by force and in enmity cast off, reversed, and perverted everything of the parent civilization, keeping only the same unsubdued carnal human nature, while the Canaanite settlement at Hebron predating Zoan is in harmony with this account. The Hamitic branch is identified with the black race and negroes who spread abroad to the south and inhabited Africa. Within the division by which all the different races sprang from Adam through Noah after the Flood left only Noah and his family alive, with the inhabitants of the world coming from Noah's three sons and from Noah himself and spreading out from the cradle of the race into different parts of the earth, Shem gave the Semitic families such as the Assyrians and Israelites, Ham gave the colored races, and Japheth gave the white races, with some holding that the Chinese come directly from Noah himself.
Early History Trusted
Genesis 10 is factual, reliable history rather than myth or late tradition. Its account belongs to the first ten chapters of Genesis whose historical character upholds confidence in the Bible as a whole, so that to reject their historicity undermines that confidence. The chapter preserves contemporary knowledge of peoples and rulers from the early history of nations.
Its historical accuracy is supported by ancient evidence and traditions. The identification of Amraphel king of Shinar with Hammurabi, whose translated law code resembles some laws of Moses and shows high civilization in Chaldea, confirms that early setting. A Hebrew-speaking population has been found in Babylonia in Abraham's lifetime under a dynasty at Ur that was Hebrew and South Arabian, exactly matching the division of Eber's two sons into Peleg the ancestor of the Hebrews and Joktan the ancestor of the tribes of South Arabia. This complete parallel proves the record keeps facts whose memory would long have passed away if compiled in Palestine at a late date. Within that verified record the territorial extent of the Canaanites is given, tracing their border from Sidon toward Gerar and Gaza, then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Lasha.
The genealogies of the chapter trace the origins of nations through the descendants of Noah's three sons and can be followed alongside other parts of the Bible and history to identify the origins of nations. The scattering of the people and the descendants of Noah after the Flood belongs within the history of God's dealings with the promised Seed.
The chapter is an example of a record that traces one line of events and then returns to trace another over a span of time. Its account of generations spans time, while the confusion of tongues occurred a little more than a hundred years after the Flood. This arrangement does not disrupt chronological order.
Divine Purpose and Moral Lessons
After the flood mankind multiplied on the earth yet refused to retain God in knowledge, forgot God and plunged into sin, uniting under Nimrod in defiance to build Babel. That building of Babel belonged to Satan's organized government, and for that rebellion God judged them by confounding their language. The apostasy so spread that by the fourth century after the flood only a handful of godly persons remained, making necessary the adoption and separation of Abraham's faithful family to preserve true piety and worship in the earth.
God overruled even that rebellious origin of nations, making it the origin of nations through which he would eventually gather a holy and righteous people to fill the earth. Hamitic civilization through Babylon molded the world by religion and education and influence for fifteen centuries or more and put forth a mighty endeavor to rule the world and failed. Then the children of Shem followed and were dominant for many centuries, and then the children of Japheth in the nations of Media and Persia were given the throne when Babylon fell.
God's curse upon Canaan was not arbitrary but the declaration of what would come upon Ham's descendants as the result of Ham's weakness of character. Ham's sin revealed low character transmitted to his children and made them the weakest branch of the family, yet from that curse there always has been and is redemption in Christ Jesus. The Canaanites lived in Canaan within the borders running from Sidon toward Gerar and Gaza, then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Lasha, and were later destroyed by Israel or made tributary, with the Gibeonites assigned temple service. Their service meant tribute or temple labor, not buying and selling people as chattels, so the context gives no refuge for slavery.