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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume II

Book Fifteen — the multiplication of mankind after the flood

{And Chanaan begot Sidon his firstborn, the Hethite, the Jebusite, the Amorrhite, the Gergesite, the Hevite, the Aracite, the Sinite, the Aradian, the Samarite, and the Amathite: and by these were the peoples of the Canaanites disseminated.}

LatineEnglish

{And Chanaan begot Sidon his firstborn, the Hethite, the Jebusite, the Amorrhite, the Gergesite, the Hevite, the Aracite, the Sinite, the Aradian, the Samarite, and the Amathite: and by these were the peoples of the Canaanites disseminated.}1

Chanaan autem genuit Sidonem primogenitum suum, Hetheum, Iebuseum, Amorrheum, Gergesaeum, Heuaeum, Araceum, Sinaeum, Aradium, Samareum, et Amatheum: per hos disseminati sunt populi Chananaeorum.

HOS undecim populos ex Chanaan stirpe generatos Iosephus et B. Hieronymus carptim exponunt. Quae igitur illi attigerunt, simul et quae ab aliis doctis viris annotata sunt, et quae lectorem nosse ex usu fuerit, nos hoc loco perstringemus. Primi inter posteros Chanaan nominantur Sidonii a Sidone orti, qui primogenitus dicitur fuisse ipsius Chanaan. Sidonis autem regio pertinuit ad tribum Aser et limitabat terram promissionis promontorio sui littoris quod Numerorum 34 nominatur Hor, quod nomen ibi Latinus interpres vertit montem altissimum. Sidonem autem cognomento Magnam appellat scriptura Iosue 11 et 19, non quidem comparatione alterius minoris, qualis nusquam fuit, sed ob veterem eius urbis celebritatem et gloriam: usque enim eo claruit, ut, quemadmodum Strabo tradit lib. 16, dubio olim certamine decertaverit cum Tyro de primatu. Tyri autem iactantiam de sua vetustate significat Isaias cap. 23, eamque Plinius vetustissimarum urbium parentem dixit. Sed quia Isaias Tyrum nominavit filiam Sidonis, concedi palmam antiquitatis Sidoni necesse est. Quin etiam universa illa Phoenicum ora Sidoniorum olim nomine, non Tyriorum, celebris erat: quam etiam ob causam Homerus, qui saepe Sidonem laudat, Tyri ne meminit quidem.
These eleven peoples begotten of the stock of Chanaan, Josephus and Blessed Jerome expound piecemeal. What, therefore, they have touched on, together with what has been noted by other learned men, and what it will be useful for the reader to know, we shall run over briefly in this place. First among the descendants of Chanaan are named the Sidonians, sprung from Sidon, who is said to have been the firstborn of Chanaan himself. The region of Sidon belonged to the tribe of Aser and bounded the land of promise by the promontory of its shore which in Numbers 34 is named Hor, which name the Latin translator there renders ‘the highest mountain.’ Sidon Scripture calls by the surname ‘the Great’ in Joshua 11 and 19 — not, indeed, by comparison with another lesser, such as never was, but on account of the ancient renown and glory of that city: for it shone so far that, as Strabo hands down in book 16, it once contended with Tyre, in doubtful struggle, for the primacy. Now the boasting of Tyre about its antiquity Isaiah signifies in chapter 23, and Pliny called it the parent of the most ancient cities. But because Isaiah named Tyre the daughter of Sidon, the palm of antiquity must be conceded to Sidon. Nay, that whole coast of the Phoenicians was once renowned under the name of the Sidonians, not of the Tyrians: for which cause also Homer, who often praises Sidon, does not even make mention of Tyre.2
ET quanquam Iustinus libro 18 scribat Sidonem appellatam esse a piscibus, quorum illic maxima soleret esse copia (siquidem Phoenices piscatorem appellant Saidi, hodieque urbs ipsa Said nominatur a vulgo): antiquior tamen et quidem prima eius appellationis origo repetenda est a Sidone primogenito ipsius Chanaan, idque suo ipsa urbs nomine satis prodit. Quod autem dici solet Sidonem pertinuisse ad fortem Aseritarum, non est sic intelligendum ut putetur Sidonem fuisse sub legibus et imperio Hebraeorum, quippe quae liberum semper principatum retinuit, semperque infesta et molesta Hebraeis fuerit, ut ex vaticiniis Ezechielis et Isaiae adversus ipsam facile est intelligere. Vocabulo igitur Sidonis et Tyri interpretari oportet oram Tyro et Sidoni obiacentem, ad quam terminabantur fines terrae Hebraeorum. Verum de Sidone urbe et gente Sidoniorum tam multa in sacris et profanis literis prodita sunt, ut novam et singularem aliquam hoc loco interpretis diligentiam minime requirant. Pergamus igitur ad alios Chanaan posteros, et de his eodem ordine dicamus quo hic commemorantur a Mose.
And although Justin in book 18 writes that Sidon was named from fish, of which there used to be the greatest abundance there (since the Phoenicians call a fisherman ‘Saidi,’ and to this day the city itself is called ‘Said’ by the common people): nevertheless the older, and indeed the first, origin of its name is to be sought from Sidon the firstborn of Chanaan himself, and this the city sufficiently betrays by its own name. As for what is usually said, that Sidon belonged to the lot of the Aserites, it is not to be so understood as that Sidon should be thought to have been under the laws and rule of the Hebrews — since it always retained a free sovereignty, and was always hostile and troublesome to the Hebrews, as is easy to understand from the prophecies of Ezekiel and Isaiah against it. By the word ‘Sidon’ and ‘Tyre,’ therefore, one ought to interpret the coast lying opposite Tyre and Sidon, at which the bounds of the land of the Hebrews ended. But about the city of Sidon and the nation of the Sidonians so many things have been handed down in sacred and profane letters that they require no new and special diligence of the interpreter in this place. Let us proceed, then, to the other descendants of Chanaan, and speak of them in the same order in which they are here recorded by Moses.3
HETHAEI secundo loco nominantur. Hi loca ea incolebant quae circa Bersabeam sunt, quaeque sursum porriguntur et late circa Hebronem iacent: hoc enim demonstrat historia emptae speluncae duplicis ab Abraham, Genes. 23, et Rebeccae ad maritum verba, quibus mittendi in Mesopotamiam Iacob rationem praetendit quod nollet de filiabus Hethaeorum uxorem dari Iacob. Fuisse autem Hethaeos gigantea mole ac robore et bellicae fortitudinis fama celebres, intelligere licet ex trepidatione Syrorum suspicantium Hethaeos a rege Israel adversus se fuisse conductos, ut scriptum est libro 4 Regum capite 7. Quoniam igitur ea gens et propter fortitudinem et propter situm locorum maxime formidabilis atque inexpugnabilis videretur, ideo de ea gente nominatim expugnanda et sub ditionem Hebraeorum subiicienda singularem Deus mentionem fecit, ut legitur initio libri Iosue. Namque de Hethaeis superandis magis quam de aliis gentibus eius regionis diffidere poterant Hebraei, quod in ea gente Enacinos gigantea mole homines conspexerant speculatores Mosis, eorumque fama tanto pavore universum populum perculerant, ut ad repetendam Aegyptum propemodum adegerint.
The Hethites are named in the second place. These inhabited the places which are around Bersabee, and which stretch upward and lie widely around Hebron: for this the history of the double cave bought by Abraham, Genesis 23, demonstrates, and the words of Rebecca to her husband, by which she alleged the reason for sending Jacob into Mesopotamia, that she was unwilling that a wife be given to Jacob from the daughters of the Hethites. That the Hethites were renowned for giant bulk and strength and for the fame of warlike valor may be understood from the alarm of the Syrians, suspecting that the Hethites had been hired by the king of Israel against them, as is written in the fourth book of Kings, chapter 7. Since, therefore, that nation seemed most formidable and impregnable both for its valor and for the situation of its places, God made special mention of that nation as to be conquered by name and brought under the dominion of the Hebrews, as is read at the beginning of the book of Joshua. For the Hebrews could despair of overcoming the Hethites more than the other nations of that region, because in that nation the spies of Moses had beheld the Anakim, men of giant bulk, and had struck the whole people with such great fear by their report that they almost drove them to seek Egypt again.4
IEBUSAEI tenuerunt urbem Hierusalem ab ipsis nominatam Iebus; tenuerunt, inquam, ad principatum usque Davidis: qui, ut est in secundo libro Regum cap. 5, Iebusaeis inde eiectis, ibi civitatem aedificavit, quam etiam regni sui sedem statuit. Fuisse quoque Iebusaeos robustos et bellicosos ex iis coniecturam facere licet quae narrantur Numerorum 13 et 2 Regum cap. 5; nec potuisse Iebusaeos plane debellari ac deleri ab Hebraeis ex libro Iosue cap. 15 et Iudicum 1 manifestum fit; denique mansisse usque ad imperium Salomonis, qui eos tributarios fecit, testatur liber secundus Paralipomenon cap. 8.
The Jebusites held the city Jerusalem, named from themselves Jebus; they held it, I say, down to the sovereignty of David, who, as is in the second book of Kings, chapter 5, having cast the Jebusites out thence, built there the city, which he also established as the seat of his kingdom. That the Jebusites too were robust and warlike one may conjecture from those things related in Numbers 13 and 2 Kings, chapter 5; and that the Jebusites could not be fully subdued and destroyed by the Hebrews is manifest from the book of Joshua, chapter 15, and Judges 1; finally, that they remained down to the reign of Solomon, who made them tributaries, the second book of Paralipomenon, chapter 8, testifies.5
AMORRHAEI habitabant trans Iordanem, quorum rex fuit Og debellatus a Mose, eorumque terra assignata est duabus tribubus Gad et Ruben ac dimidiae tribui Manassis. Liber Numerorum capite vigesimo primo indicat Amorrhaeos torrente Arnon a Moabitis fuisse…
The Amorrhites dwelt across the Jordan, whose king was Og, conquered by Moses, and their land was assigned to the two tribes of Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh. The book of Numbers, chapter twenty-one, indicates that the Amorrhites were separated from the Moabites by the torrent Arnon…6
…disterminatos. Amorrhaei autem disperisim et confuse universam Chananaeam habitasse videntur: nam cum ea natio primo regnum Seon et Og occupasset, mox numerosissima prole aucta, colonias multas emisit in diversas Chananaeae partes. Aliqui enim circa Antilibanum consederunt, Deuteron. 1. Alii non procul Cades Barne et Amalecitis, Gen. 14. Alii denique in Iudaeae montanis, ut ex relatione speculatorum Mosis cognoscere licet. Non igitur mirum si Amorrhaeorum appellatio ad quosvis Chananaeae regionis incolas nonnunquam accommodatur. Certe unius gentis Amorrhaeorum vocabulo universas illas gentes quae terram Iudaeis a Deo promissam tenebant significatas esse legimus Genesis 15 illis verbis: „Nondum enim completae sunt iniquitates Amorrhaeorum.“
…separated. The Amorrhites, moreover, seem to have inhabited the whole of Chanaan in scattered and confused fashion: for when that nation had first occupied the kingdom of Seon and Og, soon, increased with a most numerous offspring, it sent out many colonies into the various parts of Chanaan. Some, indeed, settled around Antilibanus, Deuteronomy 1. Others not far from Cades Barne and the Amalekites, Genesis 14. Others, finally, in the mountains of Judaea, as may be learned from the report of the spies of Moses. It is no wonder, therefore, if the appellation of the Amorrhites is sometimes applied to any inhabitants whatever of the region of Chanaan. Certainly we read that by the name of the one nation of the Amorrhites all those nations which held the land promised to the Jews by God are signified, in Genesis 15, in those words: „For the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not yet complete.“7
FUISSE porro ipsos Amorrhaeos prae ceteris impios, sceleratos, inhumanos atque crudeles, licet coniicere ex verbis Ezechielis prophetae cap. 16, quibus ille, ad exaggerandam gentis Iudaeorum improbitatem atque impietatem, dixit: „Pater tuus Amorrhaeus, et mater tua Chetaea,“ quemadmodum apud Virgilium Dido dixit Aeneae: „Non tibi Diva parens, generis nec Dardanus auctor, perfide; sed duris genuit te cautibus horrens Caucasus, Hyrcanaeque admorunt ubera tigres.“ Enormem autem Amorrhaeorum proceritatem et robur corporis Amos propheta capite secundo, licet hyperbolica utens locutione, satis declaravit tamen illis verbis: „Ego exterminavi Amorrhaeum, cuius altitudo, cedrorum altitudo eius, et fortis ipse quasi quercus.“
That the Amorrhites themselves were, beyond the rest, impious, wicked, inhuman, and cruel may be conjectured from the words of the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 16, by which he, to magnify the wickedness and impiety of the Jewish nation, said: „Thy father was an Amorrhite, and thy mother a Hethite,“ just as in Virgil Dido said to Aeneas: „No goddess was thy parent, nor was Dardanus the founder of thy race, false one; but bristling Caucasus begot thee on its hard crags, and Hyrcanian tigresses gave thee their teats.“ And the enormous stature and bodily strength of the Amorrhites the prophet Amos, in chapter two, though using a hyperbolic mode of speech, sufficiently declared in those words: „I destroyed the Amorrhite, whose height was the height of cedars, and he himself strong as an oak.“8
HEUAEI ubi habitaverint significat liber Iosue capite undecimo, dicens Heuaeum habitasse ad radices Hermon in Maspha; et in libro Iudicum cap. 3 scriptum est habitasse Heuaeum in monte Libano de monte Baalhermon usque ad introitum Emath. Idem autem mons est Hermon et Baalhermon, qui etiam aliis nominibus appellatur Samir et Sarcon et Siron: est autem pars Libani versus Orientem supra Iordanis fontes, atque ad Trachonitidem pertinens. Alter erat minor Hermon non procul a monte Gelboe. Maspha vero quae hic nominatur non est locus ad quem Israelitae convenire saepe solebant comitiorum faciendorum causa, non procul ab Rama positus, quae stadiis duntaxat quadraginta ab Hierusalem aberat, ut tradidit Iosephus libro octavo Antiquitatum: haec autem Maspha ad Libanum pertinebat, ut diximus.
Where the Hevites dwelt the book of Joshua signifies in chapter eleven, saying that the Hevite dwelt at the roots of Hermon in Maspha; and in the book of Judges, chapter 3, it is written that the Hevite dwelt on Mount Lebanon from Mount Baalhermon as far as the entrance of Emath. Now the same mountain is Hermon and Baalhermon, which is also called by other names Samir and Sarcon and Siron: it is, moreover, a part of Lebanon toward the East above the sources of the Jordan, and reaching to Trachonitis. There was another, lesser Hermon, not far from Mount Gelboe. But the Maspha which is here named is not the place to which the Israelites often used to assemble for the holding of assemblies, situated not far from Rama, which was only forty stadia distant from Jerusalem, as Josephus handed down in the eighth book of the Antiquities: but this Maspha belonged to Lebanon, as we said.9
PUTANT nonnulli Heuaeos fuisse nominatos Rephaim, eoque nomine signatos esse in libro Geneseos sub finem 15 capitis, ubi, recensendo gentes Chananaeas exterminandas a Deo et quarum terra Hebraeis assignanda erat, reticentur Heuaei, qui tamen fere alias in catalogo earum gentium commemorari solent; nominantur autem Rephaim, qui nusquam alibi inter eas gentes numerari solent: ut proclive creditu sit Rephaim eo loco positos esse pro Heuaeis, nam…
Some think the Hevites were named Rephaim, and were marked by that name in the book of Genesis near the end of the fifteenth chapter, where, in reviewing the Canaanite nations to be exterminated by God and whose land was to be assigned to the Hebrews, the Hevites are passed over in silence — who yet are generally elsewhere wont to be mentioned in the catalogue of those nations; but the Rephaim are named, who nowhere else are wont to be counted among those nations: so that it is easy to believe that the Rephaim were there set down in place of the Hevites, for…10
…Rabbi Nehemannus putat Heuaeos dictos esse a serpentibus qui in terrae cavernis habitant, et iccirco cognominatos Rephaim, quasi dicas inferos et sub terra agentes, namque ea significatione id verbi usurpasse videtur Isaias capite 26, sicut etiam Homerus suos Cyclopas finxit in specubus et cavernis montium delituisse. Alii tamen vocem Rephaim ad gigantes accommodant, sic appellatos quod prae formidine viribus destituantur et cadant quotquot illos aspiciunt. Qua de re multa disputavimus libro primo huius secundi tomi, qui numero et ordine est octavus, in Disputatione quam tractavimus de Gigantibus. Tostatus tamen super caput illud 15 Geneseos contendit eo loco eandem gentem duobus vocabulis fuisse denotatam, prius quidem nomine Amorrhaeorum, posterius autem nomine Rephaim, quod reges et gentes Amorrhaeorum gigantea fuisse corporis proceritate ac fortitudine in secundo et tertio cap. Deuteronomii testatum sit. Ac licet Heuaeos fuisse expulsos a Caphtorim, quos Latinus interpres nominat Cappadoces, doceat liber Deuteronomii cap. secundo, reliquias tamen eius gentis mansisse usque ad tempora Iosue, quin etiam usque ad principatum Salomonis perspicuum est ex libro Iosue cap. 13 et libro 2 Paralipomenon cap. 8. De Gergesaeo autem nihil singulare ac proprium habeo dicere.
…Rabbi Nehemann thinks the Hevites were so called from serpents that dwell in the caverns of the earth, and on that account surnamed Rephaim, as if you should say ‘those of the underworld’ and ‘those acting beneath the earth,’ for Isaiah in chapter 26 seems to have used the word in that sense, just as Homer also imagined his Cyclopes to lurk in the dens and caverns of the mountains. Others, however, apply the word Rephaim to giants, so called because, through dread, all who behold them are deprived of strength and fall. On which matter we have disputed much in the first book of this second volume — which in number and order is the eighth — in the Disputation we treated concerning the Giants. Tostatus, however, on that fifteenth chapter of Genesis contends that in that place the same nation was denoted by two words: first indeed by the name of the Amorrhites, but afterward by the name Rephaim, because it is attested in the second and third chapters of Deuteronomy that the kings and nations of the Amorrhites were of giant bodily stature and strength. And although the book of Deuteronomy, chapter two, teaches that the Hevites were expelled by the Caphtorim, whom the Latin translator names Cappadocians, yet that the remnants of that nation remained down to the times of Joshua, and even down to the sovereignty of Solomon, is clear from the book of Joshua, chapter 13, and the second book of Paralipomenon, chapter 8. Of the Gergesite, however, I have nothing special and proper to say.11
ARACAEUS, inquit Hieronymus, Arcas condidit, oppidum contra Tripolim in radicibus Libani situm: a quo non procul alia civitas fuit nomine Sin, quae postea, vario eventu subversa bellorum, nomen tantum loco pristinum reservavit. Aradii sunt qui Aradum insulam possederunt, angusto freto a Phoenices littore separatam. Meminit Aradii Ezechiel in deploratione Tyri, dicens capite vigesimo septimo: „Habitatores Sidonis et Aradii fuerunt remiges tui.“ Eius quoque mentionem facit Plinius libro quinto cap. 20, sed praecipue Strabo libro decimo sexto ad hunc modum scribens: „In fronte rugosa cuiusdam et importuosa ora Aradus iacet, inter eius portum scilicet atque Marathum, distans a terra stadiis viginti. Ea est petra quaedam a mari circumfusa, septem fere stadiorum ambitu, habitationibus plena, tanta hominum multitudine ut adhuc domus multis tabulatis sublimes inhabitent, opus quorundam, ut ferunt, ex Sidone profugorum.“
The Aracite, says Jerome, founded Arce, a town situated over against Tripolis at the roots of Lebanon: not far from which there was another city by the name of Sin, which afterward, overthrown by the various chance of wars, kept for the place only its former name. The Aradians are those who possessed the island Aradus, separated from the Phoenician shore by a narrow strait. Ezekiel makes mention of the Aradian in the lament over Tyre, saying in the twenty-seventh chapter: „The inhabitants of Sidon and the Aradians were thy rowers.“ Pliny too makes mention of it in the fifth book, chapter 20, but especially Strabo, in the sixteenth book, writing thus: „On the rugged front of a certain harborless coast lies Aradus, namely between its harbor and Marathus, distant from the land twenty stadia. It is a certain rock surrounded by the sea, about seven stadia in circuit, full of dwellings, with so great a multitude of men that they inhabit houses lofty with many stories — the work, as they say, of certain fugitives from Sidon.“12
SAMARAEI, quibus Edessa, auctore Hieronymo, nobilis fuit Syriae Caeles civitas: nonnulli coniectant dedisse nomen urbi quae erat in tribu Beniamin, ut legitur in libro Iosue cap. 18; ea vero urbs vel nomen dedit monti Samaraim, cuius mentio fit in secundo libro Paralipomenon cap. 13, quem Latinus interpres vocat Semeron, vel ab eo monte nomen ipsa urbs accepit. Sinaeus videtur incola fuisse deserti Sinai, vel ei monti vicina tenuisse loca. Ab his Sinaeis diversi admodum fuere Cynaei, genus ducentes ex Hobab filio Raguelis, qui Mosi socer fuit, et is peregrinationis Iudaeorum in deserto non solum comes sed etiam quasi rector fuit. Huius posteri intra possessionem terrae Chanaan admissi a Iudaeis, partim Nephtalimitis, partim etiam cum Amalecitis mixti habitarunt, ut ex libro Numerorum cap…
The Samarites, whose noble city of Coele-Syria, according to Jerome, was Edessa: some conjecture that they gave the name to the city which was in the tribe of Benjamin, as is read in the book of Joshua, chapter 18; and that city either gave its name to the mountain Samaraim, of which mention is made in the second book of Paralipomenon, chapter 13, which the Latin translator calls Semeron, or the city itself received its name from that mountain. The Sinite seems to have been an inhabitant of the desert of Sinai, or to have held the places neighboring that mountain. From these Sinites the Cinaeans were quite different, deriving their stock from Hobab the son of Raguel, who was the father-in-law of Moses, and who was not only the companion but, as it were, the guide of the Jews' pilgrimage in the desert. His descendants, admitted by the Jews within the possession of the land of Chanaan, dwelt partly among the Nephthalites, partly also mixed with the Amalekites, as from the book of Numbers, chapter…13
…cap. 11, ex libro Iudicum cap. primo et quarto, et ex libro primo Regum cap. decimo quinto, perspicue cognoscet lector. Quemadmodum autem illos Sinaeos exciderunt atque deleverunt Hebraei, ita hos Cynaeos destructum iri ab Assyriis in libro Numerorum cap. 24 praedixit Balaam. Hamathaei nomen dederunt civitati et regioni Hamath seu Hemath, quae nonnunquam cum aspiratione scribitur Hemath, frequentius tamen sine aspiratione Emath.
…chapter 11, from the book of Judges, chapters one and four, and from the first book of Kings, chapter fifteen, the reader will clearly learn. But just as the Hebrews cut off and destroyed those Sinites, so that these Cinaeans would be destroyed by the Assyrians Balaam foretold in the book of Numbers, chapter 24. The Amathites gave their name to the city and region Hamath or Hemath, which is sometimes written with aspiration ‘Hemath,’ but more frequently without aspiration ‘Emath.’14

Translator’s notes

  1. Gen 10:15–18 (verse lemma). ↩
  2. §112. Gen 10:15–18: Chanaan's eleven peoples (expounded by Josephus and Jerome). First the Sidonians (from Sidon, Chanaan's firstborn), in the tribe of Aser, bounding the land at Mt. Hor (Num 34). ‘Sidon the Great’ (Josh 11, 19) — for its ancient glory, contending with Tyre for primacy (Strabo bk. 16); Tyre boasted of its age (Isa 23; Pliny), but since Isaiah called Tyre Sidon's daughter, Sidon is older — the Phoenician coast bore the Sidonian name, and Homer praises Sidon but never names Tyre. Margins: Josephus; Jerome; the Sidonians; why Sidon is called ‘the Great’; Strabo; Tyre; Isaiah; Pliny; Homer. ↩
  3. §113. Though Justin (bk. 18) derives ‘Sidon’ from fish (Phoenician ‘Saidi’ = fisherman; the city is still called ‘Said’), the older origin is Sidon, Chanaan's firstborn. Sidon's ‘belonging to Aser's lot’ does not mean it was under Hebrew rule — it kept a free sovereignty, ever hostile to the Hebrews (Ezekiel, Isaiah); ‘Sidon and Tyre’ here = the coast bounding Hebrew territory. Margin: Justin. ↩
  4. §114. The Hethites (2nd), around Bersabee and Hebron (Abraham's cave, Gen 23; Rebecca's words on Jacob's marriage). Famed for giant size and warlike valor (the Syrians' alarm, 2 Kgs 7); God named them specially for conquest (start of Joshua), since Moses's spies saw the Anakim (giants) among them and so terrified Israel as nearly to drive them back to Egypt. Margin: the Hethites. ↩
  5. §115. The Jebusites held Jerusalem (named ‘Jebus’ from them) until David expelled them and made it his capital (2 Sam 5). Robust and warlike (Num 13; 2 Sam 5), never fully destroyed by the Hebrews (Josh 15; Judg 1), surviving as tributaries until Solomon (2 Chron 8). Margin: the Jebusites. ↩
  6. §116. The Amorrhites dwelt across the Jordan (king Og, conquered by Moses); their land given to Gad, Reuben, and half-Manasseh; separated from Moab by the Arnon (Num 21) (continues p. 447). Margin: the Amorrhites. ↩
  7. §116 (cont.). The Amorrhites spread scatteredly over all Canaan: from the realm of Seon and Og they sent colonies to Antilibanus (Deut 1), near Cades Barne and the Amalekites (Gen 14), and the mountains of Judaea (Moses's spies). Hence ‘Amorrhite’ is sometimes used for any Canaanite (Gen 15: ‘the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not yet complete’). Margin: Num 13. ↩
  8. §116 (cont.). The Amorrhites especially impious and cruel (Ezek 16, ‘thy father an Amorrhite, thy mother a Hethite,’ to shame the Jews — like Dido's reproach of Aeneas in Virgil, Aeneid 4). Their giant stature and strength (Amos 2, hyperbolically: ‘whose height was the height of cedars, strong as an oak’). Margins: the gigantic stature, strength, and impiety of the Amorrhites; Virgil, Aeneid 4. ↩
  9. §117. The Hevites dwelt at the roots of Hermon in Maspha (Josh 11), on Lebanon from Baalhermon to the entrance of Emath (Judg 3) — Hermon/Baalhermon (also Samir, Sarcon, Siron), part of eastern Lebanon above the Jordan's sources, toward Trachonitis (a lesser Hermon lay near Gelboe). This Maspha (by Lebanon) is not the assembly-place near Rama (Josephus, Antiquities bk. 8). Margins: the Hevites; Josephus. ↩
  10. §118. Some hold the Hevites = the Rephaim, named in Gen 15 (where the Hevites are omitted from the nations to be destroyed, but the otherwise-unlisted Rephaim appear) — so the Rephaim may stand for the Hevites (continues p. 448). Margin: the Hevites also named Rephaim. ↩
  11. §118 (concl.). On ‘Rephaim’: Rabbi Nehemann (Nachmanides) — from cave-serpents, = ‘the underworld ones’ (Isa 26; cf. Homer's cave-dwelling Cyclopes); others = ‘giants’ (who unstring with dread all who see them; treated in his Disputation on the Giants, bk. 1 of this 2nd vol. [= bk. 8]). Tostatus: in Gen 15 one nation is named twice — Amorrhites then Rephaim, both giant (Deut 2–3). The Hevites, expelled by the Caphtorim/‘Cappadocians’ (Deut 2), yet left remnants to Joshua's and Solomon's times (Josh 13; 2 Chron 8). Of the Gergesite, nothing special. Margins: Rabbi Nehemann; Homer; Tostatus. ↩
  12. §119. The Aracite founded Arce (over against Tripolis, at Lebanon's roots), near a city Sin (later war-ruined). The Aradians held the island Aradus (off the Phoenician coast) — Ezek 27 (‘the inhabitants of Sidon and the Aradians were thy rowers’), Pliny (bk. 5 ch. 20), and especially Strabo (bk. 16: a sea-girt rock, ~7 stadia round, packed with multi-storied houses, built by Sidonian fugitives). Margins: the Aracite; Jerome; the Aradians; Ezek 27; Strabo; Pliny. ↩
  13. §120. The Samarites: Jerome's noble Coele-Syrian city was Edessa; some link them to the Benjamite city (Josh 18) and Mt. Samaraim/Semeron (2 Chron 13). The Sinite: an inhabitant of the desert of Sinai or nearby. Quite distinct are the Cinaeans (Kenites), from Hobab son of Raguel, Moses's father-in-law and the desert-guide of the Jews; his descendants dwelt among the Nephthalites and mixed with the Amalekites (continues p. 449). Margins: the Samarites; Jerome; the Sinite; the difference between the Sinites and the Cinaeans. ↩
  14. §120 (concl.). The Cinaeans' dwellings are clear from Num 11, Judg 1 & 4, 1 Sam 15. As the Hebrews destroyed the Sinites, so Balaam foretold the Assyrians would destroy the Cinaeans (Num 24). The Amathites named the city/region Hamath/Emath (sometimes aspirated ‘Hemath,’ usually ‘Emath’). Margin: the Amathites. ↩