Comentario sobre Génesis 10:15

AND CANAAN BEGOT ZIDON HIS FIRST-BORN. These were the ten³⁰⁶“Ten.” There are eleven children of Canaan mentioned here. Ramban will explain later in the text that one did not develop into a separate nation. nations, sons of Canaan, whose lands were given to our father Abraham since all seed of Canaan were sold into servitude forever. These were the ones that were given to Abraham. Their names, however, changed for the most part in the days of Abraham; here they were inscribed according to the names their father called them on the days of their birth, but after they parted according to their lands and their nations, they were called by other names.³⁰⁷Compare Verses 15-18 here with Verses 19-21 in Chapter 15. Perhaps they were called by the names of the land in which they settled, as we have explained.³⁰⁸Above, at the end of Verse 13 concerning the origin of the name Philistines. Likewise, Se’ir the Horite³⁰⁹Genesis 36:20. was so called because the name of the city was Se’ira. And there are many similar names. It may be that the Arkite and the Sinite³¹⁰Verse 17 here. did beget families but were cut off from them, and their children were, for example, the Kenite, and the Kenizzite.³¹¹Further, 15:19. These became the heads of families, the entire nation being called by their name as was customary among the tribes of Israel. Now in His gift [of the land of Abraham, G-d] called the ten nations by the names by which they were known in the time of Abraham.³¹²Ibid., Verses 19-21.
Proof of this, [namely, that some of the names of the sons of Canaan changed in the time of Abraham], is that the Hivite mentioned here³¹⁰Verse 17 here. is not mentioned in the gift to Abraham,³¹²Ibid., Verses 19-21. and yet he was among them, as it is said, And He shall cast out many nations before thee, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations.³¹³Deuteronomy 7:1. So also in every place [Scripture counts the Hivite among the nations that inhabited the land of Canaan]. Now the Canaanite is counted in the gift to Abraham among his [Canaan’s] children,³¹⁴As the verse states: And the Amorite and the Canaanite… . Further, 15:21. but only ten are counted [there³¹²Ibid., Verses 19-21. — while eleven children of Canaan are mentioned here] —³¹⁵Verses 15-18 here. because one of his sons did not prevail like his other brothers, and so he was called together with his brother [the Hivite] by the name of his father, [thus bringing to a total of ten the number of nations whose lands were given to Abraham]. It is possible also that it was Zidon, Canaan’s first-born who was called the Canaanite together with his brother, [the eleventh son of Canaan], who did not become a nation, [thus making ten the total number of lands given to Abraham].
Do not find it difficult that the land of the Philistines was also given to Abraham — as it is written, Sojourn in this land … for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these lands³¹⁶Genesis 26:3. — and yet the Philistines were of the sons of Mitzraim [and not of Canaan]! Scripture said, Counted to the Canaanites were the five lords of the Philistines,³¹⁷Joshua 13:3. Hence their lands were also given to Abraham even though the Philistines themselves were not of the seed of Canaan. because the Philistines conquered part of the land of the Canaanites and settled thereon. And here in Scripture you will see [that the Philistines captured part of the Canaanite land], for the boundary of the Canaanite was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza³¹⁸Verse 19 here. yet we find that these were Philistine cities, since Abimelech, king of the Philistines, was king of Gerar,³¹⁹Genesis 20:2. and Gaza belonged to the Gazites. Similarly, For Gaza one.³²⁰I Samuel 6:17. This is counted among the guilt-offerings the five Philistine cities sent along with the Ark of G-d which they were returning. Sidon also belonged to the Philistines, for it is written, All the Zidonians will I drive out from before the children of Israel; only allot thou it unto Israel for an inheritance;³²¹Joshua 13:6. and again, And also what are ye to Me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the regions of Philistia?³²²Joel 4:4. Perhaps the rest of the land of the Philistines, excluding that of these five of their lords,³²³Joshua 13:3. was not given to Israel.
Know that the land of Canaan with its boundaries, since it became a nation,³²⁴Exodus 9:24. was qualified for Israel, and this was the lot of their inheritance, as it is said, When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the children of men, He set the borders of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.³²⁵Deuteronomy 32:8. But at the time of the dispersion of the nations, the Holy One, blessed be He, gave it to Canaan, on account of his being a servant, to keep it for Israel. This is just as a man who deposits for safe-keeping the belongings of the master’s son with his servant until such time as the son will grow up and acquire the belongings as well as the servant. I will explain this yet³²⁶Ibid., 2:23. with the help of G-d, exalted be He.

וכנען ילד, Put (Cham’s third son) is not mentioned as having had any offspring. Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 37,2 say that the offspring of Put was “swallowed,” (remained unidentified) until the time of the prophet Ezekiel who made mention of it in Ezekiel 30,5 where we read כוש ופוט ולוד (compare also Ezekiel 27,10) Rabbi Yoseph Kara asked Rabbi Shemuel, seeing that the family of Put was not “swallowed” (i.e. that he was not sterile) why did the Torah not mention the fact that Put did beget offspring? The answer given to Rabbi Kara was that the Torah here wanted to list 70 “sons,” i.e. descendants of Noach. We learn from the number 70 that the nations that resulted from the confusion of the languages mentioned in the next paragraph (10,32) amounted to 70. Put, including all his sons are only considered as one of these 70 nations. If the Torah had written: “Put begat so and so,” how could the Torah have written afterwards in 10,32 ומאלה נפרדו הגוים בארץ וגו', “and from these the nations on earth emerged separately, etc.?” The impression that would have been created then would have been that all these nations are offspring of the sons of Noach and not of Noach himself, as the total then would have amounted to 71 and we would have had to deduct Noach in order to arrive at the correct count. In other words, Put’s offspring’s names not being listed means that it was lumped together with the father as founder of one of the nations.

וכנען ילד, I have found one commentator who writes that Canaan had 11 sons so that his nation, including the founding father Canaan, comprised 12 tribes This is supposedly what is meant in Deuteronomy 32,8 יצב גבולות עמים למספר בני ישראל, “He sets the borders of the people in a manner corresponding to the number (of tribes) of the Children of Israel.” וכנען, Put’s offspring is not mentioned as there is no need to report on this.

וכנען ילד את צידון בכורו, “and Canaan sired Tzidon his firstborn.” These (following) ten nations (Canaanites) are all the ones that G’d promised Avraham that his descendants would inherit or dispossess. (Genesis 15,19-21) This is all based on the fact that all of Canaan’s descendants had been condemned to be slaves, forever. However, some of them had changed their names by the time Avraham appeared on the scene of history. At this point the Torah called them by the names given to them by their father at the time they were born. Once they had grown up, moved away from home and founded nations their names changed. Perhaps they adopted the name of the country in which they dwelled, just as the Egyptians called themselves Mitzrim, a derivative of the name Mitzrayim, the land they lived in. It is also possible that those sons that did not become founders of separate nations retained the names given to them at birth, whereas the others changed their names, or their descendants changed their names. Tzidon would be a case in point. He is called a Canaanite as he did not develop into a separate nation and adopted the name of his country. When the Torah had clearly described the land of the Philistines as being part of the land of Israel, although the Philistines had descended from Mitzrayim and not from Canaan, this is no counter argument. At the time when G’d described the land of the Philistines as part of the land He would give to his descendants, (Genesis 26,3 where G’d referred in his prophecy to Yitzchok that He had already sworn that land to his father‘s descendants) the Canaanites had already conquered that part of the land from their original owners. It is quite possible that the Israelites did not inherit more than the 5 principalities that had been inhabited by the 5 Philistine cities mentioned in Joshua It is important to realize that the land of Canaan, ever since the people on it became a nation, had been slated to become Israel’s. This is the חבל נחלתם of which Moses had spoken already in Deuteronomy At the time when G’d scattered the people of the earth, at the time when the tower was destroyed, He allocated that strip of land to the Canaanites on a “temporary” lease. The Canaanites’ function during the hundreds of years before the Israelites conquered that land had been to serve as caretakers on behalf of the Israelites, a task not uncommon for slaves to perform for absentee owners. The Israelites during that period need to be viewed as not yet having come of age to take over their inheritance. [although the author does not mention it, this commentary has been almost literally copied from Nachmanides. Ed.]

וכנען ילד את צידון, “Canaan sired Tzidon;” Canaan sired a total of 11 sons. After having listed all their names, the Torah continues with describing how they dispersed over different regions, and that one of them split into two nations, thus making a total of 12 Canaanite tribes. This is comparable in Jewish history to the tribe of Joseph being made up of Menashe and Ephrayim, who on most occasions appear independently whenever the tribe of Levi is not included in the count of the Jewish tribes. Moses refers only to seven Canaanite tribes; the six which were historically significant he names separately, attributing their genealogy to their founding father Canaan. The reason why they deserved this honorable mention is that when the brotherstook their father Yaakov to be buried in the cave of Machpelah, these Canaanite kings all paid honour to Yaakov the descendant of Avraham. (Genesis 50,11)

את צדון בכורו, I have not been able to find a good reason for the Torah describing צדון as a firstborn, seeing that no other firstborn son of these people is described as such. Normally, the first named son is presumed to be the firstborn, so that there is no need for adding that attribute, unless we are to assume that the Torah, in naming someone as the first in a list of sons, does so because he possessed superior qualities to those of his brothers. One such example would be the mention of Shem ahead of his brothers, although he was not the oldest (5,32), according to those commentators who believe that Yaphet was Noach’s oldest son. It is possible that Tzidon did possess superior qualities when compared to his brothers, so that by describing him as the firstborn the Torah wanted to draw attention to both of these distinctions. We find something parallel in Genesis 25,13 where Nevayot is described as the firstborn son of Ishmael. We have reason to believe that he possessed outstanding qualities because his sister Machalat is not described only as the daughter of her father Ishmael, and her grandfather Avraham, but also as the sister of Nevayot, her brother. (Genesis 28,9)