Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

THE PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH 12: J
some time, “being come with an army from the land of
the Chaldeans (Antiq. I, 1). It should be noted, too, that
Damascus was the native place of Eliezer, Abram’s household
steward, Gen. IJ:~). No doubt the caravan then
crossed the Jordan, where the first stopping-place was
Shechem, in the valley of the same name, lying between
Mounts Ebal and Gerizim.
V. J. “And into the land of Canaan, they came.”
(No
doubt a prolepsis, as in 11:31). This was a distance of
some 300 miles from Haran. Cf. v. 6--“And the Canaanite
was then in the land.” The territory originally occupied
by the Canaanites as a separate ethnic group is clearly de-
scribed in Gen. 10:19. A wider use of the term is also
encountered in Scripture and in early external sources as
including the inhabitants generally of the Syro-Palestianian
area. In its wider use also the terms “Canaanite” and
‘‘Amoriteyy tend to overlap directly. Thus Abram was
promised Canaan (12:5, 7) but this occupancy was de-
layed-in fact was never realized by Abraham personally-
because the inquity of the Amorites was not yet full.
Several inscriptions indicate clearly the contiguous use of
“Amorites” and “Canaanites” in Moses’ time; hence, “the
use of these terms as the distinguishing marks of different
literary hands is erroneous” (NBD, 184). It should be
noted, too, that Shechem was a Canaanite principality
under a Hivite ruler (Gen. 12:5, 6; 34:2, 30), but could
be called “Amorite” (Gen. 48:22), It seems that at the
time of the conquest of Abram’s descendants, the moun-
tainous land in the center, including the place of Shechem,
was occupied by the Amorites and other tribes, while the
coast of the Mediterranean and the west bank of the
Jordan was held by the Canaanites proper (cf. Josh. 5:1,
11 :3), The statement in v. 6 has been “fastened upon as
a proof of the late composition of this history, as implying
that though in Abram’s time the Canaanite was in the
land, he had ceased to have a place there in the writer’s