Basic HTML Version
in Josh. 7:13: “… Thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the
accursed thing from among you.” For a similar sense, see Jer. 6:10: “Behold, their ear is
uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken.…” In the negative sense, it may be used to
express “prohibition”: “Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn …”
(Deut. 12:17,
NIV
). Or the verb may indicate a “social barrier,” as in Gen. 43:32: “… The
Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination unto the
Egyptians” (
KJV
,
RSV
,
NIV
,
NASB
, “could not”).
'
is also used of God, as when Moses pleaded with God not to destroy Israel lest
the nations say, “Because the Lord was not
to bring this people into the land … ,
therefore he hath slain them …” (Num. 14:16,
NASB
). The word may indicate a positive
sense: “If it be so, our God whom we serve is
to deliver us …” (Dan. 3:17). The
word
appears when God limits His patience with the insincere: “When the Lord
could no longer
$
your wicked actions … , your land became an object of cursing
…” (Jer. 44:22,
NIV
)
When
is used without another verb, the sense is “to prevail” or “to overcome,”
as in the words of the angel to Jacob: “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,
because you have struggled with God, and with men and have overcome” (Gen. 32:28,
NIV
,
KJV
,
NASB
, “prevailed”). With the word
God rebukes Israel’s insincerity: “I
cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly” (Isa. 1:13,
NASB
,
NIV
, “bear”). “… How
long will it be ere they attain to innocency?” (Hos. 8:5,
KJV
,
NASB
, “will they be capable
of”).
There is no distinction in Hebrew between “can” and “may,” since
expresses
both “ability” and “permission,” or prohibition with the negative. Both God and man can
act. There is no limit to God’s ability apart from His own freely determined limits of
patience with continued disobedience and insincerity (Isa. 59:1-2) and will (Dan. 3:17-
18).
The Septuagint translates
by several words,
$
being by far the most
common.
4$
means “to be able, powerful.” It is first used in the New Testament in
Matt. 3:9: “… God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
CANAAN; CANAANITE
(
, 3667), “Canaan”;
(
, 3669), “Canaanite; merchant.”
“Canaan” is used 9 times as the name of a person and 80 times as a place name.
“Canaanite” occurs 72 times of the descendants of “Canaan,” the inhabitants of the land
of Canaan. Most occurrences of these words are in Genesis through Judges, but they are
scattered throughout the Old Testament.
“Canaan” is first used of a person in Gen. 9:18: “… and Ham is the father of Canaan”
(cf. Gen. 10:6). After a listing of the nations descended from “Canaan,” Gen. 10:18-19
adds: “… and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the
border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou
goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah,.…” “Canaan” is the land west of the Jordan, as in
Num. 33:51: “When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan” (cf. Josh. 22:9-
11). At the call of God, Abram “… went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the