Canaan

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Pronunciations

Canaan (KAY-nen) listen
Canaan (kah-NAH-ahn) listen

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Definitions

  • n. The land that God promised to Abraham in Genesis; the Promised Land.

Example Sentences

  • "When the Hebrews arrive at Canaan, the land promised to them millenia earlier when God told Abraham at Shechem that the land would belong to his descendants, they they begin the long, painful, and disappointing process of setting the land." (source)

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew

Etymology

  • כְּנַעַן‎

      • Who Uses This

      • Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education
      • Non-Jews: (words that have spread outside of Jewish networks)

      Regions

      • North America

      Dictionaries

      • The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).

      Alternative Spellings

      Cana'an

Notes

  • "The part of ancient Palestine between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea...After the Exodus from Egypt, Moses appointed a delegation to go ahead and see what the land of Canaan and the people who lived there were like. The scouts returned, reporting on a bountiful, beautiful land “flowing with milk and honey”—a phrase still used today to describe Israel. Canaan is often referred to as 'the Promised Land.'" (JPS)

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