Person Old Testament
Canaan
Canaan, the son of Ham, was the father of Sidon, Heth, and other Canaanite tribes. Mentioned in 9 verses across 2 books, first at Genesis 9:18.
Why it matters. Son of Ham; father of Sidon and Heth
- Primary passages
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Canaan
Canaan was the fourth son of Ham and the grandson of Noah (Gen. 9:18, 22; 10:6; 1Chr. 1:8). He became the progenitor of the Canaanite tribes, which inhabited the land that would later be promised to Abraham and his descendants (Gen. 10:15-19; 1Chr. 1:13-16). Canaan's sons included Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth, the ancestor of the Hittites. Other descendants of Canaan included the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. After Noah's drunkenness, Ham saw his father's nakedness and told his brothers (Gen. 9:22). In response, Noah cursed Canaan, stating that he would be a servant to his brothers (Gen. 9:25-27). This curse was likely a prophetic declaration about the future subjugation of the Canaanite tribes by the Israelites. The land of Canaan became synonymous with the region God promised to Abraham, and the Canaanites were among the inhabitants the Israelites were to displace and conquer (Gen. 12:5-7; Ex. 3:8; Deut. 7:1-3).
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
Connections
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Family
Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.
- Parents
- Ham
Appears in Scripture
Named in 9 verses across 2 books. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.