Why is Israel referred to as the land of Kanaan and who was Kanaan? This question has finally been explained in a physical proof discovered on a fragment photograph of The Dead Sea Scrolls found in cave #4. The opening lines of orthodox Jewish daily prayer beg the question of the verse;
Remember His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations; the covenant which He made with Abraham, His oath to Isaac, He established it for Jacob as a statute, for Israel as an everlasting covenant, stating “To you I shall give the land of Kanaan” -the portion of your inheritance, when you were few, very few, and strangers in it.
זִכְרוּ נִפְלְאותָיו אֲשֶׁר עָשה. מפְתָיו וּמִשְׁפְּטֵי פִיהוּ:
זֶרַע יִשרָאֵל עַבְדּו. בְּנֵי יַעֲקב בְּחִירָיו:
הוּא ה' אֱלהֵינוּ. בְּכָל הָאָרֶץ מִשְׁפָּטָיו:
זִכְרוּ לְעולָם בְּרִיתו. דָּבָר צִוָּה לְאֶלֶף דּור:
אֲשֶׁר כָּרַת אֶת אַבְרָהָם. וּשְׁבוּעָתו לְיִצְחָק:
וַיַּעֲמִידֶהָ לְיַעֲקב לְחק. לְיִשרָאֵל בְּרִית עולָם:
לֵאמר. לְךָ אֶתֵּן אֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן. חֶבֶל נַחֲלַתְכֶם:
בִּהְיותְכֶם מְתֵי מִסְפָּר. כִּמְעַט וְגָרִים בָּהּ:
What is meant by the portion of your inheritance? The strange, stylistic reference to Kanaan as the land promised to Israel is also explained by the recent Dead Sea Scrolls discovery. What was previously interpreted by mainstream theologians as the “tent of Shem” Genesis (9:27) is now proven to mean the “land of Shem” and what a huge difference it makes.
Noah had three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, each received an inheritance. The discovery proves that land granted to Shem included the “portion of your inheritance” specifically set aside for Israel, but occupied by Kanaan, the bastard son of Ham, when they “were few, very few, and strangers in it”. The explanation finally resolves a logical reading of the line - “To you I shall give the land of Kanaan”. Here “you” conclusively means Jacob-Israel.
Ham had incestuous relations with his mother, Noah's wife (Ki Teitzei 23:1,2,3 - shares Haftorah with Noah), the product of that relationship - Kanaan. When it finally dawned on the very busy Noah he was devastated, became drunk in his tent and cursed the incestuous bastard Kanaan to be a slave to Shem forever. Talmud Sanhedrin 108b confirms that Ham copulated on the Ark against Noah's order of celibacy. Ham’s act was antithetical to Noah's moral lore and it set a standard for permissible incest among the Egyptian leaders that descended from him (Hieroglyphic Khem).
Ham's son Mitzrayim, after whom Egypt was named and his half brother Kanaan (Kanaan was Ham's son - Genesis 9:18) hated Shem, who had received Noah's principle blessing. Obnoxious Ham pushed Kanaan to occupy his brother Shem's land in defiance of Noah's curse, on Kanaan, for Ham's dastardly act. After the curse, Ham bequeathed Egypt to his son Mitzrayim, they kept the bastard Kanaan at a distance and backed him with military force to usurp the inheritance of Shem. That backing continued through the generations, for more than 700 years, including during the time it took for Israel to conquer the land under Joshua and the tribal leaders.
Abraham was Shem’s direct descendant as such he was entitled to receive the continual passage of rights to Shem’s land. Further, Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. By the same legal standard Ishmael was born from a mother, a descendant of Ham, who operated as surrogate for Abraham’s wife. However, Sarah (also from Shem) banished them and relinquished any rights Ishmael had to ever inherit Abrahams land. This stands as an essential legal proof of Israel’s continuity, through progenitors Isaac and Jacob (who was named Israel) on the land and its indigenous right!
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