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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Genesis 13:5 - 13:5
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But as Abram was very rich (כָּבֵד, lit., weighty) in possessions (מִקְנֶה, cattle and slaves), and Lot also had flocks, and herds, and tents אֹהָלִים for אָהֳלִים, Ges. §93, 6, 3) for his men, of whom there must have been many therefore, the land did not bear them when dwelling together (נָשָׁא, masculine at the commencement of the sentence, as is often the case when the verb precedes the subject, vid., Ges. §147), i.e., the land did not furnish space enough for the numerous herd to graze. Consequently disputes arose between the two parties of herdsmen. The difficulty was increased by the fact that the Canaanites and Perizzites were then dwelling in the land, so that the space was very contracted. The Perizzites, who are mentioned here and in Gen 34:30; Jdg 1:4, along with the Canaanites, and who are placed in the other lists of the inhabitants of Canaan among the different Canaanitish tribes (Gen 15:20; Exo 3:8, Exo 3:17, etc.), are not mentioned among the descendants of Canaan (Gen 10:15-17), and may therefore, like the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, and Rephaim (Gen 15:19-21), not have been descendants of Ham at all. The common explanation of the name Perizzite as equivalent to פְּרָזֹות אֶרֶץ ישֵׁב “inhabitant of the level ground” (Eze 38:11), is at variance not only with the form of the word, the inhabitant of the level ground being called הַפְּרָזִי (Deu 3:5), but with the fact of their combination sometimes with the Canaanites, sometimes with the other tribes of Canaan, whose names were derived from their founders. Moreover, to explain the term “Canaanite,” as denoting “the civilised inhabitants of towns,” or “the trading Phoenicians,” is just as arbitrary as if we were to regard the Kenites, Kenizzites, and the other tribes mentioned Gen 15:19. along with the Canaanites, as all alike traders or inhabitants of towns. The origin of the name Perizzite is involved in obscurity, like that of the Kenites and other tribes settled in Canaan that were not descended from Ham. But we may infer from the frequency with which they are mentioned in connection with the Hamitic inhabitants of Canaan, that they were widely dispersed among the latter. Vid., Gen 15:19-21.