Genesis 10:18

the Arvadite Arvad, a famous maritime town, the modern Ruwâdon an island 100 miles north of Zidon; cf. Ezekiel 27:8; Ezekiel 27:11.

the Zemarite The dwellers in Simyra, modern Sumra, a few miles south of Ruwâd. It appears in the Tel-el-Amarna Letters as Zumur.

the Hamathite The dwellers in Hamath, modern Ḥama, the famous ancient town to the extreme north of Canaan, on the Orontes, and the capital of a small kingdom overthrown by Sargon. Cf. Numbers 34:8; 2 Kings 18:34; Amos 6:14.

and afterward It has been conjectured that this clause followed originally upon the mention of "Zidon his firstborn and Heth," Genesis 10:15, and that the intervening passage (Genesis 10:16 a) is a later addition. The clause leads up to the description, in Genesis 10:19, of the subsequent boundaries of Canaan. The writer implies that the "families of the Canaanite," who were driven out by the Israelites, were themselves not the original inhabitants.

In favour of 16 18a being a gloss, note (1) the change from the proper names, "Zidon" and "Heth," to the appellatives, "the Jebusite," "the Amorite," &c.: (2) the delimitation of "the Canaanite" in Genesis 10:19 excluding the Arkite, Sinite, Arvadite, Zemarite, and Hamathite, who in Genesis 10:16 are included in the "sons of Canaan."