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| Cain | | The first son of Adam and Eve and a tiller of the soil; his brother Abel was a shepherd. Both made gifts of their produce to God. God accepted Abel's young lambs but rejected the first fruits of the field brought by Cain. In anger, Cain killed Abel. When God asked Cain what had happened to Abel, he retorted 'I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?' (Genesis 4:9). God cursed Cain and condemned him to wander fugitive over the earth, but then put a mark on him so that no one might kill him.Cain settled in Nod, east of the Garden of Eden, married and had a son, Enoch.The mark of Cain has passed into the language to mean the indelibility of a murderer's guilt.Cain is also known as the eponymous ancestor of the Kenites. | |
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| Caleb | 1. Son of Yefuneh, one of the 12 men sent by Moses to investigate the land of Canaan (Numbers 13:2). He and Joshua were the only two of the spies sent into the land of Israel to return with a positive report (Numbers 13:30). For this reason they shared the distinction of being the only Israelites to to be allowed to cross both the Red Sea out of Egypt and the river Jordan into the Promised Land (Numbers 14:24).
2. Son of Chetzron, brother of Ram and father of Chur. | |
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| Canaan, Canaanites | | The fourth son of Ham, the grandson of Noah and the ancestor of the Canaanites (Genesis 10:6, 15-19). Ham was cursed by Noah for gazing upon his nakedness: 'Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers' (Genesis 9:22-27; Genesis 10:6). Canaan is said to be the ancestor of Sidon, Heth, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Tzemarites, the Chamatites and the Canaanites.
The land of Canaan is generally said to mean the land and people of Syria and Palestine, from Phoenicia (especially Sidon) to the north and Gaza to the south-west, inland to the Dead Sea cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Canaanites were the early Semitic inhabitants of Canaan (later Israel and Syria), exerting considerable influence over the region, from Asia Minor to the Aegean between c.1800-1600 B.C.E. and making an important contribution to Hebrew language and culture. Excavations at Jericho, Megiddo and Chamath date their settlement back to at least 3000 B.C.E. Canaanite strength was dissipated by the rise of the Egyptian New Empire and was further weakened by Hittite, Hivite and Amorite invaders. Later incursions from the Philistines, the Aramaeans and the Israelites sent the Canaanites into Lebanon and the narrow coastal strip area including Sidon where, under the name of Phoenicians, they built ships and became traders, establishing colonies in Cyprus, Sardinia, North Africa and Spain. By the time of Abraham the term 'Canaanite' had become a generic name since many of the tribes had intermarried. | |
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| Caphtorim | |
| Carmi | |
| Casluchim | |
| Chadad | |
| Chagi | |
| Chaglah | |
| Chamatites | | Traditionally known as descendants of Canaan (Genesis 10:17), the Chamatites were inhabitants of the city of Chamath, near Mount Hermon, on the Orontes river. | |
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| Chamor | | Father of Shechem and Hivite chieftain who ruled over the Shechem area in the days of Jacob. His son raped Jacob's daughter Dinah and asked Chamor to request her hand in marriage. Chamor suggested to Jacob's sons that the two families should intermarry and trade together. Jacob's sons agreed, with the provision that all the males in Chamor's family and in the city of Shechem were circumcised. While the men were recovering, Dinah's brothers Simeon and Levi slaughtered Shechem and his compatriots (Genesis 33, 34). | |
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| Chamul | |
| Chatzarmaveth | | Descendant of Noah. Son of Yoktan and brother of Almodad, Shelef, Yerach, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Oval, Avimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah and Yovav. | |
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| Chatzerim | | Also known as Rafiah, southwards along the Mediterranean coast from Gaza. Mentioned at Deuteronomy 2:23 as the home of the Avvim, a race related to the Rephaim. | |
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| Chazo | |
| Chedorlaomer | | One of the confederacy of kings who invaded the area of Sodom and Gomorrah in the time of Abraham. | |
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| Chefer | |
| Chelek | |
| Chemdan | |
| Chetzron | |
| Chever | |
| Chori | |
| Chovev | |
| Chul | |
| Chuppim | |
| Chur | |
| Chushim | |
| Cush, Cushites | | Cush (Hebrew: 'black') was a grandson of Noah and the eldest son of Ham. He was the father of Nimrod. He is considered in Hebrew tradition to be the ancestor of the Cushites, who were a Negro tribe that settled below Egypt, possibly in Nubia, modern Sudan. The word is later treated as synonymous with Ethiopia, but modern scholarship suggests that the Cushites referred to in Genesis 10:8 were Cossaeans, living in the mountain region between Elam and Midia, rather than African Cushites. | |
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