Endnote 47 – When Was the Age of the Patriarchs?—Of Amorites, Canaanites, and Archaeology

See Isaiah 23:8 (describing Tyre “whose merchants were princes and her traders [Canaanites] the most honored men on earth”); Pr. 31:24; Ezekiel 17:4; Hosea 12:8; Zephaniah 1:11; Zechariah 11:7; 11; 14:21. In the account of a Palestinian campaign of Amenhotep II (c. 1447–1421) the following occurs:

“List of booty: maryanu [chariot warriors, aristocracy]: 550; their wives: 240; Canaanites: 640; princes’ children: 232; princes’ children female: 323; favorites (?) of the princes of every foreign country: 270 women, in addition to their paraphernalia for entertaining the heart, of silver and gold, (at) their shoulders; total: 2,214 [sic].” (ANET, p. 246)

The context would seem to indicate that the Canaanites here are a class rather than an ethnic group, and the Old Testament passages make it likely that merchants are meant.