Zidon his firstborn] From the time of David downwards Tyre takes precedence of Zidon in any mention of the Phoenician cities in the Old Testament, but Zidon was the older of the two cities, as is here implied and as the Roman historian Justin (XVIII. 3) asserts. So we find the Phoenicians in the earlier books of the Old Testament called Zidonians, not Tyrians (e.g. Judges iii. 3; 1 Kings v. 6). Homer also refers not to Tyre but to Zidon.
Heth] i.e. the Hittites, a northern non-Semitic race, who from about 1800–700 B.C. were a great power, extending over part of Asia Minor and northern Syria from the Orontes to the Euphrates. The references to them in the Old Testament make it probable that Hittite settlements were to be found in various parts of Palestine. This fact and their dominant influence, circa 1300 B.C., throughout Canaan and Phoenicia probably accounts for their inclusion as a “son” of Canaan.
¹⁴and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite;
14. the Jebusite] the ancient population of Jerusalem, compare Judges i. 21; 2 Samuel v. 6.
the Amorite] compare Numbers xiii. 29, xxi. 21; Judges i. 35. The name (probably a racial one) was frequently used of the pre-Israelitish inhabitants of Canaan (“Canaanites” being the geographical description). In a more restricted sense it was used to denote the people of Sihon, east of the Jordan.
¹⁵and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite; ¹⁶and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite.
15. the Hivite] In Joshua xi. 3, the Hivites are placed in the extreme north of the land, “the Hivite under Hermon,” but the word may be an error for Hittite (see above verse 13). In Joshua ix. 7 and Genesis xxxiv. 2 they are located at Gibeon and Shechem. The Arkite and Sinite lived in Lebanon, the Arvadite (compare Ezekiel xxvii. 8) on the sea-coast north of Gebal (Byblus), the Zemarite a little to the south of the Arvadite, and the Hamathite furthest to the north on the Orontes.
17 (= Genesis x. 22, 23).
The Sons of Shem.
¹⁷The sons of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech[¹].
[¹] In Genesis x. 23, Mash.