“And Abram passed through the land until the place of Shechem, until Elon Moreh; and the Canaanite was then in the land. And Hashem appeared to Abram and said: ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ And he built there an altar to Hashem, Who had appeared to him.” (Bereishit 12:6–7)
We must delve into why the Torah found it necessary to mention that “the Canaanite was then in the land” before recounting Hashem’s promise to Abram. Rashi comments on this phrase: “The Canaanite was then in the land—they were in the process of conquering the Land of Israel from the descendants of Shem, for when Noach divided the earth among his sons, the Land of Israel fell into the portion of Shem. [...] Therefore, Hashem said to Abram, ‘To your descendants I will give this land’—meaning, I intend to return it to your children, who are descendants of Shem.”
According to this, it would seem that, at first glance, Hashem could not have granted the land as an inheritance to Abraham, since the land rightfully belonged to all the descendants of Shem by virtue of the inheritance they had received from their father Noach. How, then, could it be given solely to Abraham, who is only one of Shem’s descendants?
For this reason, the Torah clarifies: “And the Canaanite was then in the land.” As Rashi explains, the Canaanites had already conquered it from the descendants of Shem. Consequently, the latter lost their right to that land, for nations acquire possession from one another through conquest in war. Thus, Hashem could now promise the land to Abraham as a gift — that is, that his descendants too would conquer it [from the Canaanites] through war. The other descendants of Shem would have no claim that something was being taken from them that they had inherited from their forefather Noach, since they had already lost their share earlier, when the Canaanites seized it from them. Therefore, the Children of Israel would not be taking anything that truly belonged to others.
(Zera Shimshon, Parashat Lech Lecha, art. 3)
