Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 38:2

"And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. And he took her, and went in unto her." — Genesis 38:2 (ASV)

Canaanite. —This is rendered in the Targum merchant, and so the Authorised Version translates Canaanite in Proverbs 31:24. In favour of this view is the fact that the marriage of Simeon with a Canaanite woman is regarded as an act so exceptional as to be worth recording (Genesis 46:10). But we may well doubt whether, at so early an age, the terms Canaanite and merchant had become synonymous. “Shuah” was the name of the woman’s father, as appears plainly in the Hebrew. (See also Genesis 38:12.)