Genesis 10:1 | 23
God and all liv ing crea tures of ev ery kind on the earth .”
17
So God said to Noah , “ This is the sign of the cov enant I have es tab lished be tween me and all life on the earth .”
The Sons of Noah
18
The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem , Ham and Ja pheth . ( Ham was the father of Ca naan .) 19 These were the three sons of Noah , and from them came the peo ple who were scat tered over the whole earth .
20
Noah , a man of the soil , pro ceed ed a to plant a vine yard . 21 When he drank some of its wine , he be came drunk and lay un cov ered in side his tent .
22
Ham , the fa ther of Ca naan , saw his fa ther na ked and told his two broth ers out side . 23 But Shem and Ja pheth took a gar ment and laid it across their shoul ders ; then they walked in back ward and cov ered their fa ther ’ s na ked body . Their fac es were turned the oth er way so that they would not see their fa ther na ked .
24
When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youn gest son had done to him , 25 he said ,
“ Cursed be Canaan ! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers .”
26
He also said ,
“ Praise be to the Lord , the God of Shem ! May Canaan be the slave of Shem .
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May God extend Japheth ’ s b territory ; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem , and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth .”
28
Af ter the flood Noah lived 350 years . 29 Noah lived a to tal of 950 years , and then he died .
The Table of Nations
This is the ac count of Shem , Ham and Japheth , No ah ’ s sons , who them selves had
10 sons af ter the flood .
a
20 Or soil , was the first Hebrew for extend . b
27 Japheth sounds like the
9:18 – 29 This passage provides a narrative postscript to the flood story , describing how Noah settles into a life of agriculture .
9:18 Ham was the father of Canaan A reminder of the connection between Ham and Canaan ; Canaan is cursed by Noah for Ham ’ s actions ( Ge 9:22,25 ). This account also serves to cast the Canaanites in a negative , shameful light . In that sense , the story resembles the account in 19:30 – 38 , which provides a shameful explanation for the paternity of the Ammonites and Moabites . 9:20 a man of the soil The parallel to Adam is evident and signifies continuity with Adam ’ s original blessing and mandated task ( see 2:15 ). 9:21 became drunk The first mention of drunkenness in the Bible . lay uncovered inside his tent The ensuing context explains this as nakedness .
9:22 – 24 Two difficult interpretive issues arise in the incident between Ham and Noah : understanding the nature of Ham ’ s offense and making sense of why Ham ’ s son , Canaan , was cursed instead of Ham ( see note on v . 25 ). The text of 9:22 may be literally rendered as “ Ham , the father of Canaan , saw the nakedness of his father .” However , this could be an idiom — it may not be about Noah being nude , but an incident that greatly insults Noah . Ham ’ s offense could be explained as voyeurism , castration of Noah , sodomy , or incestuous rape of his mother . The voyeurism view is often defended by what Ham ’ s brothers , Shem and Japheth , do in the wake of the incident — they walk backward into the tent and cover their father ’ s nakedness . This act doesn ’ t explain the offense , though ; it simply shows their respect for their father . There is no OT prohibition against seeing one ’ s father naked , so this interpretation would have likely been foreign to the original reader ; likewise no such prohibition appears elsewhere in ancient Near Eastern law .
Against the idea that Ham ’ s offense was voyeurism , the Hebrew phrase which may be literally rendered “ saw the nakedness ” appears elsewhere in the OT referring to illicit sexual contact and intercourse . To “ see [ ra ’ ah in
Hebrew ] the nakedness [ erwah in Hebrew ]” of someone is used in the Law ( Lev 18 ; 20 ) to prohibit certain sexual relations . This idiom suggests that Ham ’ s offense may have been of a sexual nature , perhaps homosexual rape of his father or paternal incest . However , no combination of the relevant Hebrew words — ra ’ ah (“ see ”), galah (“ uncover ”) and erwah (“ nakedness ”) — occurs in the OT in reference to homosexuality . The Hebrew phrase for “ uncovering the nakedness of [ a man ]” actually refers to sexual intercourse with a man ’ s wife . For example , in a literal rendering of Lev 18:7 , “ the nakedness of your father ” means “ the nakedness of your mother ”; in Lev 18:14 , a literal rendering of “ the nakedness of your father ’ s brother ” is clarified as “ his wife ” and “ your aunt ” ( see Lev 18:8 ; 20:11,20,21 ). Although the usual expression in Leviticus is to “ uncover [ galah in Hebrew ] the nakedness ,” both idioms are used in parallel in Lev 20:17 . Therefore , Ham ’ s offense may have been maternal incest and the forcible rape of his mother . This explains the curse of Ham ’ s son that follows ( see Ge 9:25 – 27 ; compare note on 9:25 ).
9:25 lowest of slaves will he be Noah pronounces a curse on Canaan , not on Ham . Noah does this because Ham likely raped his mother to gain further inheritance ( see note on vv . 22 – 24 ). Ham ’ s crime of maternal incest would have been an attempt to usurp Noah ’ s position as leader of the family clan . This explains why Ham would announce what he had done to his brothers — he was asserting authority over them ( v . 22 ). The fact that Canaan was cursed suggests that Canaan was the offspring of Ham ’ s sexual intercourse with Noah ’ s wife . The son bore the punishment for the crime of his father . The curse on Canaan forms the backdrop to the later antipathy between Israel and the Canaanites . 9:29 950 years May or may not be intended literally . See 5:5 and note .
10:1 – 32 This passage is called the Table of Nations because its list explains the origin of most of the peoples of the ancient Near East . The names correspond to Biblical