Genesis 9:24-27

9:24 When Noah awoke from his drunken stupor ¹  he learned ²  what his youngest son had done ³  to him. 9:25 So he said,

“Cursed ⁴  be Canaan! ⁵ 

The lowest of slaves ⁶ 

he will be to his brothers.”

9:26 He also said,

“Worthy of praise is ⁷  the Lord, the God of Shem!

May Canaan be the slave of Shem! ⁸ 

9:27 May God enlarge Japheth’s territory and numbers! ⁹ 

May he live ¹⁰  in the tents of Shem

and may Canaan be his slave!”

[9:24]  ¹ tn Heb “his wine,” used here by metonymy for the drunken stupor it produced.

[9:24]  ² tn Heb “he knew.”

[9:24]  ³ tn The Hebrew verb עָשָׂה (’asah, “to do”) carries too general a sense to draw the conclusion that Ham had to have done more than look on his father’s nakedness and tell his brothers.

[9:25]  ⁴ sn For more on the curse, see H. C. Brichto, The Problem of “Curse” in the Hebrew Bible (JBLMS), and J. Scharbert, TDOT 1:405-18.

[9:25]  ⁵ sn Cursed be Canaan. The curse is pronounced on Canaan, not Ham. Noah sees a problem in Ham’s character, and on the basis of that he delivers a prophecy about the future descendants who will live in slavery to such things and then be controlled by others. (For more on the idea of slavery in general, see E. M. Yamauchi, “Slaves of God,” BETS 9 [1966]: 31-49). In a similar way Jacob pronounced oracles about his sons based on their revealed character (see Gen 49).

[9:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “a servant of servants” (עֶבֶד עֲבָדִים, ’eved ’avadim), an example of the superlative genitive. It means Canaan will become the most abject of slaves.

[9:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “blessed be.”

[9:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “a slave to him”; the referent (Shem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “may God enlarge Japheth.” The words “territory and numbers” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:27]  ¹⁰ tn In this context the prefixed verbal form is a jussive (note the distinct jussive forms both before and after this in vv. 26 and 27).