The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 225

et: the crises of Lot (eh. xix, 33), Ahasuerus Lewis). Origen mnntions B tradition that (Esther i. 10, 11), Bolsl,1azz11r _(D~n: v,, 1-: Canaan first saw the shamo cf Noah, and 6). Within hie tent, Ev r,I' o,rctp avrov told it to his father. Wordsworth, following (LXX.). Chrysostom, believes Canaan may have been Ver. 22.-And Ham, the father of Canaan, an accomplice. 'The Speaker's Commentary' aaw the nakednesa. Pudenda, from a root thinks it would solve tho difficulty which (n,]/) signifying to make naked, from o. attaches to the cursing of Canaan. ki~dred root to which (C'Jv,) comes the term Ver. 25. -And he said. Not in personal resentment, since "the fall of :Noah is not st expressive of the nakedness of Adam and all connected with his prophecy, except as Evo after eating the forbicldcn fruit. (~h. serving to bring out the real character of hi8 iii. 7). The sin of Ham-not a "tnlhng children, and to reconcile him to the differ• and unintentional transgression" (Von Boh- ent destinies which he was to announce as len)-obviously lay not in seeing what per• awaiting their respective races" (Candlish) ; haps he may have come upon unexpectedly, but under the impulse of a prophetic spirit l-ut (1) in wickedly rejoicing in what he (Poole, Keil, Lange, Candlish, Murphy, ancl saw which considering who he was that expositors generally), which, however, had was' overcor:ie with wine,-" the minister of its historical occasion in the foregoing inci- salvation to men, and the chief restorer of dent. The structure of the prophecy is the world,"-the relation in which he stood perfectly symmetrical, introducing, in three to Ham,-that of father,-the advanced age poetical verses, (1) the curse of Canaan, (2) to which he had now come, and the compara- the blessing of Shem, and (3) the enlarge- tively mature years of Ham himself, who was ment of Japheth, and in all three giving "already more than a hundred years old," promi:.Jence to the doom of servitude pro- should have filled him with sincere sorrow ; nounced upon the son of Ham. Cursed. Tb e "sed nunquam vino victum patrem filius second curse pronounced upon a human risisset nisi prius ejecisset animo illam re- being, the first having been on Cain (eh. fr. verenti~m et opinionem, qure in liberis de 11). Colenso notices that all the curses parentibus ex mandato Dei existere de bet" belong to the J ehovistic writer; but vide (Luther) ; and (2) in reporting it, doubtless eh. xlix. 6, 7, which Tuch and Bleek ascribed with a malicious purpose, to his brethren. to the Elohist, though, doubtless in conse- And told his two brethren without. Pos- quence of the "curse," by Davidson and sibly inviting them to come and look upon others it is now assigned to the J ehovist. their father's shame. That this curse was not an imprecation, but Ver. ·23.-And Shem and J'apheth took a a prediction of the future subjection of the garment. Literally, the robe, i. e. which Canaanites, has been maintained (Theodoret, Wll8 at hand (Keil, Lange); the simlah, which Venema, Willet), chiefly in consequence of Wll8 an outer cloak (Deut. x. 18; 1 Sam. xxi. its falling upon Canaan ; but (1) as the 10 ; Isa. iii. 6, 7), in which, at night, per- contrary "blessing" implies the inheritance sons wrapped themselves (Deut. xxii. 17). of good in virtue of a Di,inc disposition to Sometimes the letters are transposed, and that effect, so does "cursing" import subjec- the word becomes salmah (cf. Exod. xxii. 8 ; tion to evil by tho same Divine power ; and Micah ii. 8). And laid it upon both their (2) if we eliminate the moral element from shoulders, and went backwards, and covered the doom of Canaan, which clearly referred the nakedness of their father ; and their to a conclition of temporal servitude, there faces were backwlll'd, and they saw n.'ot the seems no reason why tho language of Noah nakedness of their father ; thereby evincing should not be rogarcled ns a solemnly pro- " the regard they paid to their father's nounced and Divinely guaranteed infliction ; honour a.nd their own modesty" (Calvin). while (3) ns the curse is obviously aimed at Ver. 24. -And Noah awoke from his the nations and peoples descending from the wine. I. e. the effects of his wine (cf. 1 Sam. execrated person, it is not inconsistent to 1. 14; xxv. 37); l;lv.,,J,• (LXX.); "be- suppose that many indhidunls amongst those came fully conscious of his condition" ('l'. nations and peoples might attain to a high Lewis). And knew. By inspiration (Alforcl); dcgreo of tempornl ancl spiritual prosperity. more 'probably by making inquiries as to Be Canaan. (1) Not Ham, the father of the reason of the simlah coverin"' him. Canaan (Arabic Version) ; nor (2) all the What his younger son. Litemlly, his son, sons of Ham, thou"h concen~ted in Canaan the little one, i. e. the youngest son (Willet, (Hii.vernick, Keil, Mu.~phy); but (3) Cana:u, M•irphy, Wordsworth, T. Lewis, Alford, alone, though indirectly, through him, HaRl Candlish), or the younger son (Keil, Bush, also (Calvin, Bush, Kalisch, Lange, et alii). Ka,isch) ; cf, eh. v. 32. Generally believed For the formal omission of H"-m many dif- to hnve been Ham, though by runny Canaan ferent reasons have been assignc,1. (1) Be- ia undorstood (Aben Ezra, Theodoret, Pro- cause God had preserved him iii the ark (Jew- i:opius Scaligcr, Poole, Jamieson, Inglis, ish commentators). {2) Becm.s~ if Ham had 150 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. (cu. ix. 18-29