Why did Noah curse Canaan instead of Ham? | GotQuestions.org

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Today's question is, why did Noah curse Ham and Canaan? In this video

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I'll answer that question from a biblical perspective. Then afterwards, as always, I'll share some helpful resources, so stick around until the end.

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After the Flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "...be fruitful and increase in number, and fill the earth."

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Genesis 9 verse 1. The men and their wives, under God's blessing, began to do just that.

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Sometime later, Scripture relates an unhappy episode in Noah's life involving Noah and his three sons.

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In the fallout of that incident, Noah's grandson Canaan is said to be cursed.

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Genesis 9 verse 25. It all started when Noah planted a vineyard and used the grapes to make wine.

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He drank the wine and became drunk, and shamefully lay naked in his tent. Genesis 9 verses 20 and 21.

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Noah's youngest son Ham, identified as the father of Canaan in verse 22, saw his father's condition and the fact that Noah was naked in his tent.

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Rather than keep the matter quiet or attempt to help his father, Ham told his two brothers the salacious news.

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Genesis 9 verse 22. Ham's response to his father's sin shows somewhat of Ham's character and disrespect for his father.

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Shem and Japheth acted more nobly. They took a garment and laid it across their shoulders.

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Then they walked in backwards and covered their father's naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

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Genesis 9 verse 23. Later, Noah sobered up. He made some inquiries and found out what his youngest son had done to him.

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Genesis 9 verse 24. This wording suggests that Ham did more than just see

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Noah's nakedness. He did something, but just what is unknown. It's useless to speculate.

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In any case, upon hearing the facts, Noah said something surprising. Cursed be

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Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers! Genesis 9 verse 25.

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He also praised the Lord at that time and pronounced a patriarchal prophetic blessing on Shem and Japheth in verses 26 and 27.

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Twice more, in that blessing, Noah declared that Canaan would be a slave to Shem and Japheth.

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Of note is the fact that Noah did not curse Ham. The curse is pronounced on Canaan, Ham's son, but nowhere does

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Noah directly curse Ham. It is significant, though, that the other two of Noah's sons receive a blessing, but Ham does not.

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That omission resulted in the patriarchal blessing passing Ham by. This was no doubt intentional given

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Ham's behavior. So, why did Noah curse Canaan when it was clearly

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Ham who acted inappropriately? Several theories have been put forward. First, there is an ellipsis in the text.

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When Genesis 9 speaks of Canaan, it is really the father of Canaan that is meant, the words the father of being understood.

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This theory relies on an insupportable assumption about the text. Second, Canaan and Ham were both involved in the sin against Noah.

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This means that Canaan was present when Ham observed Noah's nakedness. This theory adds to Scripture, however.

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The text never mentions Canaan's whereabouts, but it does specify that it was Ham, Noah's youngest son, who had done something to him,

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Genesis 9, verse 24. Third, Ham had been blessed by God, Genesis 9, verse 1, and Noah refused to curse someone whom the

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Lord had blessed, in the same way that prophet Balaam could not curse the Israelites. God had told

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Balaam, you must not put a curse on those people because they are blessed, Numbers 22, verse 12.

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So, Noah pronounces a curse on some of Ham's descendants. Ham's sin against his father brought a punishment through his son.

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Not all of Ham's descendants were cursed, only those through Canaan. It is possible that Canaan was chosen to bear the imprecation because he was already showing evidence that he shared his father's character.

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And fourth, the curse on Canaan is more of a prophecy. Noah learned of Ham's sin and gave him the bad news that one line of his posterity would suffer.

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As a prophet of God, Noah foresaw that the Canaanites, in their wickedness, would deserve their fate.

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See Leviticus 18 for a list of future Canaanite sins. Ham's punishment was to lack a fatherly blessing and to know that he was the ancestor of a doomed people group.

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In Genesis 10, the descendants of Canaan are listed. They include the Sidonites, the

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Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 10, verses 15 -19.

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Noah's curse and or prophecy came true during the time of Joshua. The Canaanites' descendants of Ham were conquered by the

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Israelites' descendants of Shem. True to God's Word, some of the Canaanites became slaves.

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The inclusion of this sordid incident in the life of Noah is interesting. Out of all that Noah did after the

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Flood, why is this episode the only one recorded? The answer lies in the events surrounding the writing of Genesis.

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Moses, the author of Genesis, was leading the Israelites toward the land of Canaan to take possession of it.

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The story of how Canaan came to be cursed was one justification of the conquest.

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God had pronounced doom upon these people long ago, and it was time for that prophecy to be fulfilled.

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Want to learn more? Subscribe so you don't miss the next video! Visit GotQuestions .org for more great content. And check out the details section below this video, there you'll find one book

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I recommend, along with links to several related questions. If you'd like to learn about Bible Munch, or if you're interested in Bite -sized devotionals, subscribe to Bible Munch on YouTube, it's linked right here.