Genesis 9:18-27
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Noah and His Sons. 18 [a]The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.(A) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.
20 Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. 21 He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and lay naked inside his tent.(B) 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside. 23 Shem and Japheth, however, took a robe, and holding it on their shoulders, they walked backward and covered their father’s nakedness; since their faces were turned the other way, they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said:
“Cursed be Caanan!
The lowest of slaves
shall he be to his brothers.”(C)
26 He also said:
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem!
Let Canaan be his slave.
27 May God expand Japheth,[b]
and may he dwell among the tents of Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave.”
Footnotes
- 9:18–27 The character of the three sons is sketched here. The fault is not Noah’s (for he could not be expected to know about the intoxicating effect of wine) but Ham’s, who shames his father by looking on his nakedness, and then tells the other sons. Ham’s conduct is meant to prefigure the later shameful sexual practices of the Canaanites, which are alleged in numerous biblical passages. The point of the story is revealed in Noah’s curse of Ham’s son Canaan and his blessing of Shem and Japheth.
- 9:27 In the Hebrew text there is a play on the words yapt (“expand”) and yepet (“Japheth”).
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