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Hi all,
I have been wrestling with this question: ‘What did Ham do to deserve such a curse from his father, Noah?’ See the following passage here:
Genesis 9:18The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. 19These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.
20Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. 22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside.
23Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.
24When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said,
“Cursed be Canaan!
A servant of servants
shall he be to his brothers.”
Shem’s Blessing and Noah’s Death
26He also declared:
“Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem!
May Canaan be the servant of Shem.
27May God expand the territory of Japheth;
may he dwell in the tents of Shem,
and may Canaan be his servant.”
28After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. 29So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.
Anyone interested in discussing?
LU
There are a few theories that seem to be popular but none of them are resonating with me. Does anyone here have a theory of their own and can you support it Biblically?
LU
I think the more important question is what did Ham do to Noah that he would curse Canaan (What land did the Israelite’s take possession of…hmm – coincidence). To be cursed because Ham saw his father naked doesn’t make sense as it doesn’t fit the punishment; besides, how would Noah have known he saw him naked? He was covered when he woke. So what did Noah realize when he woke? What did Ham do to him while he was pasted out? This is never revealed in the Tanakh; all we’re left with is speculation and is it really that important to know?
One of those hidden mysteries.
Good question, everyone that I have listened to from YouTube has asked a similar question as you, “what did Ham do…” That seems to be a common question because that curse on Ham’s descendants through Canaan seems pretty over the top.
The thoughts I have are these: perhaps Ham didn’t do anything wrong; maybe Noah had a lapse in judgement and showed poor self-control as he lashed out with an inappropriate curse out of embarrassment?
You ask how Noah would have known that he was seen naked by Ham. Well, Noah woke up with a garment over him that did not belong to him. That was his first clue. He would have noticed what he was wearing or not wearing while he slept, which was his second clue upon waking. Possibly he got word that it was Ham that saw him drunk and uncovered.
He wouldn’t be the first patriarch that lacked wisdom and sound judgement. If it is so, that Noah lashed out unfairly with a curse on his grandson and his grandson’s descendants, well that is something that could cause a huge rift in a family and Ham’s descendants through Canaan may have drifted away from Noah and the extended family for that reason.
As you say, “one of those hidden mysteries.” Maybe, but it might be pretty straight forward. Noah, the one who had the description as the “Preacher of Righteousness,” got drunk and woke up embarrassed and said some things that he shouldn’t have said which caused a deep wound, leading to division.
This seems to be the most plausible meaning of the text, imo.
For Ham to see his father naked but his child is the one who is cursed seems over the top, which is why I say Ham did something bad to his father; so bad that Noah would curse his son and why the fourth son and not his eldest. Ham did something to Noah and this is what we don’t get in this passage; we never learn what happened and this is where speculation comes in.
Let’s have some hypothetical fun. We don’t get the time of day Noah got drunk and passed out; if it was at night, why didn’t his wife cover him; which leads me to speculate he got drunk during the day while his wife was out doing “wifely” things when Ham walked into the tent discovering Noah in his birthday suit.
Verse 24 says, “Noah awoke from his wine, and he knew/realized what his small son had done to him.” So what did Ham do? In the christian world I was taught Ham, by seeing his father naked and telling his brothers about it, was disrespectful and is why the harsh punishment on Canaan. A narrative that doesn’t make sense today; why was the punishment put on Canaan and not Ham? After all, Ham is focus in the text, not his son.
Backing up to verse 22, “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside.” The phrase “saw his father’s nakedness” occur one other time in the Tanakh (Lev 20:17) “If a man has sexual intercourse with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace”; now some real speculation occurs to what may have happened in that tent. Did Ham sodomize his father!?!?!? HOWEVER, that still doesn’t explain the cursing of Ham’s fourth son.
Entertaining another speculation, did Ham castrate his father while passed out? G-d told them when they left the ark to populate the earth; this wasn’t directed at just the sons, but of everyone and would also include Noah and his wife. IF Ham had castrated his father, then Noah couldn’t do as G-d commanded and repopulate the world; so Noah couldn’t have a fourth son. Is this why Noah cursed Ham’s fourth son?
Reading Leviticus 18, G-d gives the laws concerning sexual relations as the Israelite’s are getting ready to take possession of the “Promised Land” – the area Ham’s fourth son settled, the land of Canaan. Reading this chapter, the people of this land performed these “abominable” acts G-d said not to do.
Is it possible Ham both sodomized and castrated his father? Is it possible Canaan was also involved and is why he is the target of Noah’s curse? Is it a situation of the apple not falling far from the tree, “like father, like son”?
Again, having a little fun with hypotheticals, in a weird way. We are never given what actually happened and does knowing what happened effect anything and will it really matter if we knew (other than satisfying curiosity)?
From my research, it is not uncommon for the wife to have her own tent. A wife needs a lot of closet space after all, haha. Anyway, I tend to lean towards the obvious, Noah was drunk and embarrassed and said the wrong thing. Many families are broken apart from careless words. The tongue is a dangerous part of the body.
Proverbs 12:18 There is one speaking rashly like the thrusts of a sword, and the tongue of the wise ones is healing.
Noah’s tongue cursed his own grandson and his descendants which were also Noah’s descendants. Where is the wisdom in that?
Besides that, I don’t think that Canaan is the fourth son of Ham. Lists of son’s names do not necessarily show birth order. He could have been the only son of Ham at the time and Noah felt hurt by his son, Ham, so Noah cursed Ham’s son in a way that Ham would feel hurt back. It’s a guess.
Moral of the story, don’t get drunk, wake up from being drunk and start cursing your future descendants. Not a smart move for a family!
The people that suggest voyerism, or sodomy, or incest, or castration, or homosexual activity are all trying to find a crime that would justify the curse. If you just accept that the curse was Noah’s careless lashing out after waking from a drunken spree, the passage reads easily. All the immorality is not supported by the Hebrew, especially since Noah uncovered himself. If there was immorality on Ham’s part…Ham would be doing the uncovering of his father.
Does that make any sense to you?
Your believing Noah “lashed” out after getting drunk is only a belief, it can’t be supported scripturally; but rather it would seem is a teaching of a religion and their condemnation of alcohol. Noah got drunk, did something stupid, past out, and when he woke was angry and lashed out – see how bad drinking alcohol is.
You say “all the immorality (voyeurism, sodomy, incest, castration, homosexuality) is not supported by the Hebrew”; have you looked at what Judaism believes happened in this passage? This is exactly what they believe happened (link) and they are 100% sure as this link gives six different possibilities. Why, because there isn’t enough information given.
One has to explain verse 24 “Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him.” There was something done to Noah by his son that caused him to curse Canaan. You are correct about sons not necessarily being listed in birth order; many times they are listed in the order of “importance” and in the case of Canaan he is listed last in the next chapter which could possibly signify he was considered least of the sons of Ham, but was most likely the first born as he is mentioned as the son of Ham twice (vs. 18 & 22) before we get the genealogy accounts of Noah’s sons in the next chapter.
HOWEVER, anything we come up with is still only speculation because we don’t get an account of what actually occurred that day.
It would seem the only point in knowing what happened is centered on alcohol and how bad it is for one to consume. Alcohol is a HUGE religious sticky point in many faiths and abstaining from it is the only course anyone who calls themselves “christian” MUST do, without exception. Which is funny, even the Jesus drank wine (Matt 11:19, Luke 7:34) and no, one does NOT drink watered down wine, it’s not very good. The Jesus goes to a wedding where they run out of wine and, as the teaching goes, the good wine is served first and as people ‘get drunk’, the lower quality wine is then served. The issue is they ran out of all of it and enter in the Jesus (how lucky for them), he gets some jugs of water and turns them into wine; not just any wine, but the best wine they have ever tasted.
When a religion gets on the ‘no drinking bandwagon’ it is done for control; drinking in moderation is never condemned in the Tanakh, drinking in excess or when making decisions is because doing so will effect one’s abilities and their mind.
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