Genesis 9:18-29 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

Bible Comments

Noah's Three Sons

Genesis 9:18-29

Noah's sin reminds us how weak are the best of men; liable to fall, even after the most marvelous deliverances. The love of strong drink will drag a preacher of righteousness into the dust. But if our brethren sin, let us not parade or tell their faults, but cover them with the mantle of divine love. We may abhor the sin, but let us restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, remembering that we also may be tempted. See Galatians 6:1-18 :l-4. The Semitic races have been the source of religious light and teaching to the world. God has been known in their tents. The Japhetic races are the great colonizers and populators of the world, overflowing their own boundaries, and participating in the religious privileges of the Shemites. The progressive ideas of the race of Japheth, which, of course, includes the Indo-European race, have also pervaded the world. The Hamitic races, of which Canaan was one, have always gravitated downward.

Genesis 9:18-29

18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.a

19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.

20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:

21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.

25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.b

27 God shall enlargec Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.