And he said, Blessed [be] the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Ver. 26. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem.] Shem seems to have been the chief actor and persuader of that reverent behaviour; and therefore, as he is first named, Gen 9:23 before his elder brother Japhet; so here he hath the first and chief blessing. It is good to be first in a good matter, yea, prompt and "present to every good work," as Paul hath it. Tit 3:1
And Canaan shall be his servant.] This curse was not fulfilled for many hundred years after, till the sins of the Amorites were grown full, and then it was accomplished. God's forbearance is no acquittance. He can also turn a curse into a blessing, as he did this to Araunah the Jebusite, of the worst and most stubborn of the Canaanites; for they held the Tower of Jebus from the posterity of Shem after all the rest had yielded. 2Sa 5:7 Yet he became a godly proselyte, and gave, as a king, his freehold to King David, to build an altar on, 2Sa 24:18 and this deed of his was long after remembered. Zec 9:7 The like may be said of the Gibeonites, who are called Nethinims in Ezra and Nehemiah. They were made servants to the Shemites, drawers of water to the temple, as a kind of punishment. God made this cross a mercy. Their employment so near the house of God gave them fit occasion to be partakers of the things of God. And the Lord, we see, did wonderfully honour them; the nearer they were to the church, the nearer to God. It is good getting into his house, though to be but "a doorkeeper" with David, or a water bearer with these Gibeonites. Stand but in God's way as he passeth, and thou shalt be preferred.