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

The biggest misinterpretation that I constantly hear when people try to explain what really happened boggles my mind. First and foremost, HAM didn’t do anything wrong and NOAH didn’t curse HAM - he cursed CANAAN. That’s the main subject. So, the question is why? Genesis 9:18 establishes the lineage of Noah and the birth order of his (3) sons… this is found more than once in scripture - SHEM, HAM, and JAPHETH. If you don’t start there then you will misinterpret and mistranslate this event. We have to establish that HAM “was not the youngest son of NOAH.” In fact, JAPHETH was the youngest son of NOAH. All of this has to be known before you even dive into this passage. And even before you reference LEV. 18. So, when you read the passage and realize that it says that once NOAH woke up “and found out what his youngest son had done… he said, “Curse be Canaan.” Now, if you already know by SCRIPTURE CONFIRMATION that HAM isn’t the youngest son of NOAH, then who was he taking about? Obviously, JAPHETH being the “youngest son of NOAH” didn’t do anything. He wasn’t even there when the “thing” happened. So, now this is where hermeneutical studies come into play. The word “son” in Hebrew is the word “Ben”… as in, “BEN-DAVID” whom the Scripture calls CHRIST the “SON OF DAVID.” Why would CHRIST be called the “SON OF DAVID” when he’s not the actual son of DAVID’s loins? Well, unlike the English language, the Hebrew words have more than one meaning. The word “son” [Ben] in Hebrew actually means.. “son, grandson, or descendant”. So, when the Scripture says that NOAH had found out what his “youngest son” had done he wasn’t talking about HAM (his second born), nor was he talking about JAPHETH (his actual youngest son - third born)… he was talking about his YOUNGEST GRANDSON (BEN)… CANAAN was the YOUNGEST GRANDSON of all the grandchildren of NOAH. This is why HAM I’d never mentioned as being cursed because he didn’t do anything. HAM saw his “father’s nakedness/nakedness of his father” which was a sexual act taking place that his youngest son (NOAH’s youngest grandson) was doing to NOAH’s wife (HAM’s mother). So, when HAM went out and told his brothers what had happened (CANAAN violating their mother), SHEM & JAPHETH walked backwards with a covering to “cover their mother (father’s nakedness)” because of the shame involved. It was and never has been a sin for a man to see his father naked. But, according to LEV. 18 (sexual sins), father’s nakedness is a sexual act that we know and is proven by scripture was what CANAAN did to his grandmother. This is why CANAAN was cursed and also why the people of CANAAN (the land) were known for their godlessness and sexual deviance. SODOM & GOMORRAH was in the land of CANAAN. And this is what GOD had the people CANAAN wiped out because of their forefather’s sin and curse - CANAAN and its people no longer exist because of what CANAAN the “BEN” (youngest grandson of Noah) did to Noah’s wife. HAM remains innocent and still is innocent to this day! In fact, the idea of HAM sexually involved with his mom and then going out to tell his brother’s what he supposedly did is the dumbest thing ever explained when it comes to this passage of scripture. If you truly pay attention to what MOSES is writing, you will see CANAAN’s name mentioned twice even before the actual act is known. MOSES was trying to give us clues about something that would involve CANAAN even before it actually happened. Don’t believe me? … ”The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.)“ Genesis‬ ‭9‬:‭18‬ ‭- ”Ham, the father of Canaan...“ Gen‬ ‭9‬:‭22‬ ‭

No, Leviticus 18 states that a man’s nakedness is the nakedness of his wife. Clearly this is talking about the fact that Ham slept with his own mother and she became pregnant with Canaan. The reason Ham did this is because it was an attempt to take charge over the household since he wasn’t the firstborn.

The nakedness of his father is actually the nakedness of his mother, which is an euphemism for having intercourse with her (or maybe even him?) according to the Bible. Lev. 18:7-8 (14) and 20:11. While Noah was drunk and unaware of what was going on around him, Ham entered his father's tent and had relations with his mother. Canaan was likely the result of that union, which explains why he was the target of the curse.

Thank you for providing different perspectives and interpretations.

There are many questions ro this story: Why does Noah, the only holy man on earth, suddenly gets drunk, then when found out, doesn't own up to his mistakes but punishes, not his son but his grandson? And how do the 2 other sons cover him without seeing his nakedness? Could a grand father have the heart to curse his grand child realistically? And especially the only holy person on earth? Could this story have been instead a later addition to justify the colonisation of the land? If it was a later justification, could it be by Moses, when Moses told pharao he wanted to pray to the mountain, and that land belonged to Egypt anyway. So it must be a much later addition, at a time when a people wanted to jusitify the conquest of that land. Canaan is also a child a God, the same God who sent Jonah to an non hebrew nation to ask that nation to repent as God wanted to save them. But in the case of Canaan, why are we not given any account of prophets sent to Canaan? This is odd.

Do a word search for nakedness in the Old testament and you will discover what seeing or uncovering somebody’s nakedness really means. I don’t understand why people have such a hard time with this. We must free ourselves from reading scripture using our worldview and strive to read scripture with the worldview of the it’s contemporaries.

That's a lot of families to go through to find out, whose who!, But thank you for sharing this bit of info.

I spent 2 years working on unraveling this knot. This passage in Genesis seems to come out of nowhere, and what it says is shocking to say the least. Noah didn't react to Ham the way you would expect a father to. His reaction was one of 'I've had it with you', which indicates a long history of difficulties between him and Ham. Not only was the curse shocking, but a holy man such as Noah getting drunk and passing out naked in his tent just seem so jarring and out of place. What I finally worked out was the following: I believe Noah's wife was Naamah the sister of Tubal Cain. She is mentioned by name in Genesis, and Japheth the first born of Noah named one of his sons Tubal. (It's customary for a child to name one of their children after either a parent, or grandparent.) When the ark project got underway, Noah was completely involved with all of it, so I believe Naamah was the one who handled the household and the children. It wasn't until God told Noah to build the ark, that they even had any children. Things in the pre-flood world must have been so bad, that they didn't want to bring children into that world. Once they knew there was hope, Naamah had 3 sons one right after the other, with Japheth the first born, Shem the second, and Ham the third and youngest. I believe Ham was a problem child. He most likely had enough of the genetics of Cain in him to make him rebellious, and since Naamah knew she had that in her, she felt guilty for it and probably tried to shelter Ham from the stigma. As a result, Ham grew up being able to 'get away' with things, because his mother sheltered him. Noah was too busy to deal with it, so he left it to Naamah. I think when the ark was finished, and before they entered it, Noah must have given strict instructions to his sons to NOT get their wives pregnant while they were in the ark. This would cause all kinds of difficulty, and everyone was going to need to be in full health for the tremendous amount of work they were going to have to do once the flood was over, and they entered the world afterwards. I think Ham disobeyed his father, and got his wife pregnant (she was a Cushite; Cush was the ancient word for black), and Canaan was born on the ark. When Ham had to tell everyone she was pregnant, it must have been unbelievably bad. I cannot imagine how both angry and hurt Noah must have been. Naamah did her best to smooth things over, but Noah never forgot it. I believe the incident with Noah getting drunk in his tent was because his wife had just died. This would have been probably somewhere around 250-300 years after the flood (Noah lived to be 950, and was 600 when they left the ark). The sons were all in their 90's when they entered the ark, and by the time of the tent incident, they were all somewhere around 350-400 years old with family lines of their own. They would have been spread out by then in their own areas, yet they were all there outside Noah's tent when this incident happened. This led me to believe something serious had happened. The one thing missing in that whole scene was Naamah, the wife of Noah and mother of his children. This would explain Noah's behavior. I cannot imagine the kind of bond that would form between 2 people for that long a period of time, especially with all they went through together. I think Noah was so grief-stricken, he couldn't stand to be awake, and he couldn't sleep. The only thing he could think of was to drink wine until he passed out, which he did; sitting there naked next to where his wife had been by his side for centuries, but now she was gone. Everyone outside of his tent must have been hearing him grieving, but there wasn't anything they could do or say that would help him. When he passed out, the sounds of his grieving would have suddenly stopped, and they all must have been wondering what happened. Ham being the person he was, must have scoffed at them and went to go look. This is why he went into the tent of Noah, and saw him. He went back and made an inappropriate comment about his father's condition, probably in a flippant and disrespectful manner. This horrified everyone. Shem probably took one of his own blankets, and he and Japheth walked in backwards and covered Noah. In the morning when Noah awoke, he would have had a wicked hangover, and out of habit reached over to where Naamah and always been, but she was gone, and it all came back to him. He noticed Shem's blanket covering him, and knew he had been in his tent. Noah must have been in a horrible mood, combined with grief and a brutal headache. He went outside and took the blanket to Shem, and wanted to know why he had been in his tent. Shem told Noah the truth, and in that instant, Noah remembered it all. He remembered the moment when Ham told everybody his wife was pregnant in the ark, only now Naamah wasn't there to cover for Him. That was it. Noah had had it. Ham had disrespected him for the last time. He cursed Canaan because he knew that would burn Ham more than anything else, and Ham would understand why. I think this event caused the split in the family line, with Ham leaving in a rage and going down to northeast Africa and claiming that area as his. Ham apparently made a deal with Satan to gain power, and setup the whole demonic religion/government style that came to be known by Ham's son's name, Egypt. Ham blamed Shem for everything (just like Cain blamed Abel), and his hatred for Shem became ingrained in his descendants, which is why there has been enmity and hostility between Ham's descendants and Shem's all this time, and it's still going on.

Very interesting, thank you for this 😊

Praise God... lovely explanation.. God bless your ministry

Lev 20:11 says to see your father's nakedness is to sleep with your fathers wife. In this context, Ham slept with his mother and that union produced Canaan. So Canaan was both a son and a brother. This is why Noah cursed him. Canaan was not his son. All four sons inherited Noah's possessions proving that Canaan was considered a brother of Ham, Shem and Japheth all being born by the same mother. It's not complicated. The story narrator just didn't want to use plain language to keep it respectable.

Maybe this is supposed to explain why the Canaanites were seen as lesser compared to Abraham’s family. Why Abraham’s family chose to never marry a local Canaanite. And why God later ordered the Israelites to wipe them out. As well as the fact that the land of Canaan would always been in dispute.

this was great! thank you! I am reading the Bible from the beginning to see who the people were that came from Jesus' line, and I've always wanted to know why did Noah curse Canaan and not Ham himself. thanks for the explanation.

Take note: The Original Hebrew-Aramaic Word used for Nakedness in Leviticus 18:7 is "ER VAT."... while the Original Hebrew-Aramaic word used for Nakedness in Genesis 9:22, is "ER WAT."... and NOT the same in CONTEXT and MEANING... Praise be to God in Christ Jesus... Amen.

A lot of assumptions and interpretations have to be made in this passage. There are many different views on what Ham had actually done.

Tooth for a tooth thinking can draw innocent people into the punishment. He wanted Ham to suffer the same way he suffered, from having a bad son. There is something karmic about it. A son who doesn't respect his father raises a son who doesn't respect his father. And Ham will suffer like Noah.

an ancient text stated that Canaan took the land allotted for Shem and his decendants. I think that's why God took it back and gave it to Abraham

Ham did nothing wrong. Noah was just a bad dude. This story was literally just a way for Moses to justify destroying the Canaanites.

Pastor Nelson. Thank You For Your Work!

Canaan was Ham’s son. Noah cursed Canaan instead of Ham because the son bore the sin of the father.

So a drunker has the authority issue a curse?

While we often remember Shem as the ancestor of Jesus through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David, we tend to forget that Ham was also the ancestor of Jesus through Tamar and Rahab.

Actually the "curse" is a prophecy of Noah about his grandson Canaan. After these events Noah divided the whole earth to his sons and his sons to theirs. Each one received land with clear delimitations, which none was to violate by oath. That's exactly what Canaan did, he left his estates in Ham and went to settle in Shem's. Among the curses for violating this oath was the ultimate destruction of the descendance, Nephilim infestation, uncleaness etc... Which we later learn from scriptures was typical for the so called land of Canaan. Giants, abominable customs etc... Abraham being promised the land is simply restitution the inheritance to a shemite. And israélites being asked to utterly destroy the "locals" was execution of one the curses : being wiped out of earth's surface. No wrathful and genocidal"God" at work here, but righteous execution of curse taken long time ago by their ancestors. Abraham being told in Genesis his descendants will be made slave before they Can return later because the iniquities of those cananites hasn't not reached their fullness is simply the clock ticking for them, why? To give the opportunity to some to repent maybe? Anyway not the art of a genocidal "god" right as some like to put it. (Not different then and today) Jubilees lays it out clearly and confirms other scriptures on this subject. It leaves zero room for speculations, like sex with the mother.....too much imagination.

. Lev. 18:7-8 and 20:11 explains what Father nakedness means

The curse of Ham is a story warning about gossip.. thats it. Ham walked in and saw his father naked and then eagerly dashed outside to tell his brothers. Instead of being discreet, he chose to point the finger at his father.

It was just Canaan and his descendants that Noah put the curse on, because Canaan have done something perverted to Noah while he was asleep, and he foresaw Canaan's traits, but his curse didn't effect Kush, Mizraim and Put

This was more than just seeing the nakedness of Noah. He slept with his mother and Canaan was the offspring. In Genesis 10 when they talk about the descendants of Noah they include Canaan and say Ham was his father. In the ESV Levitticus 18 says sleeping with the fathers wife is to uncover your fathers nakedness. I believe the covering of the fathers nakedness was actually covering their mother who was either naked or pregnant. How else would Noah awaken and know what his son had done to him. The only other possible explaination could be the molestation of Noah by his son Ham but Ham had 4 children and the others were not cursed.

Noah didn't curse Ham please, tell things how they really are my brother...where did u see Noah cursing Ham?

It is interesting that you never actually addressed , Why did Noah curse Canaan instead of Ham. Humm Go figure Are people so naïve as to not notice things like this ?

Thank you for this indepth understanding, it is greatly appreciated.❤

2023-11-27 Please refer to Leviticus 18, vv. 6 though the end. It shall be clear as to what Ham had done to bring about Noah’s curse upon Canaan, his grandson. Specifically, “thy father’s nakedness” is not a reference to Noah’s being in the raw, but to the person of his wife, in a euphemistic manner. “His father’s nakedness,” in other words, is a reference to Noah’s wife, Ham’s own mother, regardless of whether she herself was naked or not, it would seem-although there presumably must be a reason why the expression is related to being in the buck, so to say. Ham’s “sin,” so to say was not about his seeing his drunken father undressed, but rather, about “seeing,” or in Old Testament terms, perhaps “knowing (getting to know)” the “nakedness of his father,” namely his father’s wife-presumably his own biological mother, who may also have been drunk lying next to her husband-whom Ham may have quite wittingly and wickedly helped himself to would make immensely more sense in parsing the passage. As disgusting as that sounds, incest is definitely a sin, whereas accidentally witnessing his father being drunk and passed out naked may or may not have been. No doubt it would be highly disrespectful to tell others about one’s father’s state of drunken stupor, both then as well as now; whether that would constitute a sin resulting in the cursing of an entire bloodline is doubtful. By implication, the reference as to incest makes immensely more sense. The unanswered question is whether Noah’s wife was Ham’s biological mother. More poignantly, how much of a time lapse, if any, was involved between the “incident” and the birth of Canaan, as the result of such. The recounting of the narrative makes it appear as though it were a back-to-back event, but if we regard this as having cut to the chase scene, we reasonably see that Noah’s own realization of having been defiled May or may not have been immediate. Either way, the other two brothers-Shem and Japheth-must have informed their father as to what had occurred, and the Bible does not inform us as to all the details. For such is not germane to the story of our Savior’s death and resurrection, for purposes of our salvation! As a final note, some limited number of people have posited that Ham may have committed incest by violating his father, directly. I reject that as utter nonsense and conclude, as properly informed by Leviticus Chapter 18 that “the father’s nakedness” is a euphemism of the time in reference to one’s close kin. A passage such as the following from “The Boy on the Wooden Box” can be read in two ways, which appears to be intentional, and helps explain the understandable dilemma that presents itself by way of the account of Noah’s nakedness, but shores up the issue of how we must learn to view the Bible, or its translations, as being literary works of the then-contemporary usage, whether in English, Hebrew or Greek. “After the shower our heads were shaved and we were sent back to the field to stand naked in the raw October night.” Kyuho Tae, from Prague

To uncover your "father's nakedness" is to sleep with your mother. Leviticus 18:7-16; Leviticus 20:11-21. The reason the passage keeps telling us that Canaan is Ham's son is because Noah's wife was Canaan's mother. That is the reason Canaan receives the negative prophecy, it is the opposite of what Ham intentions were for his son. Ham tried to usurp his father's authority by his actions, it didn't work. The other son's were extra careful when covering the person because the didn't want to see their mom naked.

Noah didn’t curse Ham. He cursed Canaan because Canaan was the offspring of Ham and Noah’s wife. Read the book and research. Stop spreading false doctrine. None of Ham’s other children were cursed.

Narrator: Ham did more than just ‘see’ Noah’s nakedness, he did something. Just what is useless to speculate… The world: We disagree, that’s literally the whole point of this post - otherwise what’s the point … 👀

Well put!

1. Noah cursed Canaan not Ham (Genesis 9 Exegesis). 2. Ham was not Noah's youngest son (Genesis 5:32; Genesis 6:10; Genesis 7:13; Genesis 9:18; Genesis 10:1 Exegesis). Genesis 10:21 And were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the older brother of Japheth. Hypocrites! Did God curse Japheth / Magog? (Genesis 10:2; Ezekiel 38:2; Ezekiel 39:6; Revelation 20:8 Eisegesis). Oy! Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

Good grief, the people claiming Ham slept with his own mother have never in their lives studied biblical exegesis. Just because a phrase can be used as an expression for something else, doesn't mean that's the way it's being used every time it occurs. Same excuse used by folks that deny the Trinity, for ignoring all the plain passages that state that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God the Father. "That's symbolic for power!!" Lol

He did not curse Ham. Only Canaan. The only reason the untruth of ham being cursed is to later say ham was cursed with blackness to later deflect the truth of who the real shemites...not semites, are today. I would hope by now we know that's far from truth.

I would feel 1000 times worse if my father cursed my child than me. Talk about a double whammy

Great insight!

But If ham didn't tell his brothers noah they wouldn't have covered him up

AWESOME explanation. GOD BLESS YOU.

I don't think so. First off, I DO NOT believe that it was Ham that disrespected/sinned against his father. Here is why. Let's look at Gen. 5:32 it reads, And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In the OT when births are recorded, they normally record them in the order of their birth because of birthrights. Notice that Noah was 500 years old when he begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. I believe that these boys were triplets born in the order given. That means that Ham IS NOT the youngest and scripture says it was the youngest son that did something wrong. The next thing to know is that during that time period there was no Hebrew words for grandfather, grandmother, grandchild, grandson, granddaughter and so on. Yes, there are translations that uses those terms, but they are not in the Hebrew. This was a patriarchal society and the oldest living male in a genealogical line would always be called father by the children and the children's children and called sons and daughters of the oldest living male in that line. So consequently, Canaan was the youngest and it was he who did something wrong against Noah or perhaps with Noah's wife according to; Lev18:8 The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness. . So how do we know that Canaan was the youngest son of Ham? Gen 10:6 And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. Notice Canaan is listed last which means he was the youngest. This is why Noah did not curse Ham. Ham simply saw something happening or that had happened, and it happen at the hands of Canaan thus Canaan was cursed. This is my opinion based on what scripture we have.

Thanks I’m going to share this on my instagram

Read Lev 18, which talks about sins of "uncovered nakedness" which is incest. Verse 8 states, "The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness." Ham slept with his mother (which is according to this verse IS Noah's nakedness) and Canaan was the offspring of that uncoveredness (incest).

What a better explanation👍

Great take on the curse of Canaan. thanks for your video.

"It's useless to speculate" - guy who spent half the video speculating Also, you don't have to speculate, you could just read the Bible. I've never heard any of those silly theories in this video before, but leviticus 18 (which Moses also wrote) gives the definition you need. Ham had relations with his mom. So Canaan was likely the result of that. It also didn't say in the Bible that noah went around asking. It could be he just eventually noticed his pregnant wife and realized that wasn't his kid.

Strange this came across my feed. After this was our church family scripture reading yesterday…🤔🤨

Why did Noah curse Ham and Canaan? He didn't. Son Ham did something wrong. Grandson Canaan did nothing wrong. And Noah cursed the innocent grandson Canaan. Was Noah still hung over?

The most accurate in this history I’ve ever listened to . They sometimes referred all this to black Africans but Canaan was in the lavant and I couldn’t understand why ? The Canaanites were in the levant with many tribes . And ham’s other sons had many nations including Africans and others

Ham had a child by his mother and the offspring was actually cursed.

Are you a stand up comedian? I'm laughing my ass off at your routine. Satire makes for good comedy, but you sure pushed the limits with this one.

Noah did not curse Ham because GOD had blessed Ham. Noah could not CURSE who GOD had blessed,

Just seeing someone naked does not bring a curse on that person. Look how many people seen the prophet Isaiah as he walked around NAKED for 3 years. "God commanded the prophet Isaiah to walk around naked for three years to symbolize Assyria's upcoming domination of Egypt and Ethiopia. At that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, 'Go and take the sackcloth off your loins, and take your shoe off your foot.' And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. And the Lord said, 'Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years, for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; So shall the king of Assyria lead away Egypt's prisoners, and the Ethiopian exiles . . . naked and barefoot, even with uncovered buttocks . . .' (Isaiah 20:2 - 4, HBFV throughout). " Ham uncovered his father's nakedness and Shem and Japheth went in backwards and covered their father's nakedness. That would be covering Noah's wife. Ham laid with his Father's wife while Noah was drunk and passed out. LEV 18: 6 None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the Lord. 7 The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. 8 The nakedness of your father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness. LEV 20: 11 The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death.

In order words you just identify Noah and his kids being black.

Where does it say in scripture that Ham "did something" to Noah ? This is pure speculation. Noah cursed the Canaanites.

Awesome lesson keep doing an awesome job you explain the answers where I can get understanding so easily and you make it enjoyable to want to read and learn ❤

I understand many of the theories, but they come from the perspective of Noah as a victim of something, wich is one thing i do not like about many of the interpretations of the Noah´s arc, lets be clear, he is described as the first drunk person, if he is a victim of anything he brought it on himself by being drunk, wich is not a holy attitude, besides putting himself in a very insecure position... I think it should be reflected as the Sins of the Father, Noah was a Drunk and failed in the raise of Ham, that somehow harmed Noah at his weakest point, and that attitude had generational consecuences, from Ham to Canaan and so on...

AMAZING explanation

Why really did Noah curse Canaan yet it was Ham the cause

Noah didn’t curse Ham because he did nothing wrong, deserving cursing besides seeing his fathers nakedness, but Canaan, his youngest son (grand son), did something not revealed to us,and was cursed as a result Ham is not the youngest of the three, Jafeth is, in the bible, it's always shem Ham and Jafeth and vise versa in that order.

You haven't done your research behind the story of the curse of Cannan. If you read Genesis 9:20-26 you will read that Ham saw his Fathers nakedness. And then tells his brothers to which they go in and cover their fathers nakedness. Then Noah woke up and realized what his younger son did. Then Noah said Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall be unto his brethren. So Canaan became servant to Shem. What does it mean when it says the Father's nakedness? And why curse Canaan who wasn't born yet? Genesis 10:6 tells us later in time that Canaan is one of the sons of Ham. The bible explains that the Canaanites were offspring of Canaan and the Israelites are decent of Shem. So both are offspring of their brothers Ham and Shem. So what does it mean when Moses uses the words " his Fathers nakedness ". Going to leviticus 20:11 explains this language. Leviticus 20:11 11 And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. The language used is saying " his Fathers nakedness means that a person is having sex with his wife. Verse 6 shall not have sex with any blood relative, shall not uncover the nakedness of your Father (his wife or your mother) . 8v fathers nakedness means having sex with his wife. So Canaan was bored by Ham and his mother. The Canaanits practiced incest from their ancestors and the leader was Canaan. When you read this story in Genesis Moses shortened the story to protect Noah. So the curse of Canaan was to wipe out his offspring the Canaanits for their incest practices, which started with Ham having sex with his mother. A bastard offspring seed of Ham. So when Ham came out and told his brothers, he was telling them he just had sex with his mother. They then covered her with a blanke, not Noah. Noah found out later what happened and then cursed Hams son from his mother. The time-line of this event was over a few days but shorten by Moses.

Noah cursed Ham because Ham (The Pig) slept with his mother. Leviticus 20:11 "and a man that sleeps with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness" That is what happens when people dont examine the whole bible . You will always emagine or interpret things wrong. If only all of you knew the truth about the god of the bible and who he is and also about who Jesus (The Pig) really is. None of you would be worshipping any god. I hope my comment doesn't get deletedbecause everytime i tell the truth in this platform my comments get deleted.

I thought that he cursed Ham's son because that is the worse punishment to give a person. In the bible the curse is always on the first born sons not the person. Canaan is his first born which entitles him the blessing and now it will not be received because of what Noah did. I would like to point out that not just understanding why but how to remove any generation of past curses. We do not know what our ancestors did that can affect all future seeds. I pray all the time to remove any past and present curses. Every Sunday I spend the day with the word of GOD throughout my home and ask for all to be removed. Also put a blessing over my home.

He did not cover his father’s nakedness . I believe he just left him there and for his brothers to take care of rest . Upsetting his father to pronounce a curse

What if the real moral is that being drunk impairs your inhibitions? Noah gets drunk and when he's found naked he gets mad and curses the son of the guy who saw him naked.

Noah lay naked in his tent - unless he never took his clothes off in 950 years inside of his own tent would be the most appropriate place for him to be laying naked. Ham being in there to stare at him is the real issue. Nonetheless Noah did not ‘ call down a curse ‘ on Ham, nor call down a curse on his son Canaan, but rather reaffirm that Canaan was already cursed. Not because Ham saw his father naked, but rather that Ham married Canaan’s mother who was not a very pure woman from before the flood. The ‘ thing that Ham did to his father ‘ was disobey and go against his command to marry a pure as possible woman from the corrupted people before the flood. As a result the evil seed that corrupted the whole earth made its way through the flood. Canaan was a major carrier of the evil hybrid seed and the evil Canaanite tribes are the children of Canaan. That was why Canaan WAS cursed. Generations later Judah , being in the lineage to Messiah, married a girl that was of the Canaanites and not a good choice for maintaining genetic purity for Messiah to be born. That is why his first two sons were eliminated and the third would have been as well if not for the wise thinking of Tamar.

You mentioned that you can't curse one that has been blessed but Canaan was blessed right?

Amen from Malaysia

You should have read the book of Jubilees before you commented on this subject: You people have continue to lie, Read the book of Jubilees chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 instead of speculating.

Why are you not talking about what he did exactly? It seems as if you’re intentionally avoiding it.

Why curse, and not just be patient and forgiving?

4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God. 5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord. 6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord. 7 The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 8 The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness.

Since Noah knew what Canaan had done, he must have at least been sober and awake enough to know. What was Noah doing 'uncovering' himself? Seems like maybe a cover story to blame it on Canaan once the rest of the family found out. How old was Canaan at this point?

It amazes me of the people on this thread and their comments that have NO Biblical Basis of facts. LUKE Verse 3:23 - Verse 3:38 is the SON by Son [Seed by Seed] Genealogy of JESUS. It starts with his adoptive father Joseph and goes back DIRECTLY To Adam. Ham is NOT I REPEAT NOT in this Lineage. Noah's son SHEM is in the DIRECT Seed Line.

The reason i am searching is why tradition lists Ham as 536 at death, but cant find Japheth other than a source that says 445-545 which is it.

Greetings to all and Miss Piggy you got it right. We as believers are to rightly divide the word of truth as 2 Tim.2:15 says. The son of Noah was cursed because he had incess with his mother and produced Canaan, which God gave us a hint when when it was mentioned in Genesis 9:18, then in Gen.9:22. Also read Lev.18:7-15; 20:11 and Deut. 27:20

I don't think God has some kind of random rule where he can't curse someone he's blessed. That sounds like people just making stuff up. There were two main things on the Ark, animals and family members. The main type of curse that's passed on to offspring but not the perpetrators is genetic defects, which mainly happen through either inbrxxding depression with close relatives, or outbrxxding depression which happens through mating with closely related species, such as the genetic defects which make mules sterile, and make ligers look ugly. It's possible there were uncivilized feral hominids (speech-incapable or not), on the ark along with the other apes and monkeys, and Ham shamed his father by sneaking in there while he was passed out drunk and having his way with the animals, since there is no mention of Ham's mother or any female relatives, and he obviously can't get his father pregnant. That would explain the main curse of Canaan's line in specific, if it were borne from outbrxxding depression and one or several new sub-species of human were formed. If you study the genetic relationships and distances between various clades of modern humans, it's pretty obvious which one particular branch of branches is by far the most distant and least genetically different from all other branches and look and act the most differently by far from all the others, to the point that almost all humans today belong to just one branch, while the Canaanites belong to 4 or 5 totally separate branches, indicating that Ham really went to town on the ark, or continued his behavior afterwards on multiple occasions with multiple types of primates. Right now, all these branches of Canaanites only make up a small minority of the total human population, and they used to be a much smaller percentage until modernity artificially raised their birth rates, and now we are set to have the accursed become the global majority by about 2100 or so, and then only keep growing and assimilating the non-Canaanites from there on, and governments refuse to recognize any difference between Canaanites and non-Canaanites and are thus ideologically unable to stop humanity from becoming homogeneously Canaanite as a result of these trends accelerated by a combination of capitalism, Marxism, Christianity, and Islxm all perpetuating this Canaanite genetic singularity.

where do you read that he sobered up and where did you read he did some inquiries

But what did he do to Noah? Clearly wasn’t just seeing him naked.

It wasn't Baalam who wanted to curse the Israelites, but actually was Balak who was trying to do so

Thank you and God bless you for sharing your knowledge of the Bible.

What an explanation. God bless you

Noah had become intoxicated with wine and had uncovered himself in his tent. Canaan was very likely guilty of some abuse or perversion against his grandfather. Canaan’s father Ham, witnessed this and instead of stopping it, he told his two brothers of the discovery. Shem and Japheth exhibited proper respect by walking backwards with a mantle to cover Noah so that they wouldn’t bring reproach by looking on their father’s nakedness. Noah awakened and uttered a curse on Ham’s son Canaan. Shem and Japheth were blessed, Ham was passed over and ignored and had to suffer as a result of the shame brought upon his offspring. Canaan was cursed and was prophetically foretold to become a slave to Shem and Japheth.

Ham castrated Noah so that he would have no more sons. That’s why ham told his brothers because he thought that they’d agree with him. Also Canaan is the one who found Noah naked and told ham. Canaan instigated the incident which is why he was cursed

Totally wrong. He laid with his mother. Ham slept with his mother. Look it up correctly

"...it's useless to speculate." And here we are...with theories...without using the actual Scriptures. Is it any definition of wonder WHY questions exist about the reality of God, especially FROM the people wanting to find a relationship with Christianity?

Don't seem like it would be that big of deal if you saw your parent naked. He must the did something sexual.

May Thy creator forgive you all…for speculations and assumptions, fallacies stories unverified that are claimed from “Holy Spirit “. Let’s take caution on interpretations of the scripture and how we perceive it.

It is not useless to speculate at all. All the facts are available for a correct interpretation. Leviticus 20:18 says 'And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness'. Therfore Ham had relations with his father"s wife and Canan was the resultant progeny. This is why Ham did not receive a blessing and why Canan received a curse.

So… Noah cursed the son for something that hadn’t happened and biasly did so? That sounds a lot like how people get profile on their look for their character. Unjust And so Moses wrote saying how GOD CURSED THEM SO IT JUSTIFIES US KILLING THEM? Do I have that correct ?

Unless I'm reading a different Bible... Noah cursed Canaan, Ham's son, not Ham. It was a prophetic action, because the Canaanites would later have children with fallen angels, worship foreign gods and oppose Israel. Deliberately misquoting scripture to pursue the narrative that Africans are cursed. It's just lame, stupid and very old. Quit it. Preach the Gospel of Jesus, and if you have nothing to preach just sit down and be quiet.

Stop avoiding the truth, it's the, "saw the nakedness of his father, " you're not talking about.

This is explained and clarified very well...

Jubilees says Canaan stole the land that was alotted to Shem’s descendants. Noah had a vision of this . That’s why he woke up and curses Canaan

Where’s your Bible to read this story to other to follow along with ? Give us scriptures ???

What makes you think that Father God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit honors Noah's curse??? Noah got drunk ended up naked and was ridiculed for this behavior!@! I think your adding to scripture. The point of the story was !!! Even though God called Noah a righteous man because of his faith, Noah had problems. Drinking getting naked and cursing. Really???

You know it makes one wonder if Ham and his son knew of God through Noah, but devolved Him into El, Baal, and all the other gods over the years

Gen_9:23 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. Lev_18:8 The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness. Lev_20:11 And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.