And Ham the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren outside.
Noah came safely through the flood. Now he lies drunk and uncovered inside his own tent, and what his son Ham does next — first looking, then telling — turns a private failure into public shame.
The failure starts with Noah, not with Ham. The one righteous man of that generation is the first to break down in the new world.
The last part of this chapter shows a humiliating scene. The lord of creation fails to govern himself... What a condition for Noah, the only righteous man, the preacher of righteousness, to be found in. What is man? Look at him wherever you like, and you see only failure. In Eden, he fails; in the restored earth, he fails; in Canaan, he fails; in the Church, he fails.
Ham did not cause the shame he saw. He chose what to do with it, and went outside to tell.
Noah's sin brought God's ordinance of government into open dishonour. In his own household it produced no godly sorrow, but contempt. His younger son Ham had no feeling for God's glory, and none for what he owed his father, even in such a disastrous moment. All he showed was the wickedness of his own heart: he mocked Noah without pity, and he was eager to spread his father's shame and to trap his two brothers. Their reverence was as plain as Ham's lack of it. He forgot to whom he owed his life, and his rescue from the flood.
There is a difference between falling into sin yourself and enjoying someone else's fall.
Noah is put to shame; but Ham, his son, glories in the shame. That was a terrible advance in the progress of evil... This was not simply being "caught in any transgression," but "rejoicing at wrongdoing."
Ham showed contempt for a father who was also a ruler.
Disrespect toward authority is a very grave sin, whether it is a parent's authority or a government's, because God set up both. In the end it leads to setting aside the authority of God, who set it up. Only when we weigh this properly do we see how right Noah's solemn curse was, once he learned what had happened.
Ham's attitude did not die with him.
This is the evil of despising government, which has become very common in the day in which we live (Jude 8). Though governments often fail badly, this gives us no right to reject or disobey proper authority (Romans 13:1-7).
Shem and Japheth saw the same thing and did the opposite. They covered their father, and that act pictures how God Himself deals with human shame.
Divine grace had covered all his sins, and clothed him in a spotless robe of righteousness. Noah exposed his nakedness, but God did not see it. He looked at him not in the weakness of his own condition, but in the full power of divine and everlasting righteousness. So we can see how far astray Ham was in what he did, how totally cut off from God and His thoughts. He knew nothing of the blessedness of the man whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered. Shem and Japheth, by contrast, show in their conduct a fine example of God's own way of dealing with human nakedness.
Love still works the same way.
Love is far from being indifferent to sin. But love does not have to expose sins, or gloat over the failure of others. If possible, love will deal with sins privately, so that they do not needlessly become public. When they are dealt with and judged, love will no longer speak of them or spread them abroad.
The verse names Ham as the father of Canaan, and that is where his sin bears fruit.
The wicked and scornful son reaped the fruit of his evil in his own son Canaan, just as God remembered the reverent modesty of Shem and Japheth in their descendants. Salvation is by grace, and it cannot fail, because it is the work of God in Christ, where God secures everything for His glory. Even where salvation may not be, God puts honour on obedience and on respect paid where it is due.
- Failure — the man God trusted with government could not govern himself. Man fails everywhere God places him.
- Exposure — Ham's guilt was not seeing his father's shame but spreading it. He went beyond falling into sin to enjoying another's fall.
- Contempt — despising a father, or a ruler, is a grave sin, because God set up both. An authority that fails still has a claim on our respect.
- Covering — Shem and Japheth acted the way God acts. Grace had already covered Noah's sin, and love still covers instead of spreading.
- Harvest — Ham's scorn bore fruit in Canaan, and his brothers' reverence bore fruit in their descendants. God honours respect paid where it is due.
And Shem and Japheth took the upper garment and both laid [it] upon their shoulders, and went backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were turned away, that they saw not their father's nakedness.
Two sons walk backward with a garment between them, so they never see their father lying exposed. Ham had just done the opposite, and commentators read the scene as a lesson in respect for authority and as a picture of how God covers shame.
The verse sets up a deliberate contrast. Ham went outside and spread the news. His brothers went in and left nothing to see. One writer traces Ham's behaviour back to a hard heart.
His younger son Ham cared nothing for God's glory, and nothing for what he owed his father, even in such terrible circumstances. He only showed the wickedness of his own heart. He made unfeeling fun of Noah, and was eager to spread his father's shame and trap his two brothers. Their reverence was as plain as Ham's contempt for God, and Ham forgot the one to whom he owed his life as well as his rescue from the flood.
Noah was not only their father. He was also the man God had put in charge of the new earth. His sons faced both facts at once.
Shem and Japheth showed Noah the respect he was due, both as their father and as the ruler in the new conditions. Ham did not. Disrespect toward authority is a very serious sin, whether it is a parent's authority or a government's. God set up both at the start. In the end it leads to setting aside the authority of God, who set it up.
Covering Noah was not a comfortable act. One writer feels the grief inside it.
The two brothers did a work of love. The graceless hardness of their own close relative stirred them to it all the more. Yet what sorrow must have filled their hearts. Their godliness forced them to turn their backs on the one they had always looked up to. And they had looked up to him rightly, with steady affection, honour, and gratitude.
Noah lies uncovered in this scene. One commentator asks how God saw him at that moment, and finds in the sons' action a model of God's own way with sin.
Divine grace had covered all his sins, and clothed him with a spotless robe of righteousness. Noah exposed his nakedness, but God did not see it. He did not look at Noah in the weakness of his own condition. He looked at him in the full power of divine and everlasting righteousness. So we can see how far astray Ham was in the course he took, and how completely cut off from God and His thoughts. He knew nothing of the blessedness of the man whose wrongdoing is forgiven and whose sin is covered. Shem and Japheth, by contrast, show in their conduct a fine example of God's way of dealing with human nakedness. So they inherit a blessing, while Ham inherits a curse.
This verse also gives a rule for daily life: cover another person's failure. But writers mark the limits of that rule.
The same principle holds true for a parent's authority and for a government's authority. Proper respect will seek to cover failure, not expose it. But we must stress this: it applies to cases of failure, not to cases of wicked abuse of authority.
Another writer shows how that covering works day to day.
Love is far from being indifferent to sin; but love does not necessarily expose sins, or gloat over the failure of others. If possible, love will deal with sins privately, so that they do not needlessly become public. When they are dealt with and judged, love will no longer speak of them or spread them abroad.
The blessing and curse in the next verses trace straight back to how each son handled his father's shame.
The wicked and scornful son reaped the fruit of his evil in his own child Canaan. The reverent modesty of Shem and Japheth was remembered in their descendants. Salvation is by grace, and it cannot fail, because it is the work of God in Christ. Even where salvation may not be in view, God puts honour on obedience and on respect paid where it is due.
- Sight — Ham looked and talked; his brothers refused to look at all. The same failure exposes what is in the heart of everyone who sees it.
- Garment — The coat on their shoulders pictures God's own way with human nakedness. He saw Noah clothed in righteousness, not in his weakness.
- Reverence — God set up authority, in the home and in the state. Despise it because the man failed, and you end up despising God who gave it.
- Cost — Covering a father's shame meant turning their backs on the man they honoured. Real love pays for the covering it gives.
- Harvest — Contempt bore fruit in Ham's line, and reverence in his brothers' line. God puts honour on respect paid where it is due.
And Noah awoke from his wine, and learned what his youngest son had done to him.
Noah wakes from his drunken sleep and learns what happened in his tent while he was helpless. The verse turns on one word — "knew": the man God had just set over the new earth finds that his own failure has drawn out contempt inside his own household.
God had given Noah authority in government. One writer points to where the failure started — not in his rule over others, but in his rule over himself.
God gave this man the dignity of authority in government. Yet he allowed himself too much wine and became drunk, and in that state he lay uncovered in his tent. This shows the weakness of human government from its very beginning. Why is human government doomed to fail? Because those in authority fail to govern themselves. If a man does not rule himself well, how can he be trusted to rule others?
The sin Noah wakes up to is not his own drunkenness but his son's response to it.
His younger son Ham had no feeling for God's glory, and none for what he owed his father, even in such terrible circumstances. He only showed the wickedness of his own heart. He mocked Noah without pity, and he was eager to spread his father's shame and trap his two brothers. Their reverence was as plain as Ham's contempt for God. He forgot to whom he owed his life and his rescue from the flood.
The phrase is a puzzle, because the order in which Noah's sons are usually listed is not the order of their birth.
Ham, we know, is declared to be "the little" one (Gen. 9:24) — usually translated "youngest". And the dates show that not Shem but Japheth was the eldest… Shem is named first in the usual formula of "Shem, Ham, and Japheth." That first place is not due to the order of birth, but to the spiritual purpose which gave Shem that position.
Commentators differ on whether the phrase points to Ham at all.
In Genesis, as here, the order is Shem, Ham and Japheth. We cannot assume this to be the order of birth. In Gen. 10:21, where Shem and Japheth are mentioned, Japheth is called the elder. And some ask whether "younger son" in Gen. 9:24 refers to Ham or to his son Canaan.
The curse Noah pronounces skips over the son who mocked him and lands on the grandson. One writer explains why such a curse was just, and why it fell where it did.
Disrespect of authority — whether a parent's or a government's — is a very grave sin, because God set up both. In the end it leads to setting aside the authority of God, who established it… When we come, in verses 25-27, to the curse that came from Noah's lips, we find it fell on Canaan with no mention of Ham. We think this shows two things. First, Noah's sad lapse happened some time after the flood. Enough years had passed for Canaan to have been born and become active. Second, Canaan was involved with his father in the matter, and the weight of the curse fell on him rather than on his father.
Another writer stresses the mercy in the limits of it.
Either way it was mercy to keep the curse Ham had surely earned within the narrowest limits, instead of spreading it over all his descendants. In judgment as in grace God is always wise.
The waking sets in motion a government that runs far beyond Noah's tent. The two brothers who covered their father are not forgotten either.
The wicked and scornful son reaped the fruit of his evil in his own offspring Canaan. In the same way, God remembered the reverent modesty of Shem and Japheth in their descendants… Even where salvation may not be, God puts honour on obedience and on respect paid where it is due.
The verse is not only Noah's disgrace. One writer reads his waking as the start of his recovery.
And the saint himself is soon restored. Noah awakens from his wine. The man who was overtaken recovers himself, through the Spirit. And the grace of God gives him a great triumph. It is a very precious and glorious triumph indeed, for the restored one judges his judge, and condemns his accuser.
- Failure. The ruler of the new earth could not rule himself. Human government has carried that weakness from its first day.
- Exposure. Noah's fall did not stay his own; it drew out the contempt of a son who forgot who had saved his life in the flood.
- Question. Commentators dispute the "youngest son" — Kelly reads it as Ham, "the little one," while others ask whether it points to Canaan.
- Restraint. The curse lands on Canaan alone, and mercy held it to the narrowest limits instead of spreading it over Ham's whole line.
- Reward. God repays both ways. Contempt bore fruit in Canaan; God remembered the brothers' reverence in their descendants. And Noah himself wakes not only to shame but to recovery.
And he said, Cursed be Canaan; Let him be a bondman of bondmen to his brethren.
Noah's words here are a curse, not a blessing, and they fall on a grandson rather than on the son who wronged him. Two questions press at once: why does Canaan bear what Ham did, and what does it mean to be a servant of servants?
This chapter began with God placing human government in Noah's hands. It ends with a sentence that fits the sin.
The end of this chapter shows that the man who first held human government could not govern himself. It is the old familiar story — man tried and found wanting, as always... The sin began with utter disrespect to a father... A man who despises the one he is bound to honour must come to shame and disgrace. He must be not just a servant but "a servant of servants." The highest pride always has the deepest fall.
The curse skips the offender and lands on his son. One writer sees restraint in that, not injustice.
When God governs the world, He does not confine Himself to the one person or generation involved in the offence... It was mercy not to punish Ham in all his descendants, but in Canaan. God is sovereign in judgment as in mercy, and altogether righteous. Canaan may well have played a part with Ham in the heartless insult and dishonour done to Noah... It was mercy not to draw everyone into God's avenging of the wrong, but to keep it within the smallest bounds.
Later history supports this reading. Not every line of Ham ended in servitude.
It may seem strange that Noah did not curse Ham himself, since it was Ham who failed to respect his father. But no doubt it was God who, in His government, led Noah... to visit Ham's conduct on his son. God had already blessed Ham along with Noah and had made a covenant with him — how then could He lead Noah to curse him?... Besides, we do not find that all Ham's sons became the servants of Shem; the curse fell upon Canaan only. It was Nimrod, Ham's descendant, who founded the great kingdoms of the East, and we never read of those kingdoms paying tribute to Israel as Canaan did.
Noah was not just venting anger at a family insult.
We must also remember that Noah spoke these words as a prophet. The later history of Canaan and his descendants fully justified his solemn words. The next chapter gives us the sons of Canaan. From them came the nations that lived east of the Mediterranean and just north of Egypt. That is how the region became known as the land of Canaan. Centuries later these nations were so vile in their gross sin that God ordered their destruction.
Israel's conquest did not exhaust the sentence.
No doubt an evident curse... fell on Canaan when fire out of heaven destroyed the guilty cities of the Plain for their enormous wickedness... Yet Scripture is plain that neither the curse nor the blessing is complete until Israel returns to the land under Messiah and the new covenant. Israel will be rooted there and blessed as long as the earth endures. "And in that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts."
That last line is quoted from an older translation, not the ESV.
Some have used this verse to defend slavery.
This is no doubt prophecy. Even so, it does not give anyone the right to make slaves of others. God authorises no one to put Canaan's descendants under servitude. But Ham did not submit to authority as he should have. So his descendants would learn by experience what obedience to authority means... Canaan's line is not the only one under a curse. All mankind is under one: failing to keep on obeying everything the law commands (Galatians 3:10). Therefore, let us not think we are better than Ham.
Centuries later a woman of this line came to Jesus for help.
She was not only a Gentile but from a race under a special curse. So she drops a claim of kinship that the most wretched person in Israel could make, but that was worthless for her. She bowed and said, "Lord, help me."... The truth fully burst on her, and she submitted to it. Her faith, already real, threw off its hindrance and became great. She gives up all claim, for she had none. She confesses sovereign grace, and receives the blessing at once.
- Dishonour. The curse traces back to contempt for a father. The man who despised the one he was bound to honour takes the lowest place of all: servant of servants.
- Restraint. The blow falls on one branch, not on all of Ham's line. Commentators read that narrowing as mercy.
- Prophecy. Noah spoke as a prophet. Canaan's descendants filled their land with the corruption that later brought God's judgment on them.
- Warning. The verse gives no one the right to enslave anyone. All mankind stands under a curse for failing the law, so no reader stands above Ham.
- Grace. A woman from the cursed line claimed nothing, confessed grace, and went away blessed. Grace had the last word.