And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
22. Ham, the father of ] Words probably inserted by the compiler (R). If so, in the original narrative there stood in this verse simply the name of “Canaan,” “and Canaan saw the nakedness.” Otherwise the curse pronounced upon Canaan, instead of upon Ham, in Gen 9:25, is unintelligible (see note).
According to this view, the old tradition, from which these verses are derived, regarded “Canaan,” and not “Ham,” as the brother of Shem and Japheth.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 22. – 24. And Ham, the father of Canaan, c.] There is no occasion to enter into any detail here the sacred text is circumstantial enough. Ham, and very probably his son Canaan, had treated their father on this occasion with contempt or reprehensible levity. Had Noah not been innocent, as my exposition supposes him, God would not have endued him with the spirit of prophecy on this occasion, and testified such marked disapprobation of their conduct. The conduct of Shem and Japheth was such as became pious and affectionate children, who appear to have been in the habit of treating their father with decency, reverence, and obedient respect. On the one the spirit of prophecy (not the incensed father) pronounces a curse: on the others the same spirit (not parental tenderness) pronounces a blessing. These things had been just as they afterwards occurred had Noah never spoken. God had wise and powerful reasons to induce him to sentence the one to perpetual servitude, and to allot to the others prosperity and dominion. Besides, the curse pronounced on Canaan neither fell immediately upon himself nor on his worthless father, but upon the Canaanites; and from the history we have of this people, in Le 18:6-7, Le 18:24, Le 18:29-30, Le 20:9, Le 20:22-24, Le 20:26; and De 9:4; De 12:31, we may ask, Could the curse of God fall more deservedly on any people than on these? Their profligacy was great, but it was not the effect of the curse; but, being foreseen by the Lord, the curse was the effect of their conduct. But even this curse does not exclude them from the possibility of obtaining salvation; it extends not to the soul and to eternity, but merely to their bodies and to time; though, if they continued to abuse their liberty, resist the Holy Ghost, and refuse to be saved on God’s terms, then the wrath of Divine justice must come upon them to the uttermost. How many, even of these, repented, we cannot tell.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The grown age of Ham was a great aggravation of this sin.
The father of Canaan: this is here added as a reason of Canaans curse, Gen 9:25.
The nakedness, i.e. the secret parts, oft so called, as Lev 18:1-30, and elsewhere,
and told his two brethren without, who were then without the house or room where their father lay in that posture, whom he invited to that prospect.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father,…. Which, had it been through surprise, and at an unawares, would not have been thought criminal; but be went into his father’s tent, where he ought not to have entered; he looked with pleasure and delight on his father’s nakedness: Ham is represented by many writers as a very wicked, immodest, and profligate creature: Berosus i makes him a magician, and to be the same with Zoroast or Zoroastres, and speaks of him as the public corrupter of mankind; and says that he taught men to live as before the flood, to lie with mothers, sisters, daughters, males and brutes, and creatures of all sorts; and that he actually did so himself, and therefore was cast out by his father Janus, or Noah, and got the name of “Chem”, the infamous and immodest:
and told his two brethren without; he went out of the tent after he had pleased himself with the sight; see Hab 2:15 and in a wanton, ludicrous, and scoffing manner, related what he had seen: some of the Jewish Rabbins k, as Jarchi relates, say that Canaan first saw it, and told his father of it; and some say l, that he or Ham committed an unnatural crime with him; and others m, that he castrated him; and hence, it is supposed, came the stories of Jupiter castrating his father Saturn, and Chronus his father Uranus: and Berosus n says, that Ham taking hold of his father’s genitals, and muttering some words, by a magic charm rendered him impotent: and some o will have it that he committed incest with his father’s wife; but these things are said without foundation: what Noah’s younger son did unto him, besides looking on him, we are not told, yet it was such as brought a curse on Canaan; and one would think it would be more than bare sight, nay, it is expressly said there was something done, but what is not said, Ge 9:24.
i Antiqu. l. 3. fol. 25. 1. k In Bereshit Rabba, sect. 36. fol. 32. 1. l Some in Jarchi. m Pirke Eliezer, c. 23. Some Rabbins in Ben Gersom & Jarchi in loc. n Antiqu. l. 3. fol. 25. 1. o Vander Hart, apud Bayle Dict. vol. 10. Art. “Ham”, p. 588.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
22. And Ham, the father of Canaan. This circumstance is added to augment the sorrow of Noah, that he is mocked by his own son. For we must ever keep in memory, that this punishment was divinely inflicted upon him; partly, because his fault was not a light one; partly that God in his person might present a lesson of temperance to all ages. Drunkenness in itself deserves as its reward, that they who deface the image of their heavenly Father in themselves, should become a laughingstock to their own children. For certainly, as far as possible, drunkards subvert their own understanding, and so far deprive themselves of reason as to degenerate into beasts. And let us remember, that if the Lord so grievously avenged the single transgression of the holy man, he will prove an avenger no less severe against those who are daily intoxicated; and of this we have examples sufficiently numerous before our eyes. In the meanwhile, Ham, by reproachfully laughing at his feather, betrays his own depraved and malignant disposition. We know that parents, next to God, are most deeply to be reverenced; and if there were neither books nor sermons, nature itself constantly inculcates this lesson upon us. It is received by common consent, that piety towards parents is the mother of all virtues. This Ham, therefore, must have been of a wicked, perverse, and crooked disposition; since he not only took pleasure in his father’s shame, but wished to expose him to his brethren. And this is no slight occasion of offense; first, that Noah, the minister of salvation to men, and the chief restorer of the world, should in extreme old age, lie intoxicated in his house; and then, that the ungodly and wicked Ham should have proceeded from the sanctuary of God. (295) God had selected eight souls as a sacred seed, thoroughly purged from all corruption, for the renovation of the Church: but the son of Noah shows, how necessary it is for men to be held as with the bridle of God, however they may be exalted by privilege. The impiety of Ham proves to us how deep is the root of wickedness in men; and that it continually puts forth its shoots, except where the power of the Spirit prevails over it. But if, in the hallowed sanctuary of God, among so small a number, one fiend was preserved; let us not wonder if, at this day, in the Church, containing a much greater multitude of men, the wicked are mingled with the good. Nor is there any doubt that the minds of Shem and Japheth were grievously wounded, when they perceived in their own brother such a prodigy of scorn; and, on the other hand, their father shamefully lying prostrate on the ground. Such a debasing alienation of mind in the prince of the new world, and the holy patriarch of the Church, could not less astonish them, than if they had seen the ark itself broken, dashed in pieces, cleft asunder, and destroyed. Yet this cause of offense they alike overcome by their magnanimity, and conceal by their modesty. Ham alone eagerly seizes the occasion of ridiculing and inveighing against his father; just as perverse men are wont to catch at occasions of offense in others, which may serve as a pretext for indulgence in sin. And his age renders him the less excusable; for he was not a lascivious youth, who, by his thoughtless laughter, betrayed his own folly, seeing that he was already more than one hundred years old. Therefore, it is probable, that he thus perversely insulted his father, for the purpose of acquiring for himself the license of sinning with impunity. We see many such at this day, who most studiously pry into the faults of holy and pious men, in order that without shame they may precipitate themselves into all iniquity; they even make the faults of other men an occasion of hardening themselves into a contempt for God.
(295) Reference is here made to the ark, as the type of the Church. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(22, 23) Ham . . . saw . . . and told.The sin lay not in seeing, which might be unintentional, but in telling, especially if his purpose was to ridicule his father. His brothers, with filial piety, take a garment, the loose outer robe or cloak enveloping the whole body, and with reverent delicacy walk backwards, and lay it upon their fathers person.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without Ham displays immodesty and sensuality, as well as an unfilial glorying in his father’s shame.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness, and told his brothers outside.’
The continual stress on Ham as the father of Canaan shows that by this time Canaan has been born. This event is thus some time after the end of the Flood. The phrase ‘saw his father’s nakedness’ may be a euphemism for something worse, and this may be the first recorded homosexual act (see Gen 9:24). This would certainly help to explain the seriousness of the punishment. However the difference in attitude between Ham and his brothers is also drawn out. Ham was not to blame for finding his father naked, but he was to blame for not being discreet and dealing quietly with the situation. Instead he made a big thing of it. There was clearly something very unpleasant about his behaviour.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 9:22. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness, &c. The loose dress of those times, made it easy for any slight accident to produce that nakedness, which Ham seeing, wantonly and tauntingly exposed to his brethren, instead of concealing it, as a dutiful son ought to have done. In this, perhaps, consisted his great fault, that, instead of covering his aged father, he went and ridiculously exposed him to his brethren without in a public manner. But Shem and Japheth, more compassionate to the infirmities of their aged father, took a garment, and went backward, with such decency and respect, that they saw not the nakedness of their father, at the same time that they covered him.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
This may serve to shew what an awful thing it is, in those who from despising the people of God, take pleasure in publishing their infirmities. God speaks of such, by the prophet, in a decided manner. Hos 4:8 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 9:22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
Ver. 22. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw. ] The Hebrews say, that Canaan first saw it, and then showed it to Ham his father, who looks upon it with delight, Ut vultures ad male olentia feruntur , saith Basil; as carrion-kites are carried after stinking carcasses.
And told his two brethren without.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ham: Gen 9:25, Gen 10:6, Gen 10:15-19, 1Ch 1:8, 1Ch 1:13-16
told: 2Sa 1:19, 2Sa 1:20, Psa 35:20, Psa 35:21, Psa 40:15, Psa 70:3, Pro 25:9, Pro 30:17, Oba 1:12, Oba 1:13, Mat 18:15, 1Co 13:6, Gal 6:1
Reciprocal: Gen 5:32 – Shem 1Ch 4:40 – Ham Psa 78:51 – tabernacles Mic 7:6 – son Hab 2:15 – that thou
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 9:22. And Ham saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren To have seen it accidentally and involuntarily would not have been a crime. But he pleased himself with the sight. And he told his brethren without In the street, as the word is, in a scornful, deriding manner.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
9:22 And Ham, the father of {p} Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and {q} told his two brethren without.
(p) Of whom came the Canaanites that wicked nation, who were also cursed by God.
(q) In derision and contempt of his father.