40 | Genesis 9:24
24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youn gest son had done to him, 25 he said,
“ Cursed be Canaan! r The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. s”
26 He also said,
“ Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
27 May God extend Japheth’ s a territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”
28 Af ter the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 Noah lived a to tal of 950 years, and then he died.
9:25 r ver 18 s Ge 25:23; Jos 9:23
10:1 t Ge 2:4
10:2 u Eze 38:6 v Eze 38:2; Rev 20:8
w Isa 66:19
10:3 x Jer 51:27 y Eze 27:14; 38:6
10:4 z Eze 27:12, 25; Jnh 1:3
10:6 a ver 15; Ge 9:18
The Table of Nations
10 This is the ac count t of Shem, Ham and Ja pheth, No ah’ s sons, who them selves had sons af ter the flood.
The Japhethites 10:2-5pp— 1Ch 1:5-7
2 The sons b of Japheth: Gomer, u
Magog, v
Madai, Javan, Tubal, w
Meshek and Tiras.
3 The sons of Go mer: Ashkenaz, x
Riphath and Togarmah. y
4 The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, z the Kit tites and the Rod a nites. c 5( From these the mar i time peoples spread out into their ter ri to ries by their clans within their na tions, each with its own language.)
The Hamites 10:6-20pp— 1Ch 1:8-16
6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put and Ca naan. a
7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteka.
The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.
a 27 Japheth sounds like the Hebrew for extend. b 2 Sons may mean descendants or successors or nations; also in
verses 3, 4, 6, 7, 20-23, 29 and 31. c 4 Some manuscripts of the Masoretic Text and Samaritan Pentateuch( see also Septuagint and 1 Chron. 1:7); most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text Dodanites
9:25 Cursed be Canaan! Why does Noah single out Canaan rather than Canaan’ s father, Ham? There are various views. If Canaan is the fruit of some sort of sexual immorality, Noah could have cursed this symbol of his shame. This also may anticipate the future role of the Canaanites under Joshua and under David and Solomon. 9:26 the Lord, the God of Shem. Shem’ s line leads to Abram( 11:10 – 26) and ultimately to Jesus Christ( Matt 1:1). 9:27 extend Japheth’ s territory. Japheth in Hebrew means“ to( cause to) open.” His descendants are most distant from the land of Israel( 10:2 – 5); they include people whom Abram’ s offspring would bless( 12:1 – 3), some of whom David and Solomon may rule(“ live in the tents of Shem”), and people who would become the object of Christian mission( Matt 28:18 – 20; Acts 1:8).
10:1 – 32 The Table of Nations. This chapter divides into three groups according to the three sons of Noah( 10:1). Although terms such as“ sons of” and“ father of” point to ethnic relations, some connections are surprising( e. g., Canaanites are not usually considered to be related to Egyptians as descendants of one ancestor— Ham). These names come to us as people groups; they may have migrated by the time they appear in historical records outside the Bible. All the people of the known world come from Noah. They are all made in God’ s image( 9:6), and thus they are all equal before God. In contrast to past attempts to justify the enslavement of Africans by misinterpreting 9:25 – 27, ch. 10 celebrates the common origin and community of humanity. 10:1 account. See note on 2:4. 10:2 sons of Japheth. See note on 9:27. Japheth’ s descendants live in the most distant places from the land of Israel, particularly north and northwest. Most of the sons named may be connected with similar-sounding names of places known from ancient sources. Gomer. Cimmerians from the Caucasus region who moved south to eastern Turkey and Armenia. Magog. Unknown; likely related to Gomer.
Madai. Lived in northwestern Iran. Javan. Ionia, Greek cities in western Turkey. Tubal, Meshek. Tabal and Mushki, Phyrgian kingdoms in Cappadocia( modern central Turkey). Tiras. Could refer to the Etruscans, who migrated from Lydia to Italy in the eighth century BC. 10:3 Ashkenaz. Could refer to the Scythians, first encountered when coming from the north into the region of eastern Turkey. Riphath. Unknown. Togarmah. Til-garimmu, modern Gurun on the Upper Euphrates. 10:4 Elishah. Alashia on the south coast of Cyprus. Tarshish. Tarsus in Cilicia, the Adana region of modern Turkey. Kittites. Kition in Cyprus. Rodanites. Associated with the Greek island of Rhodes. 10:6 sons of Ham. These include Egypt and Canaan, areas south of the land of Israel. Cush. Sudan. Put. Coastal Libya. 10:7 Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteka... Sheba and Dedan. On the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula or across the straits in Eritrea and Djibouti. Raamah includes the western coastal area of Arabia,