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 ,