Genesis 9:25

Context

After the Flood, Noah planted a vineyard, drank of the wine, and lay drunk and uncovered within his tent. His son Ham saw him and told his two brothers, Shem and Japheth, who were outside. Shem and Japheth went in backward and covered their father with a garment (9:20-23). When Noah awoke from his wine, he cursed not Ham but Ham's son Canaan, and he blessed Shem and Japheth (9:25-27): "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren" (Genesis 9:25).

The text does not specify exactly what Ham's offense was. The most common interpretation regards it as an act of filial disrespect in which he exposed and mocked his father's shame. Others, however, connect the passage with the expression "uncover the nakedness" in Leviticus 18 and hold that it implies a more serious sin.

Interpretation

• As background to the conquest of Canaan: On this reading, the story serves in part to explain in advance the later history in which Israel entered the land of Canaan and came to rule its inhabitants (Joshua, Judges). This, it is argued, is why the curse falls on Canaan rather than on Ham.
• As a prophetic declaration: This interpretation regards Noah's words as a prophecy speaking forth the will of God. Even so, its scope is understood to be limited to the Canaanites.
• As a human utterance: Some note that the text never says God pronounced the curse and that these are simply the words of Noah upon waking from his drunkenness. On this basis they hold that excessive divine authority should not be attributed to the verse.

Controversies and Issues

From the Middle Ages onward, and especially from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, an interpretation spread in Europe and America that identified Ham as the ancestor of Africans and used this verse to justify the enslavement of Black people. Some churches and ministers in the American South cited the verse in defense of slavery. Today nearly all denominations and scholars regard this as a clear misuse of the text, since the object of the curse is Canaan, not Ham, and nowhere does the passage mention skin color or Africa. In 1995 the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution apologizing for its past defense of slavery and racism.

The verse has also been used to support the claim that the sins of ancestors descend upon their descendants as a curse. Many respond to this claim by citing Ezekiel 18:20 ("the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father"). See generational curse theology.

Related Passages

• Genesis 10:6; 10:15-19
• Ezekiel 18:19-20
• Galatians 3:13
• Galatians 3:28
• Acts 17:26