GENESIS 9:20-27

“Noah became a tiller of the ground and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside her tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done. So he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.’ He also said, ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant.’”

BACKGROUND

It is generally accepted that the Book of Genesis was written by Moses. Indeed, it is accepted that Moses was the author of the entire Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). There are numerous Old and New Testament references either alluding to or asserting his authorship of the Pentateuch[1]. Flavius Josephus[2] and Philo of Alexandria[3] both support Moses’ authorship of Genesis.

The literary form of the Book of Genesis is largely historical narrative with some “scattered poetic sections.”[4] It was likely written around 1400 B.C. in Canaan.[5] The events of the focal passage of this article, however, occurred much earlier, perhaps one thousand years earlier, around 2400 B.C.[6]

CONTEXT

The context of this pericope is an historical account of an event in the life of Noah and his family during the period immediately following the flood and God’s giving of the Noahic covenant.  This pericope immediately precedes Genesis 10, which is a genealogy of the descendants of Noah.  This genealogy includes some brief mention of the exploits of Noah’s descendants and the locations in which they settled.  Thus, this pericope both stands on its own as a moral teaching and provides a foundation for events in the lives of certain of Noah’s descendants (Nimrod, Lot, Reuben, Saul and David), which will be discussed later in this paper.

EXAMINATION OF THE PERICOPE

Genesis 9:20-27 details an incident between Noah, his wife and his son, Ham, and the spiritual results that follow (curse and blessing).  Some scholars have suggested that this passage regards Ham mocking [7] and taking pleasure[8] in his father’s shame for having exposed his naked body while in a drunken stupor.  Others have vaguely interpreted this passage in terms of incestuous homosexual sin on the part of Ham against his father, Noah.[9]  At least one scholar holds that Ham’s son, Canaan, actually “committed the outrage” against Noah.[10]  However, a close examination of the text will show that what is more likely the case is that of incestuous heterosexual sin between Ham and his mother (or step-mother), Noah’s wife.[11]

Genesis 9:20-21a

“Noah became a tiller of the ground and planted a vineyard.

He drank of the wine and became drunk,…”

This is the first reference to “a vineyard” in the Scriptures.  This is noteworthy because Noah’s drunkenness in the following verse (v. 21) may not have been a reference to his flagrant sinfulness, but rather a result of his discovery of alcohol.  It is commonly held that wine was prior to Noah.[12]  Nowhere in the Scriptures is Noah represented as a drunkard.  On the contrary, he is represented as “a righteous man, blameless.”

Genesis 6:8-9 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.

Genesis 9:21b-22a

…[Noah] uncovered himself inside her tent.

Ham…saw the nakedness of his father…

In verse 21b, it is stated that Noah “uncovered himself.”  In verse 22a, it is stated that “Ham…saw the nakedness of his father…”  On the face of it, it appears that Noah simply disrobed, and his son, Ham, saw him naked. The use of the distinct phrases, “uncovered himself” and “nakedness of his father” however, indicates more than Noah’s simply having disrobed and then been seen by his son, Ham.

Several points should be made here.  First, the word translated into English as “uncovered” in Genesis 9:21 is the Hebrew word “galah.” [13]  This word is used consistently throughout Leviticus 18 and 20 in conjunction with another Hebrew word, “ervah,” [14] which is translated into English as “nakedness.”  The combination of “galah,” the Hebrew word for “father” (ab) [15] and “ervah” (“uncover(ed) + father(’s) + nakedness”) is a phrase unique to Moses and is only used by Him to describe forbidden incestuous sexual intercourse.  Moses never uses the phrase to describe the act of disrobing or seeing one disrobed. The following excerpts from the only other passages in which Moses uses this unique phrase, Leviticus 18 and 20, shed light on his use of the phrase:

Leviticus 18:6-8 ‘None of you shall approach any blood relative of [your father] to uncover nakedness; I am the LORD.  ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you are not to uncover her nakedness.  ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.

Leviticus 20:11 ‘If there is a man who lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death, their blood guiltiness is upon them.

Second, Moses is consistent in his use of the idioms.  In each instance in the Scriptures the phrase “uncover(ed) + father(’s) + nakedness” occurs, it is always in reference to incestuous heterosexual sin.[16]  In no case does the phrase refer to incestuous homosexual sin.

Third, both the Genesis 9 passage and the Leviticus 18 and 20 passages were written by the same author, Moses.  It is unlikely that Moses’ unusual way of referring to sexual intercourse with one’s mother or step-mother as having “uncovered the nakedness of his father” in the Leviticus passages would be used by him to describe a completely different type of sexual act in the Genesis 9 passage.  In the Leviticus passages, Moses clearly defines what he means by his use of the phrase, “uncover(ed) + father(’s) + nakedness.”  He defines the phrase exclusively as meaning incestuous heterosexual intercourse with one’s mother or step-mother.

Finally, the single Hebrew word “ohel[17]” in verse 21b is translated as into English as “his tent” in the King James, New American Standard, New International, and Revised Standard versions of the Bible.  However, the Hebrew text actually carries the feminine possessive suffix[18].  The word “ohel” would be more accurately rendered “her tent.”

The Leviticus passages mentioned above regarding Moses’ consistent use of the phrase “uncover(ed) + father(’s) + nakedness” combined with the clarification of the translated phrase “his tent,” makes much more compelling the suggestion that Noah’s uncovering of himself referred to his having relations with his wife, rather than simply to his having disrobed.

Ham “saw the nakedness of his father.”  As previously mentioned, to see or “uncover the nakedness” of one’s father is equated with sexual intercourse with one’s mother or step-mother.  Of course, it is possible to conclude from the text that the reference is to Ham’s having simply looked upon his naked father, or even lusted for his father in an incestuously homosexual way. One may even suggest that Ham actually performed a homosexual act upon his father in his father’s drunken state. Both of these notions fall short, however, in light of the Leviticus passages mentioned above, and other details of the passage.

What seems to fit the context best here is that Noah, in a drunken state, went into his wife’s tent to have sexual relations with her. At some point, either in place of or after Noah, Ham had relations with Noah’s wife (presumably Ham’s mother, but possibly his step-mother).

Genesis 9:22b

…and told his two brothers outside.

Having relations with Noah’s wife could be seen as Ham’s attempt to supplant his father and assume his authority.  This would explain why, after having performed some act of lewdness against his father, Ham would be willing to share the information with his brothers.  He was the youngest son, and perhaps wished to seize the opportunity of his father’s drunkenness.

Later in Genesis 11, Ham’s grandson, Nimrod, leads a rebellion against God in an attempt to establish a one world government with himself at the head.  He leads the people to establish their own “name” (the Hebrew word “Shem”)[19] perhaps an allusion to Ham’s attempt to usurp his older brother, Shem’s, position and take charge of the family, which, in effect, would have been to take over the world, since he and his brothers and his father and their wives were the only people on the earth at the time.

This would not be a singular example of such an attempt to wrestle authority and position from one’s father through sexual relations with one’s father’s wife. Consider other similar grasps at power such as David’s’ taking of Saul’s wives, Absalom’s incest with Tamar and his attempts to overthrow his father, King David, and Adonijah’s attempt to have Abishag, the wife of King David.[20]

After having lost favor with his father because of his poor handling of matters related to his younger brother, Joseph’s, abduction and sale into slavery, Reuben also committed an act of incestuous sexual relations with the wife of his father, Jacob, in a possible attempt to usurp his father.  He was cursed for it and lost his birthright, which was then given to the sons of Joseph, whom he had failed earlier.[21]

Genesis 9:23

But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon

both their shoulders and walked backward and covered

the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned

away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

In Leviticus 20:17, Moses uses the phrase “see [someone’s] nakedness” again to indicate sexual intercourse.

Leviticus 20:17  “If there is a man who takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he bears his guilt.”

The brothers “covered the nakedness of their father…and…did not see their father’s nakedness.”  That is, they covered their father’s wife (their mother or step-mother) both literally and figuratively.  They literally covered her body with a garment, and they figuratively covered her by refraining from their brother’s sin of having sexual relations with her.

Genesis 9:22a, 9:24-27

Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father…

When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had

done. So he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He

shall be to his brothers.’ He also said, ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God

of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth,

and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant.’

If Ham had merely looked at or lusted after his father’s naked body, or derided and shamed him, Noah could hardly have guessed it when he awoke.  There is another similar story from Genesis 19 concerning Lot and his daughters wherein the daughters used wine to bring about drunkenness that resulted in heterosexual incestuous relations between them and their father, Lot, the purpose of which was to produce offspring.

Ham is mentioned in Genesis 9:22 as “the father of Canaan.”  One may ask why Moses included that detail, especially at that point in the narrative.  Is it possible that Canaan figured prominently in the events of the pericope? In Genesis 9:25-27 Canaan, the son of Ham is cursed by Noah.  It seems implausible that Noah cursed his grandson, Canaan, because Ham, Canaan’s father, looked upon Noah’s naked body, lusted after him or mocked and derided him.  If Ham performed a lewd act against his father why is Ham’s son, Canaan, cursed?  The most plausible answer is that Ham had relations with his father’s wife, and produced a child, Canaan.  This was Noah’s evidence of fowl play.  His response is to curse the child, the daily reminder of his son, Ham’s, sin against him.

Beginning in Genesis 9:25, the narrative is compressed.[22] The family has just exited the ark. Ham has had no children. There is a time span between exiting the ark and the birth of Ham’s son, Canaan.  Noah curses Canaan as the product of Ham’s sexual union with Noah’s wife, as Moab and Ammon are cursed by God as the product of Lot’s sexual union with his daughters.[23]  There are two New Testament instances of Lot’s and Noah’s lives and circumstances being identified as similarly significant.[24]

If Ham’s incest was homosexual, then it is odd that he himself would not have been cursed instead of Canaan. Moreover, that Ham was responsible for producing Canaan through heterosexual means and, indeed, populating much of the world to this day, homosexuality in this case seems even more remote.

Conclusion

This pericope should be interpreted as follows: Noah, after exiting the ark following the flood, plants a vineyard and drinks of its fruit. He becomes drunk, possibly for the first time discovering wine’s inebriating affect. In his drunkenness, he enters the tent of his wife to engage in sexual intercourse. While in this drunken state, his youngest son, Ham, takes advantage of the situation and engages in sexual intercourse with his father’s wife. Ham tells his brothers of his conquest in an attempt to assume his father’s position as head of the family. Ham’s brothers, Shem and Japheth, refuse to support their brother’s grasp at power and seek to mitigate the damage by covering their father’s wife with a garment. They do not repeat their brother’s incest. Noah is probably made aware of Ham’s sin by the product of a son, Canaan. It seems that Noah was in the habit of having sexual relations with his with in his advancing years, but no child was produced from such unions. Noah is likely told of the incestuous affair by his wife or his sons, Shem and Japheth. Noah curses the illegitimate grandson, Canaan.

This episode becomes something of a pattern for future grasps at power by Reuben, Saul, David, Absalom and Adonijah, all of whom make their attempts at usurpation through sexual intercourse with the wife of the one whom they wish to usurp. Incest is clearly a form of sexual sin and is condemned by God. When driven by vanity it can be used to fulfill the ambitions of the lusty heart that rebels against authority and seeks forbidden power in disregard of God’s order. Marriage, the rights of the first-born, and God’s sovereignty are all upheld in this pericope.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexandria, Philo of. The Works of Philo. Translated by C. D. Yonge. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995.

Atkinson, David. The Message of Genesis 1-11: The Dawn of Creation. Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1990.

Brueggemann, Walter. Genesis: Interpretation – A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1973.

Calvin, John. Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis. Grand Rapids: baker Books, 2003.

Han, Scott and John Seitze Bergsma. “Noah’s Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan.” Journal of Biblical Literature 124, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 25-40.

James I. Packer, Merrill C. Tenney and William White, Jr., eds. The Bible Almanac. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1980.

Jamieson, Robert, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown. A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997.

Josephus, Flavius. The Works of Josephus. Translated by William Whiston. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996.

Kiel, C. F., F. Delitzsch. Commentary on the Old Testament. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2001.

Phillips, John. Exploring Genesis. Chicago: Moody Press, 1980.

Sailhamer, John H., Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., R. Laird Harris and Ronald B. Allen. Expositor’s Bible Commentary Volume 2. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990.

Strong, James. The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988.

Westermann, Claus. Genesis 1-11: A Continental Commentary. Translated by John J. Sullion. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994.

William Smith. Smith’s Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986.

[1] (Exodus 17:14, Leviticus 1:1-2, Numbers 33:2, Deuteronomy 1:1, Joshua 1:7, 1 Kings 2:3, 2 Kings 14:6, Ezra 6:18, Nehemiah 13:1, Daniel 9:11-13, Malachi 4:4, Matthew 8:4, 19:7-8, 23:2, Mark 1:44, 10:3-4, 7:10, Luke 5:14, 16:19, 31, 20:37, 24:27, 44, John 3:14, 5:34, 45-47, 6:32, 7:19, 22-23).

[2] Josephus, Flavius, The Works of Josephus, trans. William Whiston (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996), 29.

[3] Philo of Alexandria, The Works of Philo, trans. C. D. Yonge (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995), 4.

[4] John H. Sailhamer, Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., R. Laird Harris and Ronald B. Allen, Expositor’s Bible Commentary Volume 2, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), 5.

[5] James I. Packer, Merrill C. Tenney and William White Jr., eds., The Bible Almanac (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1980).

[6] William Smith, Smith’s Bible Dictionary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986), 228.

[7] C. F. Kiel, F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2001), 98.

[8] John Phillips, Exploring Genesis (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), 92.

[9] David Atkinson, The Message of Genesis 1-11: The Dawn of Creation (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1990), 169.

[10] Claus Westermann, Genesis 1-11: A Continental Commentary, trans. John J. Sullion (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), 483.

[11] Walter Brueggemann, Genesis: Interpretation – A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1973), 90.

[12] John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis (Grand Rapids: baker Books, 2003), 300.

[13] James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988), 27.

[14] James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988), 91.

[15] James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988), 7.

[16] C. F. Kiel, F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2001), 595-596, 605.

[17] James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988), 222.

[18] Scott Hahn and John Seitze Bergsma, “Noah’s Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan,” Journal of Biblical Literature 124, no. 1 (Spring 2005).

[19] James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988), 117.

[20] 2 Samuel 12:7-12, 13:1-15:27, 1 Kings 1:1-9, 2:13-25

[21] Genesis 49:1-4, 1 Chronicles 5:1

[22] Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), 107.

[23] Deuteronomy  22:30, 23:2-3, 27:20

[24] Luke 17:26-29, 2 Peter 2:4-9