Kejadian 9:24-25

9:24 When Noah awoke from his drunken stupor ¹  he learned ²  what his youngest son had done ³  to him. 9:25 So he said,

“Cursed ⁴  be Canaan! ⁵ 

The lowest of slaves ⁶ 

he will be to his brothers.”

[9:24]  ¹ tn Heb “his wine,” used here by metonymy for the drunken stupor it produced.

[9:24]  ² tn Heb “he knew.”

[9:24]  ³ tn The Hebrew verb עָשָׂה (’asah, “to do”) carries too general a sense to draw the conclusion that Ham had to have done more than look on his father’s nakedness and tell his brothers.

[9:25]  ⁴ sn For more on the curse, see H. C. Brichto, The Problem of “Curse” in the Hebrew Bible (JBLMS), and J. Scharbert, TDOT 1:405-18.

[9:25]  ⁵ sn Cursed be Canaan. The curse is pronounced on Canaan, not Ham. Noah sees a problem in Ham’s character, and on the basis of that he delivers a prophecy about the future descendants who will live in slavery to such things and then be controlled by others. (For more on the idea of slavery in general, see E. M. Yamauchi, “Slaves of God,” BETS 9 [1966]: 31-49). In a similar way Jacob pronounced oracles about his sons based on their revealed character (see Gen 49).

[9:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “a servant of servants” (עֶבֶד עֲבָדִים, ’eved ’avadim), an example of the superlative genitive. It means Canaan will become the most abject of slaves.