Read Genesis 9:18-10:32 at Bible Gateway.
I study the Torah every year using the teaching tools of Scripture. (Why?)
The Hebrew paragraph divisions inspired by the Holy Spirit are:
Gen 9:18-29 p Shem and Japheth blessed/ Canaan cursed
Gen 10:1-14 s The sons of Japheth and Ham
Gen 10:15-20 s The sons of Canaan
Gen 10:21-32 p The sons of Shem
This parashah forms its own chiastic structure:
Gen 9:18-10:32
1a) Gen 9:18-19, The three sons of Noah were Shem, Ham, Japheth + from these the whole earth was populated;
1b) Gen 9:20, Noah lived by farming after the flood;
1c) Gen 9:21, He drank of the wine of his vineyard and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent;
central axis) Gen 9:22-23, Ham looked on Noah’s nakedness and told it/ Shem, Japheth did not look and covered it;
2c) Gen 9:24-27, Noah awoke from his wine/ cursed Canaan + blessed YHVH, Shem, Japheth;
2b) Gen 9:28-29 p, Noah lived 350 years after the flood/ all his days were 950, and he died.
2a) Gen 10:1-32 s+s+p, The families of the sons of Noah + from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood.
This is not the first time nakedness comes up in Scripture. When Adam knew he was naked, he tried to cover his nakedness, and hid himself from the presence of God in the garden. Nakedness is a metaphor for human vulnerability, humiliation, shame, foolishness, sin, weaknesses, mistakes, imperfections.
In the garden, it was the enemy who exposed human nakedness (by setting Eve on the course that would cause them to see it, Gen 3:1-7). It was God who covered it (Gen 3:21). Those who do the works of their father, are of their father (Joh 8:37-47): and here, in the new world, it was Ham who exposed nakedness, and Shem and Japheth who covered it. Thus the curse on Ham’s descendant Canaan, and the blessing on Shem and Japheth.
He who covers a transgression seeks love,
But he who repeats a matter separates friends. Pro 17:9
For further reading:
Messiah revealed in the curse on Canaan
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