Read Genesis 9:18-29 at Bible Gateway.
Hebrew paragraph division
Gen 9:18-29 {p} Shem and Japheth blessed/ Canaan cursed
At this stage of my biblical understanding, I cannot see how this strong paragraph makes its own chiastic structure. I can only uncover a chiastic structure from Gen 9:18-10:32 {p+s+s+p}.
And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done unto him. And he said: “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said: Blessed be Yehovah, the Elohiym of Shem; and let Canaan be their servant. May Elohiym enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be their servant.” Gen 9:24-27
Cursed is Strong’s H779, arar, a primitive root, “to curse,” aleph + resh + resh.
aleph = the ox head, thus strength, power, leader
resh = the head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
resh = the head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
The story the ancient Hebrew pictographs are painting, is of powerful words (aleph) resting on the head of a man (resh), passing to the head of a second man (resh), i.e. negatively influencing and effecting that man and his generations after him.
The first occurrence of “to curse” in Scripture (as a word’s first occurrence usually carries more concrete clues of its meaning):
And Yehovah Elohiym said unto the serpent: Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all beasts of the field; upon your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life. Gen 3:14
The first curse was in the form of words of power which effected, not only that particular serpent, but every serpent to come after him. Up until this passage in Gen 9, the only spoken curses recorded in Scripture, were spoken by the Lord God as a result of sin.
But a curse cannot be used as an arbitrary tool in the hands of the malicious:
Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, so a curse without cause shall not alight. Pro 26:2.
The ministry of Messiah Yeshua is a ministry of redemption, of revoking the curses with cause that have alighted on mankind and on the earth since the Fall (Rom 8:20-21, Gal 3:13).
Blessed is Strong’s H1288, barak, a primitive root, “to bless,” bet + resh + kaph (final form).
bet = the house, thus house, household, family, in, within
resh = the head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
kaph = the open palm, thus bend, open, allow, tame
The story the ancient pictographs are painting is first, the bet + resh together = family (bet) of heads (resh), i.e. ripened grain; so by extension to fill, to make fat, and also to slaughter, as cattle were fattened for slaughter by taking them off grass and feeding them on grain. To bless, then, is to fill (bet + resh) the palm (kaph) – the blessing fills the palm, the upturned hands, of the one being blessed, with good things; and also, the father filled his palm with his sons’ heads when conferring the blessing.
First occurrence of “to bless” in Scripture:
God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” Gen 1:22.
The teaching tool of comparison and contrast teaches us that a curse is a word of power alighting on the head of a man and his descendants, producing a real negative effect; and a blessing is a word of power alighting on the head of a man and his descendants, producing a real positive effect. Our words, especially our words of authority spoken as parents over our children, have life-long ramifications; make them words of blessing!
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