The following is continuation of the Flood narrative (Noah’s Flood 6, Noah’s Flood 7, Noah’s Flood 8) based on the research I have been doing for the Torah commentary I am writing. If you have ever wanted to know more than was available with a simple reading of the Scripture, this will help.
- Genesis 6 – The Purpose of the Flood
- Genesis 7 – The Deluge
- Genesis 8 – The Flood Abates
- Genesis 9 – Noah’s Curse
This will probably be the last of this series as the text quickly moves through the genealogies and then introduces Nimrod and Abraham. I anticipate I will spend the next several months working through the next few chapters.
1 And Elohim blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
Genesis 9:1
This is the same command as was given to Adam and Eve in verse 1:28. Elohim prefers life and later, (verse 9:5-6), He condemns anyone who premeditatedly takes it.
Man, today, is preoccupied with the taking of life. Whether it is the barbarous leaders of totalitarian regimes or the fanatical environmental leaders who advocate zero population growth (ZPG) (which Planned Parenthood fits into). Man desires to exert total control over all people and having a smaller population makes it easier to ensure some folks do not escape the plantation.
Man claims that having children is a drain on a person’s time and resources – ‘you can eat out and travel more if you don’t have children’. Elohim believes children are a blessing.
It is ironic that the same governments that push for smaller families are also concerned that there are fewer younger people to support the massive social security systems they have constructed.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
Genesis 9:2
Man was not given dominion of the Earth, again (Genesis 1:28), but he is told that he will (and must) dominate over the animal kingdom.
3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Genesis 9:3
Animals are now food? I believe a strong argument can be made that man ate animals before the flood. All life is important to Elohim, so the sacrifice of an animal and the wasting of the burnt flesh would be odious to Him.
Man and animals would have had to maintain a vegetarian diet for nearly a year. With the resumption of animal sacrifice, consumption of their flesh would begin, again, but it sounds like Elohim is permitting the eating of livestock separate from the sacrifice.
Man, however, is capable of great cruelty towards each other and to the animals. Elohim later codifies humane treatment of man and animals.
4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Genesis 9:4
Consumption of the blood of the animals is not permitted. This is a rite of passage for hunters after their first kill – Elohim detests it. It is also one of the four big ‘no-nos’ from Acts 15:20, when it was decided how to treat the new pagan converts to the faith. The new converts had to stop this practice (and three others) immediately and they would learn the rest of the Torah over time by attending Synagogue.
Blood sacrifice empowers the fallen angels, also, which is why so many pagan religions require human sacrifice – especially child sacrifice. These angels would have lost their heavenly aura, also, and therefore seek to fill the void of Elohim’s life-giving presence with the life of other beings (“for the life of the flesh is in the blood” – Leviticus 17:11) [Douglas Hamp]
5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. 6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of Elohim made he man.
Genesis 9:5-6
Man may take the life of an animal for food, but man is not to take the life of another man. Neither is an animal permitted to take the life of a man. Any man or animal that does is to be put to death.
People who denounce the death penalty refuse to see it for what it is. First, it is a commandment of Elohim for certain crimes; second, it is just since the victim of the murderer was given a death sentence by the culprit; and third, it is not just to have the family of the victim suffer their loss AND support the murderer with room and board for the rest of their life (even if it is a miserable life).
Man is to judge man and beast. He is also responsible for executing a guilty party. Animals are incapable of formulating the necessary intent to murder, but that is not an issue – the taking of human life is a serious matter. [Dennis Prager]
When someone exclaims, “only God can judge me”, they are repudiating His command (the first of many) that we judge each other according to His Word. They are probably also announcing that they are violating the Torah and want to continue to do so without any Earthly consequences.
7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
Genesis 9:7
Once again, Elohim tells the survivors to be ‘fruitful and multiply’. The animals do not need such guidance – they will multiply on their own and will overpower man if he does not add to his own ranks.
8 And Elohim spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
Genesis 9:8-10
Elohim is not going to leave Noah’s family to their own devices. He repeats the covenant He made with Adam. If they continue to acknowledge Him as Elohim in their words and their actions, then He will bless their crops, herds, and their children.
The Hebrew Talmud proclaims that Elohim establishes what is known as, “the Noahide Laws” as a part of the covenant he makes with Noah. These laws are to be followed by all mankind (Noah and his family were all of mankind at that time), unlike the Law of Moses, which applied to the Israelites and the people that left Egypt with them (Fellow sojourners.
Two of the laws are obvious from this chapter. I cannot find why the other five are attributed to Noah, nor why consuming blood is not on the list. The seven laws are:
- Do not profane Elohim’s Oneness – do not practice idolatry.
- Do not curse your Creator.
- Do not murder (verse 6).
- Do not eat a limb of a still-living animal (verse 4). Some cultures did this to preserve the rest of the meat. It is obviously cruel to the animal.
- Do not steal.
- Harness and channel the human libido. Incest, adultery, rape and homosexual relations are forbidden (verses 24-25?).
- Establish courts of law and ensure justice.
11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 12 And Elohim said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between Elohim and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 17 And Elohim said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
Genesis 9:11-17
Elohim promises to never destroy the Earth by Flood, again, and the rainbow would be the remembrance for all of this promise.
Part of this is that Elohim wants people to love Him willingly. The story of the Flood has survived for thousands of years, though the reasons for it are not so readily remembered. If man was always fearful that Elohim might decide to flood the world again, then the adherence to His Word may be coerced rather than free-will.
The rainbow does not mark the location of a pot of gold, but of something much more valuable. It is to be a reminder of the Covenant that Elohim made with man and the commitment each has made to the other.
Unfortunately, man has made it a symbol of his desire to openly violate Torah.
18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. 19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread. 20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: 21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
Genesis 9:18-21
Noah begins to till the soil again. He makes wine from the harvest and becomes drunk. This incident does not take place immediately after leaving the ark (as some teach) since it takes up to three years for viable grapes to grow – the first harvest only produces sour berries. (how long does it take a new vineyard to yield grapes)
One can speculate that he was trying to drown the memories of what they had endures less than two years earlier, or it could just be that Noah had not had alcohol in nearly four years and he no longer knew his body’s tolerance level.
“uncovered” – galah / gaw-law’ [H1540] a primitive root; to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense); by implication, to exile (captives being usually stripped); figuratively, to reveal:–+ advertise, appear, bewray, uncover.
Noah, in a drunken state, probably stripped down and went to his tent to sleep it off.
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
Genesis 9:22
“Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father”. Ham had four children – why is Canaan singled out? He appears to have been the last one born (verse 10:6). Why doesn’t the verse read, “Ham, the father of Cush”, his firstborn?
“nakedness” – `ervah / er-vaw’ [H6172] nudity, literally (especially the pudenda [genitalia]) or figuratively (disgrace, blemish):–nakedness, shame, unclean(-ness).
“saw the nakedness of his father” – this is an idiom. It does not mean that Ham saw his father in the nude (which was probably a common occurrence since the family probably bathed in a common area.
The phrase refers to Ham having sex with Noah’s wife (Ham’s mother). Look to the other uses of the phrase when Yahweh is prohibiting incest in the Law:
6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD. 7 The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 8 The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.
14 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt.
16 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.
Leviticus 18:6-8,14,16
Ham took advantage of his father’s inebriation to have sex with his mother. Afterwards, he told his brothers what he had done.
23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness. 24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. 25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
Genesis 9:23-25
Noah wakes up and curses his grandson? This only makes sense if Noah’s wife becomes pregnant from the act and has Ham’s fourth son.
In the notes to verse 6:18, I remarked that the sons were alluded to as ‘righteous’, but their wives were not mentioned in the text. They belonged to the pool of people that were described as ”corrupted” (Genesis 6:12).
The Word never gives the name of Noah’s wife (nor the wives of Noah’s three sons). Though woman was created to be equal with man, Elohim holds the man responsible for family and therefore the Word generally follows the lineage of the men.
Jasher 5:15-16 states that Noah’s wife was Naamah, the daughter of Enoch (a good indication that she may have been pure – though good parents don’t always raise good children). This would have made her a great-great aunt and since Enoch was translated when Noah was four-years old, probably significantly older than Noah, also.
Jubilees reports that her name was Emzarâh, the daughter of Râkêl, his father’s brother (making her a first cousin – Jubilees 4:32). This seems more likely than the account in Jasher.
The wives and possibly two of the sons would have brought corrupted (recessive) DNA unto the ark and therefore there was the possibility that the corruption could have passed on to some of the children (depending on which genes found dominance in the children). (Douglas Hamp)
When the sons of Noah started having families, did they recognize Nephilim traits in their children? Did Ham’s son have six fingers and toes (a trait associated with giantism – 2Samuel 21:20 – also, see the relief of Nimrod on this page.
Ham’s first son was Cush, the father of Nimrod – a man who ‘became’ Nephilim (see the notes at verse 10:8). If after three attempts to have a ‘normal’ child failed, he may have become desperate enough to impregnate the only woman he ‘knew’ to be pure.
“servant” – `ebed / eh’-bed [H5650] from 5647; a servant:–X bondage, bondman, (bond-)servant, (man-)servant (causatively) enslave, etc.
This curse is odd, since we do not know how many years elapse between the Flood and the birth of Ham’s fourth child. How soon after the flood do the descendants of Noah start to make servants, or even slaves, of their family members?
It is also odd since it cannot possibly be Canaan’s fault that his father had sex with his grandmother. The corruption of DNA had probably progressed to a point that incest was beginning to produce deformities and Noah is acknowledging the defect.
Many families have a family member that is incapable of making their way in the world and live with a member of their family, doing chores to earn their keep.
Only two generations later, Nimrod (Ham’s grandson) becomes the king of the world, so the subjugation of family does happen rather quickly.
26 And he said, Blessed be Yahweh God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Genesis 9:26
Shem is designated as the chief son in terms of the bloodline The brothers’ descendants will war with the descendants of Shem in the future.
27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. 28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
Genesis 9:27-29
Noah lived 950 years, but his sons lived little more than half that long and the lifespans of future generations became much shorter.
Yahweh destroyed the earth to prevent man’s unbridled wickedness from destroying the creation. After the flood, the wickedness returns almost immediately. Man is wicked by nature and needs a moral compass to keep from succumbing to corruption.
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Matthew 24:37-39
The days are near when man’s attempts to be like gods will completely corrupt the earth (as what happened in the days of Noah). This time, Yahweh will use fire to cleanse the earth and begin anew.
Do not be a god – be a follower of the one, true Yahweh.
