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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 9:18-23

Here is, I. Noah's family and employment. The names of his sons are again mentioned (Gen. 9:18, 19) as those from whom the whole earth was overspread, by which it appears that Noah, after the flood, had no more children: all the world came from these three. Note, God, when he pleases, can make a little one to become a thousand, and greatly increase the latter end of those whose beginning was small. Such are the power and efficacy of a divine blessing. The business Noah applied himself to was... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 9:24-27

II. The spirit of prophecy comes upon him, and, like dying Jacob, he tells his sons what shall befal them, Gen. 49:1. 1. He pronounces a curse on Canaan the son of Ham (Gen. 9:25), in whom Ham is himself cursed, either because this son of his was now more guilty than the rest, or because the posterity of this son was afterwards to be rooted out of their land, to make room for Israel. And Moses here records it for the animating of Israel in the wars of Canaan; though the Canaanites were a... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 9:20

And Noah began to be an husbandman ,.... Or "a man of the earth" F3 איש האדמה "vir terrie", Montanus. , not lord of it, as Jarchi, though he was, but a tiller of the earth, as he had been before the flood, and now began to be again; he returned to his old employment, and which perhaps he improved, having invented, as the Jews F4 Zohar, apud Hottinger, Smegma Oriental. p. 253. say, instruments of husbandry; it may be, the use of the plough, which made the tillage of the ground... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 9:21

And he drank of the wine, and was drunken ,.... Either not being acquainted with the strength of it, as is thought by many; or having been used to weaker liquor, as water; or through the infirmity of his age; however, he was overtaken with it, and which is recorded, not to disgrace him, but to caution men against the evil of intemperance, as well as to encourage repenting sinners to expect pardon: and this shows that the best of men are not exempted from sin, nor secure from falling; and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 9:22

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father ,.... Which, had it been through surprise, and at an unawares, would not have been thought criminal; but be went into his father's tent, where he ought not to have entered; he looked with pleasure and delight on his father's nakedness: Ham is represented by many writers as a very wicked, immodest, and profligate creature: Berosus F9 Antiqu. l. 3. fol. 25. 1. makes him a magician, and to be the same with Zoroast or... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 9:23

And Shem and Japheth took a garment ,.... Who were the two brothers Ham told what he had seen, and who, no doubt, reproved him for his ill behaviour, and then took a garment, a coat of their own, very probably, some large garment fit for the purpose: and laid it upon both their shoulders ; one part of it on the right shoulder of the one, and the other on the left shoulder of the other: and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father ; going backward when they came into... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 9:24

And Noah awoke from his wine ,.... From his sleep, which his wine brought on him; when the force and strength of that was gone, and when not only he awaked, but came to himself, and was sober: and knew what his younger son had done to him ; either by revelation, as some, or prophecy, as Ben Gersom, or by the relation of his two sons, whom, when finding himself covered with another's garment, he might question how it came about, and they told him the whole affair: some, as Aben Ezra, Ben... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 9:25

And he said ,.... Not in a drunken fit, as some profane persons would suggest, for he was awaked from his wine; nor in the heat of passion, but by inspiration, under a spirit of prophecy: cursed be Canaan ; or, "O cursed Canaan", or rather, "Canaan is", or "shall be cursed" F17 ארור כנען "maledictus erit Cenahan", Junius & Tremellius. ; for the words are either a declaration of what was his case, or a prediction of what it should be. It may seem strange that Canaan should... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 9:26

And he said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem ,.... Shem was blessed before Japheth, because he was the first and principal in advising and conducting the affair before ascribed to them, as Jarchi on Genesis 9:23 suggests; and though the words are in the form of an ascription of blessedness to God, the fountain of all good, and by whose grace Shem was influenced and enabled to do the good he did, for which the Lord's name was to be praised and blessed; yet it includes the blessing of Shem,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 9:27

God shall enlarge Japheth ,.... Or give him a large part of the earth, and large dominions in it, as his posterity have had; for, as Bochart F18 Phaleg. l. 3. c. 1. col. 149. observes, to them belonged all Europe, and lesser Asia, Media, Iberia, Albania, part of Armenia, and all those vast countries to the north, which formerly the Scythians, and now the Tartars inhabit; not to say anything of the new world (America), into which the Scythians might pass through the straights of Anian: ... read more

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