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32 When Noah was five hundred years old, he begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.[a](A)

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Footnotes

  1. 5:32 Shem, Ham, and Japheth: like the genealogies in 4:17–24 and 11:10–26, the genealogy ends in three individuals who engage in important activity. Their descendants will be detailed in chap. 10, where it will be seen that the lineage is political-geographical as well as “ethnic.”

10 Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

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Noah and His Sons. 18 [a]The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 9:18–27 The character of the three sons is sketched here. The fault is not Noah’s (for he could not be expected to know about the intoxicating effect of wine) but Ham’s, who shames his father by looking on his nakedness, and then tells the other sons. Ham’s conduct is meant to prefigure the later shameful sexual practices of the Canaanites, which are alleged in numerous biblical passages. The point of the story is revealed in Noah’s curse of Ham’s son Canaan and his blessing of Shem and Japheth.