What was the curse placed on Noah's son Ham and what does it mean?

Answer 1

The passage says that Ham saw his father's nakedness and reported (most likely in derision) to his older brothers. Neither act was honorable; both times Ham had the opportunity to do something right. ( After Ham told his older brother Japeth and Shem, Japeth and Shem went and covered their father's body with a cloth. But when they did it they walked in the tent backwards so that they would not see Noah's nakedness.)
But the whole episode seems rather bizarre and out of proportion to the simple issue of being seen naked. I've looked at most of the commentators and many of them suggest that there is some sort of sexual euphamism in the way it's expressed. http://www.christianmoralquestions.com/ also points out something similar in Habakkuk 2:15: "Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbours, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies" and suggests that here too there is some sort of sexual euphamism (after all why would the neighbours want to take their clothes off when they came round for a drink?). The term "being uncovered" usually implied that there was a woman involved (but she wouldn't have been mentioned in that kind of patriarchal narrative).

Of coarse Ham took advantage of his father sexually he was aroused by his father's naked body and his helpless drunken state, and when Noah woke he was aware of what had happened to him, he would have known he had been penetrated.You wouldn't curse your son for seeing you naked that would not make sense at all no matter what he said to his brothers.

Answer 2

A:The Hebrews of the first millennium BCE despised their neighbours, the Canaanites, whom they regarded as descended from the legendary Canaan. In the passage that follows Genesis 9:18, we see Ham, "the father of Canaan", homosexually rape his own father, Noah, while he is asleep in a drunken stupour. When Noah realises what has happened, he curses not Ham but Ham's future son Canaan, saying that he (his descendants) will forever be slaves for his brethren. The curse can be seen as part of a passage that seeks to justify future hatred of the Canaanites.

Genesis 9:22: "And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without."

Whenever The Bible talks about a man 'knowing' or 'seeing the nakedness' of another man or woman, it is a euphemism for sex, in this case, the most despised act by Ham of raping his own father and then boasting to his brothers about it. This is confirmed when Noah awoke:

Genesis 9:24:"And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger 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 the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant."

This passage had such obvious political implications that we do not need to believe that it really happened. Noah cursed, not Ham, but Ham's son Canaan, and said that Canaan would forever be the servant to his brethren. When this story was written down, the Canaanites, biblical descendants of the legendary Canaan, were the despised competitors of the Israelites. The curse can be seen as part of a passage that seeks to justify future hatred of the Canaanites.

Answer 3

The curse placed on Ham's son Canaan by Noah was that he would be a servant of his brothers. This has been interpreted by some as a justification for the enslavement of Canaan's descendants. However, others see it as a historical explanation for the Hebrews' conquest of Canaan.