Fruitful and multiplied (Genesis 9:18-10:32)

This section of Genesis covers Noah's sons and their descendants.

The curse of Canaan
After the Flood, one of Noah's sons, Ham, finds his father drunk from wine.  He is so drunk, that he is exposed in his own tent.  Ham sees his father's nakedness and tells the other sons, Shem and Japeth.  Shem and Japeth walk backwards into the tent and cover up Noah's nakedness.

Noah wakes up and curses Ham.  Although Ham has four recorded sons (10:6), this curse will only pass through Canaan.  Canaan will serve the descendants of Noah's other sons, Shem and Japeth.  (9:26-27).

This is one of those weird anecdotes of the Bible.  It has led to lots of speculation, in particular because it does not feel the stated actions of Ham warrant the curse on Canaan.

Here are the various interpretations I have come across from others or thought of myself.  They are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but could have worked together.


1.  Seeing one's own father's nakedness was itself very bad and was sufficient to warrant a curse.

2.  Ham mocked Noah.

Ham did not help to cover the nakedness, but instead told Shem and Japeth about it.  This makes one think the Ham was mocking Noah and wanted Shem and Japeth to mock him as well.  Instead, they do want

3.  Ham castrated Noah.
This reasoning borrows from the other regional Flood stories in which the person who saves humanity is subsequently castrated.  It not only is insulting and painful, but for someone who just saved humanity, it has an extra level of insult, because it removes the possibility of any more children from Noah at a time when there are almost no people on the planet.

The earth is devoid of humans.  The population is very low and here, the patriarch might be getting castrated by his own son.  Perhaps the son does not want anymore competition in repopulating the earth from his own father.

4.  Ham raped Noah.
This reasoning sees the story as an origin story about the people of Canaan and why they deserve to be destroyed.

The Canaanites are rapists and incestuous.  For example, we are about to come across the Canaanite cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where man-on-man rape occurs without a thought.  The cities are also the home of Lot's daughters, who are incestuous.

Thus, Canaan receives the curse because they are incestuous rapists.  This in part justifies the later conquest and annihilation of the people by Joshua.


The descendants
In Chapter 10, the descendants of the sons of Noah spread out to the entire near east world.

From other commentaries about this, a few things stand out to me.

Nimrod (verses 8-12) is named as a great hunter.  He also established Ninevah, thus he could be the first Assyrian king.

The "Sea Peoples" (v. 5) likely refer to the Greeks.

If we add up all the people mentioned, 70 of them, they spread out and encompass the entire region.  Truly, the sons of Noah were fruitful and multiplied.