Ham

Ham is the second-named son of Noah, the father of Canaan, and the ancestor from whom the Cushites, Mizraim (Egypt), Put, and the Canaanite nations descend. The name afterward serves as a poetic patronymic for Egypt in the Psalms, and as a toponym for a settlement east of the Jordan struck by Chedorlaomer.

Son of Noah

Ham is born to Noah in his five-hundredth year and is named alongside Shem and Japheth: "And Noah was 500 years old: And Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (Gen 5:32). He enters the ark with his father, his brothers, his mother, and the three wives "in the very same day" the flood begins (Gen 7:13). When the family disembarks, the same triad is repeated, with the additional note that fixes Ham's place in later history: "And the sons of Noah, that went forth from the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan" (Gen 9:18). The Chronicler reproduces the line at the head of his genealogies: "Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (1 Chr 1:4).

The Vineyard and the Curse on Canaan

After the flood Noah plants a vineyard, drinks of the wine, and lies uncovered in his tent (Gen 9:20-21). What follows is the episode that distinguishes Ham from his brothers: "And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside" (Gen 9:22). Shem and Japheth respond by walking in backward with a garment laid across their shoulders, covering their father with their faces averted so that "they did not see their father's nakedness" (Gen 9:23). When Noah awakes "and knew what his youngest son had done to him" (Gen 9:24), the oracle that follows passes over Ham himself and falls on his son: "And he said, Cursed be Canaan; A slave of slaves he will be to his brothers" (Gen 9:25). The same word recurs in the blessings on Shem and Japheth — "And he said, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem; And let Canaan be his slave" (Gen 9:26), and "God enlarge Japheth, And let him stay in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be his slave" (Gen 9:27). The curse is pronounced on the line that issues from Ham, not on Ham as a person.

His Children and the Hamite Nations

The Table of Nations lists Ham's four sons in fixed order: "And the sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, and Put, and Canaan" (Gen 10:6). From Cush descend Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca, and through Raamah the further pair Sheba and Dedan (Gen 10:7). Cush also begets Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before Yahweh" whose kingdom begins at "Babel, Erech, and Accad — all of them in the land of Shinar," and from which he goes out into Assyria to build Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, and Resen (Gen 10:8-12). Mizraim's line yields Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim ("from where went forth the Philistines"), and Caphtorim (Gen 10:13-14). Canaan's line is traced separately: "And Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and Heth" (Gen 10:15), then "the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite" (Gen 10:16), "the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite" (Gen 10:17), and "the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanite spread abroad" (Gen 10:18). Their territory runs "from Sidon, as you go toward Gerar, to Gaza; as you go toward Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, to Lasha" (Gen 10:19). The whole table closes by gathering the lines back to the patriarch: "These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, in their nations" (Gen 10:20).

The Chronicler abbreviates the same material — "The sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, Put, and Canaan" (1 Chr 1:8) — and follows the Cushite, Mizraite, and Canaanite branches in the same sequence (1 Chr 1:9-16), down to "the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite" (1 Chr 1:16).

Patronymic for Egypt

In the historical books and the Psalms "Ham" survives as a name for the population descended from him, particularly for Egypt. The Simeonite scouts at Gedor "found fat and good pasture, and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceful; for those who dwelt there previously were of Ham" (1 Chr 4:40). The plague of the firstborn is set "in the tents of Ham" (Ps 78:51). Israel's descent into Egypt is described as Jacob sojourning "in the land of Ham" (Ps 105:23), and the signs and wonders that issue out of the Mosaic confrontation are placed there: "They set among them his signs, And wonders in the land of Ham" (Ps 105:27); "Wondrous works in the land of Ham, [And] awesome works by the Red Sea" (Ps 106:22).

Ham East of the Jordan

The same three letters serve as a place name in the campaign of the eastern kings against the cities of the plain. In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and his allies struck "the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim" (Gen 14:5). Here Ham is a settlement of the Zuzim, distinct from the patriarch and from his Egyptian descendants.