Japheth

Japheth is one of the three sons of Noah, named alongside Shem and Ham in every roster of the patriarchal household. The UPDV records his birth, his rescue through the flood, his role in covering Noah's nakedness, and the table-of-nations genealogy that traces the northern and western peoples back to him.

Son of Noah

Japheth first appears in the genealogy that closes the line of Seth. "And Noah was 500 years old: And Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (Gen 5:32). The notice repeats at the head of the flood narrative: "And Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (Gen 6:10). When the post-flood roster is drawn up, the brothers are listed in the same order: "And the sons of Noah, that went forth from the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth" (Gen 9:18). The table of nations adds a relational note that breaks the standard order — "And to Shem, the father of all the sons of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, to him also were sons born" (Gen 10:21) — locating Japheth as a brother of Shem in the generation that produces the Eberite line.

Preserved through the Flood

Japheth enters the ark with the rest of the household on the day the flood begins. "In the very same day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark" (Gen 7:13). The same triadic listing reappears once they emerge: "And the sons of Noah, that went forth from the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth" (Gen 9:18). The flood narrative thus brackets the three brothers together as the survivors through whom the postdiluvian human race continues.

The Covering of Noah

Japheth's one recorded action in his own right is his shared response to Noah's drunkenness. With Shem he refuses to look on his father uncovered: "And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness" (Gen 9:23). When Noah wakes and pronounces his oracle, Japheth receives a blessing of expansion and a place among Shem's tents: "God enlarge Japheth, And let him stay in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be his slave" (Gen 9:27).

Descendants and the Table of Nations

The table of nations opens with Japheth's line. "The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras" (Gen 10:2). The second tier is traced through two of the seven: "And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan: Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim" (Gen 10:3-4). The summary that follows places the Japhethite peoples on the maritime fringe of the known world: "Of these were the isles of the nations divided in their lands, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations" (Gen 10:5).

The Chronicler reproduces the same genealogy with one orthographic variant. "The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, and Diphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan: Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim" (1 Chr 1:5-7). The Chronicler's "Diphath" stands where Genesis reads "Riphath"; otherwise the two lists are identical, and together they fix the Japhethite branch of the postdiluvian human family.