Shem

Shem is the firstborn line of Noah's three sons named in the flood narrative and the head of the post-flood genealogy that runs through Eber down to Abram. He is preserved in the ark, blessed by his father after the episode with Canaan, traced through the Table of Nations as father of Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram, listed again at the head of the Chronicler's universal genealogy, named in the genealogy of Jesus in Luke, and remembered in Sirach's roll of the honored ancestors.

Son of Noah and the Ark

Shem is named with his brothers in the formulaic notice of Noah's fatherhood. "And Noah was 500 years old: And Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (Gen 5:32). The same triad is repeated in the toledoth of Noah: "And Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (Gen 6:10).

When the flood comes, Shem enters the ark with the rest of his family on the day the waters break in. "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). On the other side of the deluge the same three are named again as the survivors who go forth: "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 picks up this same compressed list at the very head of his genealogy: "Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (1 Chr 1:4).

Filial Conduct and Noah's Blessing

The episode of Noah's drunkenness places Shem at the center of the patriarch's prophetic word. After Ham sees his father's nakedness, Shem and Japheth act together to cover him without looking. "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 learns "what his youngest son had done to him" (Gen 9:24), the response is a triple oracle. Canaan is cursed: "Cursed be Canaan; A slave of slaves he will be to his brothers" (Gen 9:25). Shem is then named not directly but through his God: "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem; And let Canaan be his slave" (Gen 9:26). Japheth is granted enlargement and a place inside Shem's tents: "God enlarge Japheth, And let him stay in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be his slave" (Gen 9:27).

Father of Eber and Head of a Line

Shem's standing in the post-flood world is summed up in a single epithet: "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). The Table of Nations then opens with the joint heading "Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, [namely], of Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and to them were sons born after the flood" (Gen 10:1).

The detailed list of his descendants follows. "The sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram" (Gen 10:22), with Aram's branch named next: "And the sons of Aram: Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash" (Gen 10:23). The Chronicler gives the same generation in expanded form: "The sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech" (1 Chr 1:17). The line then runs through Arpachshad: "And Arpachshad begot Shelah; and Shelah begot Eber" (Gen 10:24).

Eber's two sons divide the line: "And to Eber were born two sons: The name of the one was Peleg. For in his days was the earth divided. And his brother's name was Joktan" (Gen 10:25). Joktan's branch fans out into a long roster of Arabian-region peoples — Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab — settled "from Mesha, as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east" (Gen 10:26-30). The unit closes with the summary: "These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations" (Gen 10:31). The Chronicler reproduces the Joktanite list without substantive change (1 Chr 1:18-23).

The Line from Shem to Abram

Genesis 11 returns to Shem to trace the chosen line down from him to Abram. "These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old, and begot Arpachshad two years after the flood" (Gen 11:10). "And Shem lived after he begot Arpachshad five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters" (Gen 11:11).

The list then proceeds in formulaic steps — Arpachshad to Shelah, Shelah to Eber, Eber to Peleg, Peleg to Reu, Reu to Serug, Serug to Nahor, Nahor to Terah — each generation given an age at fatherhood and a span of years afterward (Gen 11:12-25). The line lands at "And Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran" (Gen 11:26), opening into the toledoth of Terah and the family of Abram, Sarai, Nahor, Milcah, Haran, and Lot (Gen 11:27-29).

The Chronicler condenses this same descent into a bare line: "Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abram (the same is Abraham)" (1 Chr 1:24-27).

Shem in the Genealogy of Jesus

Luke's genealogy of Jesus traces the line back through this same Shemite descent. Walking up from Joseph it passes through "the [son] of Cainan, the [son] of Arphaxad, the [son] of Shem, the [son] of Noah, the [son] of Lamech" (Luke 3:36). The bracketed "[son]" marks UPDV's resolution of the implied genitive; the form Arphaxad is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Arpachshad of Genesis 11.

Shem in Sirach's Praise of the Ancestors

The roll of honored ancestors at the close of Sirach's "Praise of the Fathers" remembers Shem alongside the other earliest names. "Shem, and Seth, with Enosh were honored; But above every living thing was the glory of Adam. Great among his brethren, and the glory of his people" (Sir 49:16). Shem stands here in the company of Seth and Enosh as one of the named figures of the primeval generations, with Adam set above all living things.