Ham
From BibleWiki
Meaning: warm, hot, and hence the south
also an Egyptian word meaning "black"
It is likely that Ham was a man with black skin-colour, as that also ties in with the fact that he was cursed, and dark skin coloured people tend to still stuggle in modern times.
The youngest son of Noah (Gen 5:32; comp. Gen 9:22ff). The curse pronounced by Noah against Ham, properly against Canaan his fourth son, was accomplished when the Jews subsequently exterminated the Canaanites.
One of the most important facts recorded in Gen. 10 is the foundation of the earliest monarchy in Babylonia by Nimrod the grandson of Ham (6, 8, 10). The primitive Babylonian empire was thus Hamitic, and of a cognate race with the primitive inhabitants of Arabia and of Ethiopia. (See Accad.)
The race of Ham were the most energetic of all the descendants of Noah in the early times of the post-diluvian world. Ham had 4 sons, Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan.
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—Biblical Data:
Second son of Noah (Gen 5:32); mentioned second in the table of the nations (Gen 10:6), where his descendants are given. In Gen 9:24 he appears as the youngest of Noah's sons, who treated his father with irreverence when the latter was under the influence of drink.
—In Rabbinical Literature:
Ham is represented by the Talmudists as one of the three who had intercourse with their wives in the Ark, being punished therefor in that his descendants, the Ethiopians, are black (Sanh. 108b; Gen. R. xxxvi. 11). Some explained the obscure passage Gen 9:22-24 as follows: Ham emasculated his father, saying, "My father has three sons already; and now he wishes a fourth son." Therefore Noah cursed Canaan, Ham's fourth son, saying, "Thou hast hindered me from having a fourth son; I will curse thy own fourth son." According to another opinion, Ham defiled his father, and Noah cursed Canaan because Ham, with his father and his two brothers, had been previously blessed by God (Sanh. 70a; Gen. R. xxxvi. 4). Another opinion declares that the mutilation of Noah was committed by Canaan, but was really caused by Ham mentioning his father's nakedness in the presence of Ham's youngest son (Ex. R. xxx. 5). Possibly Ham saw Canaan's deed and did not condemn him for it (Yalḳ., Gen. 61; comp. "Da'at Zeḳenim" ad loc.). Ham was punished by having his descendants led into captivity with their buttocks uncovered (Isa 20:4; Gen. R. xxxvi. 8).
—Critical View:
The modern critics regard the story narrated in Gen 9:24 as having been originally told of Canaan, "Ham father of [Canaan]" being a later insertion. The ethnographic conceptions of the ancient Hebrews first divided the races they knew into those related to them (Shem), those inhabiting the land (Canaan), and those outside (Japheth). Later on this threefold division seems to have been applied to all nations known to the Israelites, and then, it being impossible to regard Canaan as representative of the south, Egypt took that place. "Ham" is, according to this view, equivalent to "Egypt," one of the names of which was "Chemi" (black, referring to the dark color of the soil of the Nile valley). Accordingly, in the table of nations Ham is reported to have four chief branches: Cush = Ethiopia, Mizraim = Egypt, Phut = Libya, and Canaan. These four divisions were then subdivided, among the descendants of Cush being the Babylonians, Accadians, and Assyrians; among those of Mizraim, the Philistines and the Cypriotes (Caphtorim); among the Canaanites, Sidon, Heth, and nine other smaller tribes like the Jebusites, and the Amorites (Gen 10:6-20). The exact basis of this classification is not clear. It is mainly geographical, all the nations south of Palestine being included in the list of the descendants of Ham; but this scarcely accounts for the presence of Canaan among the sons of Ham, which may have been due to the need of reconciling the legend of Noah's disgrace with the modern cosmogony.
