page_title: Ham (son of Noah)
section_title: Curse of Canaan
hierarchical_section_title: Ham (son of Noah) / Curse of Canaan
caption_attribution_description: English: Noah damning Ham Русский: Ной проклинает Хама
context_page_description: Ham, according to the Table of Nations in the Book of Genesis, was the second son of Noah and the father of Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan.
  Ham's descendants are interpreted by Flavius Josephus and others as having populated Africa and adjoining parts of Asia. The Bible refers to Egypt as "the land of Ham" in Psalm 78:51; 105:23,27; 106:22; 1 Chronicles 4:40.
context_section_description: What is commonly known as "The Curse of Ham" was not bestowed upon Ham himself, rather Noah indirectly cursed him via his son Canaan.
  The Talmud deduces two possible explanations, one attributed to Rabbi Abba Arika and one to Rabbi Samuel, for what Ham did to Noah to warrant the curse.
  According to Abba Arika, Ham castrated Noah on the basis that, since Noah cursed Ham by his fourth son Canaan, Ham must have injured Noah with respect to a fourth son. Emasculating him thus deprived Noah of the possibility of a fourth son.
  According to Samuel, Ham sodomized Noah, a judgment that he based on analogy with another biblical incident in which the phrase "and he saw" is used. In Genesis 34:2 it reads, "And when Shechem the son of Hamor saw her (Dinah), he took her and lay with her and defiled her."  With regard to Ham and Noah, Genesis 9 reads, "22] And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. [23] And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness." According to this argument, similar abuse must have happened each time that the Bible uses the same language. The Talmud concludes that, in fact, "both indignities were perpetrated."
  Although the story can be taken literally, in more recent times, some scholars have suggested that Ham may have had intercourse with his father's wife. Under this interpretation, Canaan is cursed as the "product of Ham's illicit union."
caption: Ivan Ksenofontov. The damnation of Ham
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