Bereshis 9:22

22 And Cham, the av of Kena’an, saw the erom (nakedness) of his av, and told his two achim on the outside.

Bereshis 9:22 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 9:22

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his
father
Which, had it been through surprise, and at an unawares, would not have been thought criminal; but be went into his father's tent, where he ought not to have entered; he looked with pleasure and delight on his father's nakedness: Ham is represented by many writers as a very wicked, immodest, and profligate creature: Berosus ^F9 makes him a magician, and to be the same with Zoroast or Zoroastres, and speaks of him as the public corrupter of mankind; and says that he taught men to live as before the flood, to lie with mothers, sisters, daughters, males and brutes, and creatures of all sorts; and that he actually did so himself, and therefore was cast out by his father Janus, or Noah, and got the name of "Chem", the infamous and immodest:

and told his two brethren without;
he went out of the tent after he had pleased himself with the sight; see ( Habakkuk 2:15 ) and in a wanton, ludicrous, and scoffing manner, related what he had seen: some of the Jewish Rabbins ^F11, as Jarchi relates, say that Canaan first saw it, and told his father of it; and some say ^F12, that he or Ham committed an unnatural crime with him; and others ^F13, that he castrated him; and hence, it is supposed, came the stories of Jupiter castrating his father Saturn, and Chronus his father Uranus: and Berosus ^F14 says, that Ham taking hold of his father's genitals, and muttering some words, by a magic charm rendered him impotent: and some ^F15 will have it that he committed incest with his father's wife; but these things are said without foundation: what Noah's younger son did unto him, besides looking on him, we are not told, yet it was such as brought a curse on Canaan; and one would think it would be more than bare sight, nay, it is expressly said there was something done, but what is not said, ( Genesis 9:24 ) .

---

FOOTNOTES:

F9 Antiqu. l. 3. fol. 25. 1.
F11 In Bereshit Rabba, sect. 36. fol. 32. 1.
F12 Some in Jarchi.
F13 Pirke Eliezer, c. 23. Some Rabbins in Ben Gersom & Jarchi in loc.
F14 Antiqu. l. 3. fol. 25. 1.
F15 Vander Hart, apud Bayle Dict. vol. 10. Art. "Ham", p. 588.

Bereshis 9:22 In-Context

20 And Noach began to be an ish ha’adamah (a man of the soil), and he planted a kerem (vineyard);

21 And he drank of the yayin, and became shikker (intoxicated); and he lay uncovered inside his ohel.

22 And Cham, the av of Kena’an, saw the erom (nakedness) of his av, and told his two achim on the outside.

23 And Shem and Yephet took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward, and covered the erom of their av; and their faces were turned the other way, and they saw not the erom of their av.

24 And Noach awoke from his yayin, and had da’as of what his ben katan had done unto him.