And Noah awoke from his wine
From his sleep, which his wine brought on him; when the force and
strength of that was gone, and when not only he awaked, but came
to himself, and was sober;
and knew what his younger son had done to him;
either by revelation, as some, or prophecy, as Ben Gersom, or by
the relation of his two sons, whom, when finding himself covered
with another's garment, he might question how it came about, and
they told him the whole affair: some, as Aben Ezra, Ben Gersom,
and Abendana, think that this was not Ham, the younger son of
Noah, and whom some also will have not to be the youngest, being
always placed middlemost, but Canaan, the fourth and youngest son
of Ham; and whom Noah indeed might call his younger, or "his son,
the little one" F16; as it was usual for grandchildren
to be called the sons of their grandfather; see ( Genesis 29:5
) and Noah might be informed how his little son, or rather
grandson Canaan, had been in his tent, and seeing him in the
posture he was, went very merrily, and told his father Ham of it,
who made a jest of it also; and this seems the more reasonable,
since Canaan was immediately cursed by Noah, as in the following
verse; (See Gill on Genesis
9:22) this affair must happen many years after Noah's
coming out of the ark, since then his sons had no children;
whereas Ham had at this time four sons, and Canaan was the
youngest of them; and he was grown up to an age sufficient to be
concerned in this matter, of treating his grandfather in an ill
way, so as to bring his curse upon him: Jarchi interprets
"little" by abominable and contemptible, supposing it refers not
to age, but character, and which was bad both in Ham and Canaan:
(See Gill on Genesis
9:22).
F16 (Njqh wnb) "filius suus parvus", Montanus; "filius ejus parvus", Cartwright.