He said, “Canaan is cursed. He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 25. Cursed be Chanaan. The curses, as well as the blessings, of the patriarchs were prophetical: and this in particular is here recorded by Moses, for the children of Israel, who were to possess the land of Chanaan. But why should Chanaan be cursed for his father’s fault? The Hebrews answer, that he, being then a boy, was the first that saw his grandfather’s nakedness, and told his father Cham of it; and joined with him in laughing at it: which drew upon him, rather than the rest of the children of Cham, this prophetical curse. Challoner.—Theodoret, q. 57. The children of Sem executed this sentence, in exterminating many of the Chanaanites under Josue. Worthington.—They perished for their own wickedness, which God foresaw, and revealed to Noe. Cham was severely punished by this denunciation of his children’s misery. See Milton, xi. 754. xii. 27. Deuteronomy 9:4. Bible.