Noah’s Inebriety, an arras (tapestry) woven in Brussels according to Michiel Coxie’s design. Part of King Sigismund Augustus’s collection of Wawel arrases. circa 1550
Noah’s Nakedness: How the Canaan-Ham Curse Conundrum Came to Be
Noah awakens from his drunken slumber, and realizes what his youngest son, Ham, did to him. Why, then, does Noah curse his grandson Canaan? Originally, Canaan was the perpetrator and was actually Noah’s youngest son.
Published: October 15, 2015
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
NJPS with adjustments.
Text from “Jubilees” translated by O.S. Wintermute [and edited by James H. Kugel], in Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, eds., Louis H. Feldman, James H. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman (JPS, 2013), 1.272-465 [p. 319].
Translation of rabbinic texts are my own.
The next set of derashot move to the infamous curse of Ham. See discussion in, David M. Goldenberg, Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Princeton University Press, 2003).
The Hebrew text is from AlHaTorah.com.
Kara’s commentary is lost. This passage was preserved in the Pa’ane’ach Raza. The Hebrew is from the AlHaTorah edition.
Despite Ibn Ezra’s warning, R. Levi ben Gershom (1288–1344) combines both the castration interpretation and the blaming of Canaan:
רלב"ג בראשית ט:כד והנה מה שאמרו ז"ל (סנהדרין ע.) שסירס אותו, הוא נאות מאד, ולזה שילם לו נח מידה כנגד מידה, כי כנען עשה זה שלא יוליד עוד נח בנים, כדי שתהיה לו ולשאר בניו לבדם הארץ בְּדרך שלא יִרבו המושלים בה ותמעט מפני זה חלק כנען, וקולל מפני זה שיוסר ממנו הממשלה ויהיה עבד עבדים לאחיו.
Ralbag Gen 9:24 That which the Rabbis said (b. San 70a) that he castrated [Noah] is a very good interpretation, and this is the reason that Noah paid him back quid pro quo. For Canaan did this so that Noah would not have more children, so that he and the rest of the descendants will have the world to themselves, such that there would be no increase in rulers and thus lead to the shrinking of Canaan’s territory. So he was cursed on this account such that his own rule would be removed and he would be the ultimate slave to his brothers.
Editors, “A Textual Study of Noah’s Flood” TheTorah (2014).
To strengthen the point, it seems likely that the J flood story is built upon an earlier J account of Noah, the inventor of wine, which would not have included any of the verses from chapters 6-9 which discuss the flood and its repercussions. See Zev Farber, “Noah’s Original Identity: The First Winemaker,” TheTorah (2015). See also, Idan Dershowitz, “Noah, Hero of the Great Primeval Famine,” TheTorah (2019). If the flood really is a late addition to the J text, then the only original J verse that mentions Ham is 9:22, which is clearly a redaction.
Tzemah Yorah, “Noah’s Four Sons,” TheTorah (2014), already noted the awkwardness the phrase “Ham, the father of Canaan” although his ultimate solution—that in J, Noah has four sons—differs from mine. Yoreh also believes that this passage was redacted to work with the Priestly conception of Noah’s family, to make Canaan into Ham’s son instead of Noah’s son, by the addition of the words “and Ham is the father of (הוא אבי).” Once he posits this redaction, Yoreh must also see v. 19 as a Priestly redaction—or at the very least that the word four was changed to three. For yet another critical solution to the problem, see David Frankel, “Noah, Ham and the Curse of Canaan: Who Did What to Whom in the Tent?” TheTorah (2017).
In P, they come off the ark in v. 8:18.
Gen 5:32, 7:13, 10:1
