Ver. 18. "And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were
Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan."
By these words Moses is returned again to the history of Noah. "And the sons of Noah that went forth of the ark." If these words, "that went forth of the ark," bear the emphasis of this part of the verse, then it may seem that Noah had more children than these; but they were not accounted of; for they being ungodly, as the rest of the world, they perished with them in their ungodliness. These only went in, and came out of the ark with him;[39] to wit,
"Shem, and Ham, and Japheth." The names thus placed are not according to their birth; for Japheth was the elder, Ham the younger, and Shem the middlemost of the two.
Shem therefore takes the place, because of his eminency in godliness (9:24); also, because from him went the line up to Christ (10:2). For which cause also the family of the sons of Judah, though he was but the fourth son of Israel, was reckoned before the family of Reuben, Jacob's first born; or before the rest of the sons of his brethren (1 Chron 2:3). Sometimes persons take their place in genealogy, from the fore-sight of the mightiness of their offspring. Thus was Ephraim placed before Manasseh; for "truly [said Jacob] his younger brother shall be greater than he" (Gen 43:17-20). And he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
Ham is the next in order; not for the sake of his birthright, or because he was much, if anything, now for godliness; but for that he was the next to be eminent in his offspring, for opposing and fighting against the same.
Shem and Ham therefore the two heads, or chief, from whence sprang good and evil men, by way of eminency. "Ham is the father of Canaan," or of the Canaanites, the people of God's curse, whom the sons of Shem who afterwards sprang from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were to cut off from the earth, for their most high abominations.
Japheth comes in, in the first place, as one that at present was least concerned either in the mercy or displeasure of God; being neither, in his offspring, to be devoutly religious, nor yet incorrigibly wicked, though afterwards he was to be persuaded to dwell in the tents of Shem.
Ver. 19. "These are the three sons of Noah; and of them was the whole earth overspread."
Thus though Noah's beginning was small, his latter end did greatly increase.
Ver. 20, 21. "And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:—And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent."