1 was impowered, to foretel the different fortunes of their families for this prophecy relates not fo much to themfelves, as to their pofterity, the people and nations defcended from them. He was not prompted by wine or refentment; for neither the one nor the other could in, fufe the knowledge of futurity, or infpire him with the prefcience of events, which happened hundreds, nay thoufands of years afterwards. But God, willing to manifeft his fuperintendence and government of the world, indued Noah with the fpirit of prophecy, and enabled him in fome meafure to difclofe the purposes of his providence towards the future race of mankind. At the fame time it was fome comfort and reward to Shem and Japheth, for their reverence and tenderness to their father, to hear of the blessing and inlargement of their pofterity and it was fome mortification and punishment to Ham, for his mockery and cruelty to his father, to hear of the malediction and fervitude of fome of his chil dren, and that as he was a wicked fon himself, fo wicked race fhould fpring from him. This then, was Noah's prophecy: and it was delivered, as (4) most of the ancient prophecies were deliveted, in metre for the help of the memory. (Gen. IX. 25, 26, 27.) Curfed be Canaan. A fervant of fercants fhall he be unto his brethren. And hall dwell in the tents of Shem, 177 Canaan was the fourth fon of Ham according to the order wherein they are mentioned in the enfuing chapter. And for what reafon can you believe that Canaan was fo particularly marked out for the curfe? for his father, Ham's tranfgreffion? But where would be the juftice (4) The reader may fee this point proved at large in the very ingenious and learned Mr. Archdeacon Lowth's poetical Prælections (particularly Præ lect. 18.) &c. a work that merits the attention of all who ftudy the He brew language, and of the clergy of pecially. 1 or equity to pafs by Ham himself with the reft of his children, and to punish only Canaan for what Ham had committed? Such arbitrary proceedings are contrary to all our ideas of the divine perfections; and we may fay in this cafe what was faid in another, (Gen. XVIII. 25.) Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? The curfe was fo far from being pronounced upon Canaan for his father Ham's tranfgreffion, that we do not read that it was pronounced for his own, nor was executed till feveral hundred years after his death. The truth is, the Curfe is to be understood not fo properly of Canaan, as of his defcendents to the lateft generations. It is think ing meanly of the ancient prophecies of fcripture, and having very imperfect, very unworthy conceptions of them, to limit their intention to particular perfons. In this view the ancient prophets would be really what the Deifts think them, little better than common fortunetellers; and their prophecies would hardly be worth remembering or recording, efpecially in fo concife and compendious a hiftory as that of Mofes. We muft affix a larger meaning to them, and understand them not of fingle perfons, but of whole nations; and thereby a nobler fcene of things, and a more extenfive prospect will be opened to us of the divine difpenfations. The curfe of fervitude pronounced upon Canaan, and fo likewife the promise of blessing and inlargement made to Shem and Japheth, are by no means to be confined to their own perfons, but extend to their whole race; as afterwards the prophecies concerning Ifhmael, and thofe concerning Efau and Jacob, and thofe relating to the twelve patriarchs, were not fo properly verified in themfelves as in their pofterity, and thither we muft look for their full and perfect completion. The curfe therefore upon Canaan was properly a curfe upon the Canaanites. God forefeeing the wickednefs of this people, (which began in their father Ham, and greatly increased in this branch of his family) commiffioned Noah to pronounce a curfe upon them, and to devote them to the fervitude and mifery, which their more common vices and iniquities would deferve. And this account was plainly written by Mofes, for the encouragement of the Ifraelites, to fupport fupport and animate them in their expedition againft a people, who by their fins had forfeited the divine protection, and were deftined to flavery from the days of Noah., We fee the purport and meaning of the prophecy, and now let us attend to the completion of it. Curfed be Canaan; and the Canaanites appear to have been an abominably wicked people. The fin and punishment of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities. of the plain are too well known to be particularly fpecified and for the other inhabitants of the land, which was promised to Abraham and his fecd, God bore with them, till their iniquity was full. (Gen. XV. 16.) They were not only addicted to idolatry, which was then the cafe of the greater part of the world, but were guilty of the worst fort of idolatry; for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their fons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. (Deut. XII. 31.) Their religion was bad, and their morality (if poffible) was worfe; for corrupt religion and corrupt morals ufually generate each other, and go hand in hand together. Read the 18th and the 20th chapters of Leviticus, and you will find that unlawful marriages and unlawful lufis, witchcraft, adultery, inceft, fodomy, beftiality, and the like monftrous enormities were frequent and common among them. And was not a curfe in the nature of things, as well as in the juft judgment of God, defervedly intailed upon fuch a people and nation as this? It was not for their own righteousness that the Lord brought the Ifraelites in to poffefs the land: but for the wickedness of thefe nations did the Lord drive them out: (Deut. IX. 4.) and he would have driven out the Ifraelites in like manner for the very fame abominations. (Levit. XVIII. 25, &c.) Defile not yourfelves in any of thefe things; for in all these the nations are defiled which I caft out before you. And the land is defiled; therefore I do vifit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself comiteth out her inhabitants. Ye Jhall therefore keep my ftatutes and my judgments, and fhall not commit any of thefe abominations-That the land pue not you out alfo when ye defile it, as it fpued out the nations that were before you. For whoso ever shall commit any of these abominations, even the fouls that commit them, fhall be cut off from among their people. But the curfe particularly implies fervitude and fubjection. Curfed be Canaan; a fervant of fervants fhall he be unto his brethren. It is very well known that the word brethren in Hebrew comprehends more diftant relations. The defcendents therefore of Canaan were to be fubject to the defcendents of both Shem and Japheth: and the natural confequence of vice, in communities as well as in fingle perfons, is flavery. The fame thing is repeated again and again in the two following verfes, and Canaan fhall be fervant to them, or their fervant; fo that this is as it were the burden of the prophecy. Some (5) critics take the phrafe of fercant of fervants furicly and literally, and fay that the prediction was exactly fulfilled, when the Canaanites became fervants to the Ifraelites, who had been fervants to the Egyptians. But this is refining too much; the phrafe of (6) fervant of fervants is of the fame turn and caft as holy of holies, king of kings, fong of fongs, and the like expreffions in fcripture; and imports that they fhould be the loweft and bafeft of fervants. We cannot be certain as to the time of the delivery of this prophecy; for the hiftory of Mofes is fo concife, that it hath not gratified us in this particular. If the prophecy was delivered foon after the tranfactions, which immediately precede in the hiftory, Noah's beginning to be a husbandman, and planting a vineyard, it was foon after the deluge, and then Canaan was prophefied of before he was born, as it was prophefied of Efau and Jacob (Gen. XXV. 23.) the elder shall feroc. the younger, before the children were born and had done either good or evil, as St. Paul faith. (Rom. IX. 11.) If the prophecy was delivered a little before the tranf (5) Noa Chamum execratus prædixerat fore ut ejus pofteri fervi effent fervorum: atque id impletum in Chananææis, tum cum fubire_coacti funt. Ifraelitarum jugum qui Ægyptiis diu fervierant. Bocharti Phaleg. Lib. 1. Cap. 1. Col. 3, 4. (6) S. Pompeius, ftudiis rudis, li bertorum fuorum libertus, fervorumque fervus; fpeciofis invidens ut pareret humillimis. Velleius Paterc. II. 73. Hic vero valet poftremus fervorum. Vid. Salluft. Fragm. Id. Velleius II. 83. Infra fervos cliens.-From fome M.S. Notes of Mr. Waffe's in the hands of Dr. Jortin. actions, actions, which immediately follow in the hiftory, it was a little before Noah's death, and he was inlightened in his last moments as Jacob was, to foretell what should befall his pofterity in the latter duys. (Gen. XLIX. 1.) However this matter be determined, it was several centuries after the delivery of this prophecy, when the Ifraelites, who were defcendents of Shem, under the command of Joshua, invaded the Canaanites, fimote above thirty of their kings, took poffeffion of their land, flew feveral of the inhabitants, made the Gibe onites and others fervants and tributaries, and Solomon afterwards fubdued the reft. (2 Chron. VIII. 7, 8, 9.)· As for all the people that were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which were not of Ifrael; but of their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Ifrael confumed not; them did Solomon make to pay tribute until this day. But of the children of Ifrael did Solomon make no fervants for his work: but they were men of wear, and chief of his captains, and captains of his chariots and horfemen. The Greeks and Romans too, who were de fcendents of Japheth, not only fubdued Syria and Paleftine, but alfo purfued and conquered fuch of the Canaanites as were any where remaining, as for inftance the Tyrians and Carthaginians, the former of whom were ruined by Alexander and the Grecians, and the latter by Scipio and the Romans, "This fate," fays (7) Mr. Mede, "was it that made Hannibal, a child "of Canaan, cry out with the amazement of his foul Agnofcofortunam Carthaginis, I acknowledge the fortune of Carthage." And ever fince the miferable remainder of this people have been flaves to a foreign yoke, first to the Saracens, who defcended from Shem, and afterwards to the Turks, who defcended from Japheth; and they groan under their dominion at this day. Hitherto we have explained the prophecy according to the prefent copies of our bible: but if we were to correct the text, as we fhould any ancient claffic author (7) Mede's Work's, B. 1. Disc. 50. p. 284. Livy, Lib. 27. in fine. |