Genesis 9-11

Genesis

9.3  Every moving thing shall be food for you...  This both reminds me of the tee-shirt slogan, "There is a place for all God's creatures......right next to the potatoes and gravy."  I'm thinking about the designation of some animals as clean in chapter six and the eventual prohibition to eat unclean animals in Exodus.  I wonder how they got from Genesis six to Exodus.

9.5  from every man's brother I will require the life of man... Capital punishment in some form.

9.6  For in the image of God

        He made man...

This is the reasoning behind a pelethra of things from the reason not to murder to the reason to be fruitful and multiply (God's glory).

9.11  Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood...  Next time fire.

9.16  I will look on it and remember...  These anthropomorphisms (I think this can properly be called one.) add a richness to the text.

9.20  and Noah became a farmer...   I wonder what he was before the flood.

9.22  saw the nakedness...

Translation Note:  Some would translate “had sexual relations with,” arguing that Ham committed a homosexual act with his drunken father for which he was cursed. However, the expression “see nakedness” usually refers to observation of another’s nakedness, not a sexual act (see Gen 42:9, 12 where “nakedness” is used metaphorically to convey the idea of “weakness” or “vulnerability”; Deut 23:14 where “nakedness” refers to excrement; Isa 47:3; Ezek 16:37; Lam 1:8). The following verse (v. 23) clearly indicates that visual observation, not a homosexual act, is in view here. In Lev 20:17 the expression “see nakedness” does appear to be a euphemism for sexual intercourse, but the context there, unlike that of Gen 9:22, clearly indicates that in that passage sexual contact is in view. The expression “see nakedness” does not in itself suggest a sexual connotation. Some relate Gen 9:22 to Lev 18:6-11, 15-19, where the expression “uncover [another’s] nakedness” (the Piel form of גָּלָה, galah) refers euphemistically to sexual intercourse. However, Gen 9:22 does not say Ham “uncovered” the nakedness of his father. According to the text, Noah uncovered himself; Ham merely saw his father naked. The point of the text is that Ham had no respect for his father. Rather than covering his father up, he told his brothers. Noah then gave an oracle that Ham’s descendants, who would be characterized by the same moral abandonment, would be cursed. describes that greater evil of the Canaanites (see vv. 24-28).

Study Note: sn Saw the nakedness. It is hard for modern people to appreciate why seeing another’s nakedness was such an abomination, because nakedness is so prevalent today. In the ancient world, especially in a patriarchal society, seeing another’s nakedness was a major offense. (See the account in Herodotus, Histories 1.8-13, where a general saw the nakedness of his master’s wife, and one of the two had to be put to death.) Besides, Ham was not a little boy wandering into his father’s bedroom; he was over a hundred years old by this time. For fuller discussion see A. P. R  oss, “The Curse of Canaan,” BSac 137 (1980): 223-40.  --NET Bible

10.2  The sons of Japeth...

10.9  The sons of Ham...

10-8-9  Nimrod...a mighty hunter before the Lord...

Translation Note: The Hebrew word for “hunt” is צַיִד (tsayid), which is used on occasion for hunting men (1 Sam 24:12; Jer 16:16; Lam 3:15).

Translation Note:  "before the Lord" Another option is to take the divine name here, לִפְנֵי יִהוָה (lifne yÿhvah, “before the Lord [YHWH]”), as a means of expressing the superlative degree. In this case one may translate “Nimrod was the greatest hunter in the world.”  --NET Bible

10.21  Shem...

11.10  The genealogy of Shem...

11.31  Introducing Abram

12.1  And now the Lord said to Abram...

              .