given first, those of Shem, last; but Ham keeps his middle place; also in Gen. x. 21 we read, "And Shem * * * the brother of Japheth the elder." The word rendered "elder" here, may indeed relate to seniority of birth; but its primary and customary signification is "great" of which multiplied instances could be produced. Without extreme license the declaration could be translated—"Japheth, who is (to be) great." See Gesen. § 107 But why meddle with Japheth? Needs he a defense, they are named legion who can give it. Our business is with Ham; to see to it that he be not displaced from his MIDDLE position. Scripture awards it. Let no robber hand efface it.[1]
We have thus seen from plain Scriptural declaration that Ham was not the younger כֵּן. We now proceed to show that Canaan was.
The Hebrew rendered by King James' translators "his younger son" is בְּנֽו֨ הֲקטֶן With the translation given in the present
- ↑ Dr. Adam Clark says, "Ham was certainly the youngest of Noah, and from what we read Chap. ix. 22, the worst of them; and how he comes to be mentioned out of his natural order is not easy to be accounted for."
The Dr. here denies a plain statement of Scripture, and then acknowledges that he cannot account for his own supposition. Like a goodly part of the Dr's. comments, this was written under previously conceived opinion.
