Gen 9:17-18 | NETfull | STEP | So God said to Noah, “This is the guarantee of the covenant that I am confirming between me and all living things that are on the earth.”

Genesis 9:17-18

17 So God said to Noah, “This is the guarantee of the covenant that I am confirming between me and all living things ^{▼▼ Heb “all flesh.”} that are on the earth.”

The Curse of Canaan

18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Now Ham was the father of Canaan.) ^{▼▼ The concluding disjunctive clause is parenthetical. It anticipates the following story, which explains that the Canaanites, Ham’s descendants through Canaan, were cursed because they shared the same moral abandonment that their ancestor displayed. See A. van Selms, “The Canaanites in the Book of Genesis,” OTS 12 (1958): 182-213.}