Genesis 9:25
New International Version
he said, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.”

New Living Translation
Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham: “May Canaan be cursed! May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.”

English Standard Version
he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

Berean Standard Bible
he said, “Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

King James Bible
And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

New King James Version
Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.”

New American Standard Bible
So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.”

NASB 1995
So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.”

NASB 1977
So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.”

Legacy Standard Bible
So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.”

Amplified Bible
So he said, “Cursed be Canaan [the son of Ham]; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.”

Christian Standard Bible
he said: Canaan is cursed. He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
he said: Canaan will be cursed. He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers.

American Standard Version
And he said, Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And he said, “Canaan is cursed, he shall be a Servant of Servants to his brothers.”

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And he said, Cursed be the servant Chanaan, a slave shall he be to his brethren.

Contemporary English Version
he said, "I now put a curse on Canaan! He will be the lowest slave of his brothers.

Douay-Rheims Bible
He said: Cursed be Chaanan, a servant of servants, shall he be unto his brethren.

English Revised Version
And he said, Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
So he said, "Canaan is cursed! He will be the lowest slave to his brothers.

Good News Translation
he said, "A curse on Canaan! He will be a slave to his brothers.

International Standard Version
he said, "Canaan is cursed! He will be the lowest of slaves to his relatives."

JPS Tanakh 1917
And he said: Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Literal Standard Version
and says: “Cursed [is] Canaan, | Servant of servants he is to his brothers.”

Majority Standard Bible
he said, “Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

New American Bible
he said: “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.”

NET Bible
So he said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves he will be to his brothers."

New Revised Standard Version
he said, “Cursed be Canaan; lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.”

New Heart English Bible
He said, "Canaan is cursed. He will be servant of servants to his brothers."

Webster's Bible Translation
And he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren.

World English Bible
He said, “Canaan is cursed. He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.”

Young's Literal Translation
and saith: 'Cursed is Canaan, Servant of servants he is to his brethren.'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Noah's Shame and Canaan's Curse
24When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said, “Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

Cross References
Genesis 9:18
The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan.

Genesis 9:24
When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him,

Deuteronomy 27:16
Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.' And let all the people say, 'Amen!'

Joshua 9:23
Now therefore you are under a curse and will perpetually serve as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God."

1 Kings 9:21
their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction--Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.


Treasury of Scripture

And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.

Cursed.

Genesis 9:22
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

Genesis 3:14
And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Genesis 4:11
And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;

a servant.

Joshua 9:23,27
Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God…

Judges 1:28-30
And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out…

1 Kings 9:20,21
And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel, …

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Genesis 9
1. God blesses Noah and his sons, and grants them flesh for food.
4. Blood and murder are forbidden.
8. God's covenant, of which the rainbow was constituted a pledge.
18. Noah's family replenishes the world.
20. Noah plants a vineyard,
21. Is drunken, and mocked by his son;
25. Curses Canaan;
26. Blesses Shem;
27. Prays for Japheth, and dies.














(25) Cursed be Canaan.--The prophecy of Noah takes the form of a poem, like Lamech's boast in Genesis 4. In it Ham is passed over in silence, as though his unfilial conduct, recorded in Genesis 9:22, made him unworthy of a blessing, while it was not so wicked as to bring on him a curse. The whole weight of Noah's displeasure falls on Canaan, whose degraded position among the nations is thrice insisted upon.

A servant of servants. That is, the most abject of slaves. This was fulfilled in the conquest of Canaau by Joshua, but the race had nevertheless a great future before it. The Hittites were one of the foremost nations of antiquity, and the Sido-nians, Tyrians, and Ph?nicians were such famous traders, that Canaanite is in our version translated merchant, without even a note in the margin (e.g., Proverbs 31:24). But the whole race was enslaved by one of the most terrible and degrading forms of idolatry, and as Shem's blessing is religious, so possibly is Canaan's curse. Lenormant (Manual of Ancient History of the East, 2:219) says of their religion, "No other people ever rivalled them in the mixture of bloodshed and debauchery with which they thought to honour the Deity." He also quotes Creuzer, who says, "The Canaanite religion silenced all the best feelings of human nature, degraded men's minds by a superstition alternately cruel and profligate, and we may seek in vain for any influence for good it could have exercised on the nation."

Verse 25. - And he said. Not in personal resentment, since "the fall of Noah is not at all connected with his prophecy, except as serving to bring out the real character of his children, and to reconcile him to the different destinies which he was to announce as awaiting their respective races" (Candlish); but under the impulse of a prophetic spirit (Poole, Keil, Lange, Candlish, Murphy, and expositors generally), which, however, had its historical occasion in the foregoing incident. The structure of the prophecy is perfectly symmetrical, introducing, in three poetical verses,

(1) the curse of Canaan,

(2) the blessing of Shem, and

(3) the enlargement of Japheth, and in all three giving prominence to the doom of servitude pronounced upon the son of Ham. Cursed. The second curse pronounced upon a human being, the first having been on Cain (Genesis 4:11). Colenso notices that all the curses belong to the Jehovistic writer; but vide Genesis 49:6, 7, which Tuch and Bleek ascribed to the Elohist, though, doubtless in consequence of the "curse," by Davidson and others it is now assigned to the Jehovist. That this curse was not an imprecation, but a prediction of the future subjection of the Canaanites, has been maintained (Theodoret, Venema, Willet), chiefly in consequence of its falling upon Canaan; but . . .

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
he said,
וַיֹּ֖אמֶר (way·yō·mer)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

“Cursed be
אָר֣וּר (’ā·rūr)
Verb - Qal - QalPassParticiple - masculine singular
Strong's 779: To execrate

Canaan!
כְּנָ֑עַן (kə·nā·‘an)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3667: Canaan -- a son of Ham, also his descendants and their land West of the Jordan

A servant
עֶ֥בֶד (‘e·ḇeḏ)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 5650: Slave, servant

of servants
עֲבָדִ֖ים (‘ă·ḇā·ḏîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 5650: Slave, servant

shall he be
יִֽהְיֶ֥ה (yih·yeh)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

to his brothers.”
לְאֶחָֽיו׃ (lə·’e·ḥāw)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 251: A brother, )


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OT Law: Genesis 9:25 He said Canaan is cursed (Gen. Ge Gn)
Genesis 9:24
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