Ham

The Son of Noah, brother to Shem and Japheth. Of these three sons of Noah was the whole earth overspread; for it doth not appear, that Noah had any other children. (Gen. ix. 18, 19.) The prophecy of Noah concerning his three sons is very remarkable, and was literally fulfilled. Ham is called Canaan in the prediction, and declared to be a servant of servants. When Joshua conquered Canaan this was literally accomplished. (Josh. ix. 23.) The blessing of Shem is striking, and the manner of it. God is blessed on Shem’s account, and is called the Lord God of Shem. And as Christ after the flesh sprang from Shem, it is truly interesting to behold this preacher of righteousness, for so Noah is called, thus preaching and predicting Christ. (2 Pet. 2: 5. Heb. xi. 7.) And the blessing of Japheth is not less to be noticed. The prophesying father declared, that God would enlarge Japheth, or, as the margin of the Bible expresseth it, would persuade him to dwell in the tents of Shem; meaning, that the race of Japheth, in the Gentiles, should come into the foldof the Lord Jesus. For none but the Lord can persuade, and none but him, by his Holy Spirit, can render all persuasions successful. So that we see, from the ark in this man’s family, how effectually the Lord provided for the eventful circumstances that were to follow the new world. Ham and his posterity are declared to be cursed. Shem hath the deposit of all the promises; and Japheth, the father of the Gentiles, it was said, should be brought over to the knowledge of salvation, and to take part in the blessings of it. God willenlarge. (See Isa. xlix. 1 - 6.)

or CHAM, חם , son of Noah, and brother to Shem and Japheth, is believed to have been Noah’s youngest son. Ham, says Dr. Hales, signifies burnt, or black, and this name was peculiarly significant of the regions allotted to his family. To the Cushites, or children of his eldest son, Cush, were allotted the hot southern regions of Asia, along the coasts of the Persian Gulf, Susiana or Chusistan, Arabia, &c; to the sons of Canaan, Palestine and Syria; to the sons of Misraim, Egypt and Libya, in Africa. The Hamites, in general, like the Canaanites of old, were a sea-faring race, and sooner arrived at civilization and the luxuries of life than their simpler pastoral and agricultural brethren of the other two families. The first great empires of Assyria and Egypt were founded by them; and the republics of Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage, were early distinguished for their commerce: but they sooner also fell to decay; and Egypt, which was one of the first, became the last and “basest of the kingdoms,” Eze 29:15; and has been successively in subjection to the Shemites, and Japhethites; as have also the settlements of the other branches of the Hamites. See CANAAN.

1. The youngest son of Noah (Gen 5:32; comp. 9:24). Having provoked the wrath of his father by an act of indecency towards him, the latter cursed him and his descendants to be slaves to his brothers and their descendants (Gen 9:25). To judge, however, from the narrative, Noah directed his curse only against Canaan (the fourth son of Ham) and his race, thus excluding from it the descendants of Ham’s three other sons, Cush, Mizraim, and Phut (Gen 10:6). The general opinion is, that all the Southern nations derive their origin from Ham. Cush is supposed to have been the progenitor of the nations of East and South Asia, more especially of South Arabia, and also of Ethiopia; Mizraim, of the African nations, including the Philistines and some other tribes which Greek fable and tradition connect with Egypt; Phut, likewise of some African nations; and Canaan, of the inhabitants of Palestine and Phoenicia.

2. A poetical name for the land of Egypt (Psa 78:51; Psa 105:23; Psa 105:27; Psa 106:22).

In Gen 14:5 occurs a country or place called Ham, belonging to the Zuzim, but its geographical situation is unknown.

1. Burnt, swarthy, black, A son of Noah, Gen 5:32 7:13 9:18 10:1. The impiety revealed in his conduct towards his father, drew upon him, or rather, according to the Bible statement, on his son Canaan, a prophetic malediction, Gen 9:20-27 . Ham was the father of Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan, that is, the ancestor of the Canaanites, Southern Arabians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, and the Africans in general, Gen 10:6-20 .\par 2. A poetical name for Egypt, Psa 78:51 106:22.\par 3. An unknown place of the Zuzim, Gen 14:5 .\par

Ham. (hot; sunburnt).

1. The name of one of the three sons of Noah, apparently the second in age. (B.C. 2448). Of the history of Ham, nothing is related, except his irreverence to his father, and the curse which that patriarch pronounced. The sons of Ham are stated, to have been "Cush and Mizraim and Phut and Canaan." Gen 10:6. Compare 1Ch 1:8.

Egypt is recognized as the "land of Ham," in the Bible. Psa 78:51; Psa 105:23; Psa 106:22. The other settlements of the sons of Ham are discussed under their respective names. The three most illustrious Hamite nations -- the Cushites, the Phoenicians and the Egyptians -- were greatly mixed with foreign peoples. Their architecture has a solid grandeur that we look for in vain elsewhere.

2. According to the present text, Gen 14:5, Chedorlaomer and his allies smote the Zuzim in a place called Ham, probably in the territory of the Ammonites, (Gilead), east of the Jordan.

("hot".)

1. The Egyptian. (See KEM.) (Egypt is singularly the land of Ham, Psa 78:51; Psa 105:23), "black"; the sun-burnt and those whose soil is black, as Ethiopia means. Father (i.e. ancestor) of Cush (Ethiopia), Mizraim (See EGYPT), Phut (Libya), and Canaan. These mean races. not individuals. Egypt being the first civilized was singled out as the chief country of Hamite settlements. (On the Hamitic or Cushite origin of Babylon, alleged by Scripture and confirmed by the vocabulary in ancient remains. (See CUSH; BABEL.) Solid grandeur characterizes the Hamitic architecture, as in the earliest of Egypt, Babylonia, and S. Arabia. The first steps in the arts and sciences seemingly are due to the Hamites. The earliest empires were theirs, their power of organization being great. Material rather than moral greatness was theirs. Hence their civilization, though early, decayed sooner than that of the Semitic and Japhetic races.

Egypt, fenced on the N. by a sea without good harbours, on the E. and W. by deserts, held its sway the longest. The Hamites of S. Arabia were at a very early date overcome by the Joktanites, and the Babylonians yielded to the Medes. Ammon, the god of N. Africa, is related to Ham. Ham is supposed to be youngest of Noah’s sons from Gen 9:24, but "younger (Hebrew: little) son" there probably means Noah’s grandson, namely, Canaan, not Ham. Shem is put first, having the spiritual eminence of being father of the promised seed. The names Shem (the man of name or renown), Ham (the settler in hot Africa), and Japbet (father of fair descendants, or of those who spread abroad), may not have been their original names, but derived from subsequent facts of their history.

2. A place where Chedorlaomer smote the Zuzim (Gen 14:5). If Zuzim be the same as Zamzummim, who dwelt in the territory afterward occupied by Ammon (Deu 2:19-21), Ham answers to Rabbath Ammon. Septuagint and Vulgate read baheem for b’Ham, i.e. "with them", but KJV seems correct.

3. Simeonites went to the eastern entrance of the valley of Gedor in quest of pasture, and dispossessed the previous inhabitants, being men "of Ham" (1Ch 4:40). Perhaps an Egyptian settlement, Egypt being closely connected with this southern part of Palestine.

Ham, hot, or multitude. The son of Noah, known for his irreverence to his father, Gen 9:22, and as the parent of Cush, Migraim, Phut, and Canaan, Gen 10:6, who became the founders of large nations. Cush seems to have been the father of the peoples dwelling in Babylonia, southern Arabia, and Ethiopia; Nimrod was his son. Gen 10:8. Mizraim, the Hebrew word for Egypt, was the ancestor of the Egyptians. Phut was also the ancestor of an African people, as appears from the association of his name with the descendants of Cush and the Lydians, Jer 46:9: see margin. Canaan was the ancestor of the Phœnicians and other tribes inhabiting Palestine. Egypt is called "the land of Ham." Psa 78:51; Psa 105:23-27; Psa 106:22.

1. One of Noah’s three sons: he was father of Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan. Mizraim and Phut, in their descendants, were mainly connected with Egypt. Nothing personally is known of Ham except his disrespectful behaviour when his father was intoxicated, and which drew down the curse of Noah on Canaan. Gen 5:32; Gen 6:10; Gen 9:18; Gen 9:22; Gen 10:1; Gen 10:6; Gen 10:20; 1Ch 1:4; 1Ch 1:8.

2. The dwelling place of the above in Egypt was mostly designated ’the land of Ham.’ Psa 78:51; Psa 105:23; Psa 105:27; Psa 106:22.

3. A place somewhere on the east of the Dead Sea, where the Zuzims dwelt who were smitten by Chedorlaomer. Gen 14:5.

4. The Simeonites in searching for pasture for their flocks in the South came to a place where they of Ham had dwelt of old. 1Ch 4:40. Some suppose these to have been a colony from Egypt; others judge them to have been Canaanitish nomads.

HAM.—The original (?) use of the name as = Egypt appears in Psa 78:51; Psa 105:23; Psa 105:27; Psa 106:22. It has been derived from an Egyptian word kem, ‘black,’ in allusion to the dark soil of Egypt as compared with the desert sands (but see Ham [Land of]). Hâm came to be considered the eponymous ancestor of a number of other peoples, supposed to have been connected with Egypt (Gen 10:6-20). His ‘sons’ (Gen 10:6) are the peoples most closely connected either geographically or politically. Great difficulty is caused by the fusion (in J [Note: Jahwist.] ) of two quite distinct traditions in Gen 9:1-29; Gen 10:1-32. (i.) Noah and his family being the sole survivors of the Flood, the whole earth was populated by their descendants (Gen 9:18 f.), and the three sons people the whole of the known world—the middle, the southern, and the northern portions respectively (ch. 10). (ii.) Canaan, and not Hâm, appears to be Noah’s son, for it is he who is cursed (Gen 9:20-27). The purpose of the story is to explain the subjugation of the people represented under the name ‘Canaan’ to the people represented under the names ‘Shem’ and ‘Japheth.’ To combine the two traditions a redactor has added the words, ‘and Hâm is the father of Canaan’ in Gen 9:18, and ‘Hâm the father of’ in Gen 9:22. (1.) The peoples connected, geographically, with Hâm include Egypt (Mizraim), and the country S. of it (Cush), the Libyans (Put), and ‘Canaan’ (see Canaanites). The descendants of these four respectively are so described in most cases from their geographical position, but at least one nation, the Caphtorim, from its political connexion with Egypt (see Driver on Gen 9:14). (ii.) In the second tradition Shem, Japheth, and Canaan stand—not for large divisions of the world, but—for certain much smaller divisions within the limits of Palestine. ‘Shem’ evidently stands for the Hebrews, or for some portion of them (see Gen 10:21 in the other tradition), and ‘Japheth’ for some unknown portion of the population of Palestine who dwelt ‘in the tents of Shem’ (Gen 9:27), i.e. in close conjunction with the Hebrews. ‘Canaan’ (in the other tradition, Gen 10:19) inhabited the coast lands on the W., and the Arabah on the S. E. But there is no evidence that the peoples in these districts were ever in complete subjection to the Hebrews such as is implied in ‘a slave of slaves’ (Gen 9:25). Some think that the three names represent three grades or castes [cf. the three grades in Babylonia, who hold distinct legal positions in the Code of Hammurabi—amelu (‘gentleman’), mushkenu (‘commoner,’ or ‘poor man’), and ardu (‘slave’)].

A. H. M’Neile.

HAM.—According to Gen 14:5, the district inhabited by the Zuzim (wh. see). The locality is unknown.

J. F. M’Curdy.

Tumult: he raged (in Gen 14:5)

ham (חם, ḥām; Χάμ, Chám):

1. The Youngest Son of Noah

The youngest son of Noah, from whom sprang the western and southwestern nations known to the Hebrews. His name first occurs in Gen 5:32, where, as in Gen 6:10 and elsewhere, it occupies the second place. In Gen 9:18 Ham is described as “the father of Canaan,” to prepare the reader for Gen 9:25-27, where Noah, cursing Ham for having told Shem and Japheth of his nakedness, refers to him as Canaan. On account of this, it has been suggested that “Canaan” stood originally in all the passages where the three brothers are spoken of, and that this was later changed to “Ham,” except in the verses containing the curse. It seems more likely, however, that the name “Canaan” is inserted prophetically, as Noah would not desire to curse his son, but only one branch of that son’s descendants, who were later the principal adversaries of the Hebrews.

2. Ham as a Nationality

The name given, in Psa 105:23, Psa 105:17; Psa 106:22 (compare Psa 78:51), to Egypt as a descendant of Ham, son of Noah. As Shem means “dusky,” or the like, and Japheth “fair,” it has been supposed that Ham meant, as is not improbable, “black.” This is supported by the evidence of Hebrew and Arabic, in which the word ḥāmam means “to be hot” and “to be black,” the latter signification being derived from the former.

3. Meaning of the Word

That Ham is connected with the native name of Egypt, Kem, or, in full pa ta’ en Kem, “the land of Egypt,” in Bashmurian Coptic Kheme, is unlikely, as this form is probably of a much later date than the composition of Gen, and, moreover, as the Arabic shows, the guttural is not a true kh, but the hard breathing h, which are both represented by the Hebrew ḥētȟ.

4. The Nations Descending from Ham

Of the nationalities regarded as descending from Ham, none can be described as really black. First on the list, as being the darkest, is Cush or Ethiopia (Gen 10:6), after which comes Micrayim, or Egypt, then Puṭ or Libyia, and Canaan last. The sons or descendants of each of these are then taken in turn, and it is noteworthy that some of them, like the Ethiopians and the Canaanites, spoke Semitic, and not Hamitic, languages - Seba (if connected with the Sabeans), Havilah (Yemen), and Sheba, whose queen visited Solomon. Professor Sayce, moreover, has pointed out that Caphtor is the original home of the Phoenicians, who spoke a Semitic language. The explanation of this probably is that other tongues were forced upon these nationalities in consequence of their migrations, or because they fell under the dominion of nationalities alien to them. The non-Sem Babylonians, described as descendants of Nimrod (Merodach), as is welI known, spoke Sumerian, and adopted Semitic Babylonian only on account of mingling with the Semites whom they found there. Another explanation is that the nationalities described as Hamitic - a parallel to those of the Semitic section - were so called because they fell under Egyptian dominion. This would make the original Hamitic race to have been Egyptian and account for Ham as a (poetical) designation of that nationality. Professor F. L. Griffith has pointed out that the Egyptian Priapic god of Panopolis (Akhmim), sometimes called Menu, but also apparently known as Khem, may have been identified with the ancestor of the Hamitic race - he was worshipped from the coast of the Red Sea to Coptos, and must have been well known to Egypt’s eastern neighbors. He regards the characteristics of Menu as being in accord with the shamelessness of Ham as recorded in Gen 9:20. See JAPHETH; SHEM; TABLE OF NATIONS.