21. And he drank of the wine, and was drunken—perhaps at the festivities of the vintage season. This solitary stain on the character of so eminently pious a man must, it is believed, have been the result of age or inadvertency. read more
D. What became of Noah 6:9-9:29The Lord destroyed the corrupt, violent human race and deluged its world, but He used righteous Noah to preserve life and establish a new world after the Flood."Noah’s experience presents decisively the author’s assertion that the Lord judges human sin but provides a means for perpetuating the creation blessing (Genesis 1:26-28) and the salvation hope for an elect seed (Genesis 3:15). The recurring theme of blessing, threatened by sin but preserved by divine... read more
Evidently Noah became so drunk that he took off all his clothes and then passed out naked in his tent. There is no explicit indication that Ham disrobed his father or committed some homosexual act. [Note: See Mathews, pp. 417, 419.] However, because the expression "to see one’s nakedness" is sometimes used of sexual intercourse, it is possible that sexual immorality was involved. [Note: Wolf, pp. 106-7.] Noah’s shame was not that he drank wine but that he drank to excess and thereby lost... read more
3. The curse on Canaan 9:18-29This pericope presents the characteristics of the three branches of the human family that grew out of Noah. Moses stressed the themes of blessing and cursing. God cursed Canaan with slavery because Ham showed disrespect toward Noah whereas He blessed Shem and Japheth for their regard for their father’s vulnerable condition."The world seems all set for a new start. The slate has been wiped clean, and we hope that the mistakes of the antediluvians will not be... read more
The Divine Blessing and Covenant. Noah and the Vine. The Curse of Canaan1-7. The primeval benediction of man (Genesis 1:28) is now repeated and enlarged. Animal food is allowed (cp. Genesis 1:29), but blood is forbidden. The blood makes the life manifest, as it were, to our senses, and the life belongs to God, and must, therefore, be offered to Him.5, 6. The ground of the sacredness of human life here is the existence of the divine image in man. It is not conceived as being wholly destroyed by... read more
(20, 21) Noah began to be an husbandman.—Rather, Noah, being a husbandman (Heb., a man of the adâmâh), began to plant a vineyard. Noah had always been a husbandman: it was the cultivation of the vine, still abundant in Armenia, that was new. Scarcely aware, perhaps, of the intoxicating qualities of the juice which he had allowed to ferment, he drank to excess, and became the first example of the shameful effects of intemperance. read more
(21) He was uncovered is, literally, he uncovered himself. It was no accident, but a wilful breach of modesty. read more
The Bow in the Cloud Genesis 9:11 In the midst of wrath God remembered mercy. Upon the subsidence of the Flood and the restoration of the family of Noah to their accustomed avocations, the great Ruler and Lord graciously renewed to the human race the expression of His favour. I. The Covenant was established between, on the one hand, the Lord Himself; on the other hand, the sons of men, represented in the person of Noah. ( a ) Its occasion. It was after the vindication of Divine justice and... read more
THE FLOODGenesis 5:1-32; Genesis 6:1-22; Genesis 7:1-24; Genesis 8:1-22; Genesis 9:1-29THE first great event which indelibly impressed itself on the memory of the primeval world was the Flood. There is every reason to believe that this catastrophe was co-extensive with the human population of the world. In every branch of the human family traditions of the event are found. These traditions need not be recited, though some of them bear a remarkable likeness to the Biblical story, while others... read more
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Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Genesis 9:21
Genesis 9:21. He drank of the wine, and was drunken— Became inebriated, not knowing, perhaps, the nature and strength of the liquor; or being, through age, incapable of bearing it; and Moses is so faithful an historian, that he records the failings and imperfections of the most venerable patriarchs, as well as their excellencies. This remark is from Dr. Newton, the learned Bishop of Bristol; whose judicious exposition of the subsequent passage we shall follow, from his useful dissertations on... read more