John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 9:27
God shall enlarge Japheth ,.... Or give him a large part of the earth, and large dominions in it, as his posterity have had; for, as Bochart F18 Phaleg. l. 3. c. 1. col. 149. observes, to them belonged all Europe, and lesser Asia, Media, Iberia, Albania, part of Armenia, and all those vast countries to the north, which formerly the Scythians, and now the Tartars inhabit; not to say anything of the new world (America), into which the Scythians might pass through the straights of Anian: ... read more
John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 9:26
And he said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem ,.... Shem was blessed before Japheth, because he was the first and principal in advising and conducting the affair before ascribed to them, as Jarchi on Genesis 9:23 suggests; and though the words are in the form of an ascription of blessedness to God, the fountain of all good, and by whose grace Shem was influenced and enabled to do the good he did, for which the Lord's name was to be praised and blessed; yet it includes the blessing of Shem,... read more