Genesis 9:20

"And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him."

There were two offenses against Noah in this passage:

1. The reprehensible conduct of Ham in gazing at his father's uncovered condition and then gossiping about it with Shem and Japheth. However, a considerable time had elapsed after the flood when this episode occurred, for Canaan, and presumably many others, had been born, all of which happened after the coming forth from the ark. Now we may easily fill in the gaps of the narrative left by its extremely abbreviated form. When Ham talked about his father's condition to Shem and Japheth, the conclusion must be allowed that Canaan, Ham's son, in that gossip learned about Noah's shameful condition, and then acting independently of his father, he went in to Noah and dishonored his grandfather. We are not told exactly what he did, but it was certainly more than "looking on" Noah's uncovered state, otherwise Noah could not possibly have known of it upon recovering from his drunkenness.
2. That action of Canaan was the second offense against Noah. As many able scholars have pointed out that offense was almost certainly some form of sexual sin.

But is not such a view nullified by the statement of what Noah's "youngest son" did to him? No. To begin with, Ham was not his youngest son; and the use of "son" instead of "grandson" is a common Biblical habit. All of the scholarly fulminations against this text are solved by this simple truth. The word "youngest" in the passage is even affirmed to indicate extreme youth, a term that could not possibly be applied to Shem, Ham or Japheth, since they were over a hundred years of age when they came out of the ark. Indeed, Canaan could easily have been an adolescent; but instead of making this GRANDSON to have been a SON of Noah "according to a different tradition," thus postulating a defense of the theory of contradictory document sources for Genesis, scholars should take a little more pains to find out what is actually said here. The explanation offered here is the only way to avoid the impossible conclusion that, whereas it was Ham who sinned against Noah, it was Canaan who received the curse! Such a proposition is contrary to all that is revealed concerning God in the whole Bible.

Ham DID sin against Noah. Yes, but his sin was one of impropriety, and gossip, totally unlike the despicable act of Canaan, and not nearly so reprehensible. How else could the curse upon Canaan have been pronounced in such comprehensive and extensive terms?

The shameful and sinful consequences of gossip are evident in this narrative. All of the wickedness started with Ham's report of Noah's drunken condition to Shem and Japheth, through which, it must be concluded, Canaan's knowledge of his sinful opportunity was conveyed. Many a word of irresponsible gossip has issued in consequences reaching far beyond what was intended by the gossiper!

See the chapter introduction for other thoughts regarding the shame detailed here, which came upon the mighty hero of the Flood. One can only grieve at this flaw exhibited in the life of Noah, but the inspired Scriptures detail the sins of its heroes in the same stark truthfulness that recounts their deeds of righteousness and valor. We should not attempt to extenuate or diminish Noah's guilt by the supposition that he did not know any better. A view like that is untenable. Rather, we should see here our common weakness and the need ever to watch and pray. As Dods put it:

"Noah is not the only man who has walked uprightly and kept his garment unspotted from the world so long as the eye of man was upon him, but who has lain uncovered on his own tent floor."[18]

Supporting the assumption received here that there was a long time-lapse between the disembarkation from the ark and the incidents of this chapter, is the fact that Canaan was Ham's FOURTH son (Genesis 10:6), and the first was not born until AFTER the exit from the ark. The further conviction that Canaan should have been designated by the translators of this passage as Noah's "grandson" is also supported by the Hebrew usage mentioned by Aalders that "small son" should be rendered "grandson."[19]

Some alleged that Noah's living in a tent is inconsistent with the times attributed to this episode, but this is plainly an error. Abraham and the patriarch's after him all lived in tents, whether or not they had in addition more permanent housing.