He also declared: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the servant of Shem.
Parallel translations
- WEB He said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant.
- KJV And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
- NKJV And he said: “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant.
- NASB He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant.
- NLT Then Noah said, “May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Noah blessed Yahweh, the God of Shem, and consigned Canaan to servitude. The blessing centers on God's special relationship with Shem's line.
Overview
By blessing the Lord as the God of Shem, Noah points to the line through which God's redemptive purposes will flow, leading to Abraham, Israel, and ultimately Christ. The focus is on God's covenant favor resting upon Shem's descendants. Here the thread of salvation history is drawn forward toward the Messiah who comes from Shem's line.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 144:15Blessed are the people of whom this is so; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.
- Heb 11:16Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
- Gen 12:1–3Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.
- Rom 9:5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen.
- Deut 33:26“There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your aid, and the clouds in His majesty.
- Luke 3:23–36Jesus Himself was about thirty years old when He began His ministry. He was regarded as the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,
- Gen 10:10–26His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
- Gen 27:37But Isaac answered Esau: “Look, I have made him your master and given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?”
- Gen 27:40You shall live by the sword and serve your brother. But when you rebel, you will tear his yoke from your neck.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 9:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.