And he said: “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant.
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.
- BSB He also declared: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the servant of Shem.
- 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 144:15Happy are the people who are in such a situation. Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.
- Heb 11:16But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
- Gen 12:1–3Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.
- Rom 9:5of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
- Deut 33:26“There is no one like God, Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens for your help, in his excellency on the skies.
- Luke 3:23–36Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years old, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,
- Gen 10:10–26The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
- Gen 27:37Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants. I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then will I do for you, my son?”
- Gen 27:40By your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother. It will happen, when you will break loose, that you shall shake his yoke from off 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.