ham Summary and Overview

warm, hot, and hence the south; also an Egyptian word meaning "black", the youngest son of Noah (Gen. 5:32; compare 9:22,24). The curse pronounced by Noah against Ham, properly against Canaan his fourth son, was accomplished when the Jews subsequently exterminated the Canaanites. One of the most important facts recorded in Gen. 10 is the foundation of the earliest monarchy in Babylonia by Nimrod the grandson of Ham (6, 8, 10). The primitive Babylonian empire was thus Hamitic, and of a cognate race with the primitive inhabitants of Arabia and of Ethiopia. (See ACCAD T0000060.) The race of Ham were the most energetic of all the descendants of Noah in the early times of the post-diluvian world.

(hot; sunburnt). 1. The name of one of the three sons of Noah, apparently the second in age. (B.C. 2448.) Of the history of Ham nothing is related except his irreverence to his father and the curse which that patriarch pronounced. The sons of Ham are stated, to have been "Cush and Mizraim and Phut and Canaan." #Ge 10:6| comp. 1Chr 1:8 Egypt is recognized as the "land of Ham" in the Bible. #Ps 78:51; 105:23; 106:22| The other settlements of the sons of Ham are discussed under their respective names. The three most illustrious Hamite nations--the Cushites, the Phoenicians and the Egyptians--were greatly mixed with foreign peoples. Their architecture has a solid grandeur that we look for in vain elsewhere. 2. According to the present text, #Ge 14:5| Chedorlaomer and his allies smote the Zuzim in a place called Ham, probably in the territory of the Ammonites (Gilead), east of the Jordan.

HAM (hot, or multitude), the son of Noah. He is known for his irreverence to his father. Gen 9:22, and as the parent of Gush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan, Gen 10:6, who became the founders of large nations. Cush seems to have been the father of the peoples dwelling in Babylonia, southern Arabia, and Ethiopia; Nimrod was his son. Gen 10:8. Mizraim, the Hebrew word for Egypt, was the ancestor of the Egyptians. Phut was also the ancestor of an African people, as appears from the association of his name with the descendants of Cush and the Lydians, Jer 46:9; see margin. Canaan was the ancestor of the Phoenicians and other tribes inhabiting Palestine. Egypt is called "the land of Ham," Ps 78:51; Ps 105:23-27; Ps 106:22.

("hot".) 1. The Egyptian. frontKEM.) (Egypt is singularly the land of Ham, Psalm 78:51; Psalm 105:23), "black"; the sun-burnt and those whose soil is black, as Ethiopia means. Father (i.e. ancestor) of Cush (Ethiopia), Mizraim (See EGYPT), Phut (Libya), and Canaan. These mean races. not individuals. Egypt being the first civilized was singled out as the chief country of Hamite settlements. (On the Hamitic or Cushite origin of Babylon, alleged by Scripture and confirmed by the vocabulary in ancient remains. (See CUSH; BABEL.) Solid grandeur characterizes the Hamitic architecture, as in the earliest of Egypt, Babylonia, and S. Arabia. The first steps in the arts and sciences seemingly are due to the Hamites. The earliest empires were theirs, their power of organization being great. Material rather than moral greatness was theirs. Hence their civilization, though early, decayed sooner than that of the Semitic and Japhetic races. Egypt, fenced on the N. by a sea without good harbours, on the E. and W. by deserts, held its sway the longest. The Hamites of S. Arabia were at a very early date overcome by the Joktanites, and the Babylonians yielded to the Medes. Ammon, the god of N. Africa, is related to Ham. Ham is supposed to be youngest of Noah's sons from Genesis 9:24, but "younger (Hebrew: little) son" there probably means Noah's grandson, namely, Canaan, not Ham. Shem is put first, having the spiritual eminence of being father of the promised seed. The names Shem (the man of name or renown), Ham (the settler in hot Africa), and Japbet (father of fair descendants, or of those who spread abroad), may not have been their original names, but derived from subsequent facts of their history. 2. A place where Chedorlaomer smote the Zuzim (Genesis 14:5). If Zuzim be the same as Zamzummim, who dwelt in the territory afterward occupied by Ammon (Deuteronomy 2:19-21), Ham answers to Rabbath Ammon. Septuagint and Vulgate read baheem for b'Ham, i.e. "with them", but KJV seems correct. 3. Simeonites went to the eastern entrance of the valley of Gedor in quest of pasture, and dispossessed the previous inhabitants, being men "of Ham" (1 Chronicles 4:40). Perhaps an Egyptian settlement, Egypt being closely connected with this southern part of Israel.