It’s important to not forget that the blessings and curses Noah pronounced upon his three sons Shem, Japheth and Ham were all prophetic in nature.
Many years after the incident of Noah getting drunk and being humiliated by his son Ham, Ham’s son Canaan departed from the home of his father and settled in that region located far to the south that became known as the…
…land of Canaan.
What happened to the descendants of Noah’s other two sons Japheth and Shem?
Over the centuries, they remained friendly and on favorable terms with one another.
However, it was the Noah’s third son Ham who turned out to be the big bad boy in the whole equation.
His descendants ended up becoming sworn enemies of the descendants of Japheth and Shem.
Over time, the sons of Canaan grew numerous and spread over the entire region eventually splitting up into different tribes and setting up their own city-states and villages.
As is the case in the Middle East today, conflicts between the different tribes would erupt and the different city-states ended up warring amongst one another quite frequently.
Fast forward 1000 years later, it is these very descendants of Canaan who would end up fighting the Israelites to keep them out of the land.
And over time, tribes from other areas also came to settle in the region.
In Scripture, they are called the Jebusites, Girgashites, Hittites, Hivites and the Amorites which is the tribe that Abraham originally belonged to.
Now some of you may be thinking…
…wait a minute, how could Abraham be an Amorite which is a tribe that originated from Ham?
Wasn’t Abraham a descendant of Shem?
The answer to that question is…
…Abraham was a descendant of Shem in terms of his blood line but…
…he became affiliated with the Amorites via either intermarriage or he could have joined the Amorite tribe by swearing a declaration of allegiance.
This was actually quite a common thing.
Keep in mind that by the time Abraham was born, hundreds of years had passed since the Amorite tribe came into existence and…
…with the passage of time the Amorites (and many of the other tribes as well) had gotten bigger and scattered to other areas becoming sub-tribes in many other regions.
I’m done.
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