HAM (Heb. Hām, Vulgar Chām). - One of the three sons of Noah (Shem, C. and Japheth, Gen. 5:32; 6:10; 9:18; 1 Chron. 1:4) saved from the flood (Gen. 8:18) and from whom "the whole human race spread over all the earth" (ibid. 9:19). He had four sons (v. CAMITES). For the grave irreverence toward his father, which he pointed out to his brothers, while, having become drunk through inexperience with wine, he lay uncovered in the tent, he was cursed by him in his youngest son Canaan, probably because he did not wish to curse him whom God had already blessed after the flood, or perhaps because Canaan had in some way been a participant in his father's transgression. Moreover, in the son the father was also cursed.
There is no lack of commentators who see in the present text several strata, that is, who judge the mention of Canaan to be a late substitution for C., made in the text when the Hebrews succeeded in subduing the Canaanites (the time of David and Solomon) and held them in abomination for their immorality. The severity of this curse is increased by the blessing conferred on the other two brothers, and by the addition of another curse, which enslaved Canaan to each of them (Gen. 9:26, 27), of a prophetic-messianic character like the other two. By it the virtue of the one and the irreverence of the other would have had their reward and punishment. But blessing and curse will be realized only in the future: C., for having allowed himself to be dominated by sensuality, will have to serve his brothers, and his descendants their descendants; the land of Canaan will come into the possession of the Semites (Israel) and the people of Canaan will be excluded from messianic salvation, but not definitively (cf. P. Heinisch, Das Buch Genesis, in Die heilige Schrift des Alten Testamentes I, 1, Bonn 1930, commentary on the cited verses).
C. occurs in the Psalms to indicate Egypt (78:51; 105:23, 27; 106:22). In Egyptian km.t (Coptic kemi) means "black." Probably the term passed into Palestine, being transformed into Hām (cf. Arabic ahamm, fem. hammā').
Giorgio Castellino