CHAPTER 9

9:1-4 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2 And the dread and the fear of you shall be upon all the wild beasts of the earth, on all the birds of the sky, and on all things moving upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea, I have placed them under you power. 3 And every reptile which is living shall be to you for meat, I have given all things to you as the green herbs. 4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

ALCUIN OF YORK. WHY WAS MAN MADE A SOURCE OF FEAR FOR OTHER LIVING BEINGS? — Answer. As a consolation for the past vengeance, and so that the few men might not be overpowered by the more numerous beasts, and also for men to know that they should rule over irrational beings, not over rational ones, which is why we read that our first fathers were herdsmen of livestock, not kings of men. [Questions and Answers on Genesis, 131]

WHY IS THE EATING OF FLESH PERMITTED TO MAN AFTER THE FLOOD AND NOT BEFORE? (Gen. 9:3) — Answer. Because of the unfruitfulness of the earth, it is thought, and because of man’s weakness. [Questions and Answers on Genesis, 132]

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM OF CONSTANTINOPLE. (Gen. 9:1-4) But this ineffable liberality is shown again in the following: God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Grow and multiply, and fill the earth and dominate it." You will be feared and dreaded by all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the sky, all the animals that move on the earth and all the fish of the sea: I have delivered them all into your hands. All that moves and that is alive will be your food; I gave it to you as garden plants. But do not eat the flesh with his blood, which is his soul. Here we must admire the supreme goodness of the Lord. you see that the righteous receives again the same blessing that had already been given to Adam; this superiority which man had lost, he covers with his virtue and above all with the unspeakable clemency of the Lord. For just as he once said: Grow and multiply, and rule the earth; dominate on the fish of the sea, reptiles, birds and quadrupeds; Now he says, You will be feared and dreaded by all the beasts of the earth and all the fowls. All that moves and lives on earth will be your food; I gave it to you as garden plants. But do not eat the flesh with his blood, which is his soul. It is the same law that was given to the first man except one observation. When the empire of the world was given to Adam, as well as the enjoyment of all that was in paradise, there was, however, a tree which he was forbidden to touch; it is the same for Noah; God makes him terrible to the animals of the earth, and puts the birds and the birds under his power; He also says: All that moves and lives on earth will be your food: I gave it to you as the plants of the gardens. It was then that the use of eating meat began, not to satisfy our greed, but because men, having to sacrifice animals, in order to give thanks to the Lord, they did not have to appear. reject the consecrated things: so God gives them the use of this food and allows them to use it abundantly. I gave you everything like garden plants. Then, just as, while enjoying the fruit of all the trees, Adam had to abstain from one, so too, while giving Noah permission to eat whatever he wanted, God told him nevertheless: Do not eat the flesh with the blood, which is its soul. What is an animal where one has left the blood that is his soul? It means a stifled beast; for the soul of an animal is nothing but its blood. As the sacrifices were made by immolating animals, here is the teaching which results from this commandment. The blood is set apart for me, and you keep the flesh. God thus acts to moderate by his orders the cruelty and the inclination to the homicide.  [Homilies on Genesis]

9:5-6 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. 6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

ALCUIN OF YORK. WHAT MAN DOES HE WANT TO BE TAKEN AS A BROTHER WHEN IT IS SAID, “I WILL REQUIRE THE BLOOD OF MAN AT THE HAND OF HIS BROTHER”? — Answer. He wants any man to be taken as a brother, according to our blood connection drawn from one man. [Questions and Answers on Genesis, 140]

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. WHAT DOES IT MEAN: AND I WILL REQUIRE THE LIFE OF MAN AT THE HAND OF HIS BROTHER? — Will he refer to every man, the brother of every man according to kinship, by whom we all come from one? [Questions on Genesis, 16]

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. Instead of saying: Et enim sanguinem vestrum animarum vestrarum, (For also your blood of your souls), it was enough to put sanguinem vestrum (your blood), or else sanguinem animarum vestrarum (the blood of your souls). [Locutions]

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM OF CONSTANTINOPLE. (Gen. 9:5-6) To prove that he wanted to make men more pious, listen to the following: I will ask for your blood, your souls, for all animals. And I will ask the man and the brother of the soul of the man. (Gen. 9:5) What! Is the soul of man blood? God does not want to say it; far from there! but he speaks according to human habits, as if a man said to another, "Your blood is in my hands; that is to say, I can kill you." To see that the soul of man is not the blood, listen to Christ, who says: Do not fear those who kill the body but can not kill the soul. (Matt X, 28.) And see the distinction that God makes; Whoever has shed the blood of man, his blood shall be poured out for compensation; because I made the man in my image. (Gen. 9:6) Meditate, I pray you, on the terror inspired by these words. If the idea of ​​striking your fellow man, who is of the same nature as you, is not enough to deter you from your odious enterprise, if you reject any fraternal sympathy to indulge in this criminal audacity, think that your victim was made in the image of God, may God grant him his highest prerogatives, and abandon your horrible project. But suppose a man who has committed an infinity of murders and shed streams of blood: how can he make up for everything by spreading his own? Do not stop at this, but remember that soon he will receive an incorruptible body that can be punished incessantly for eternity. See also how the precept is precise. It is said of man: you will not shed his blood; concerning animals it is not said that you will not shed, but only: Thou shalt not eat flesh with blood; who is his soul. On the one hand God says, You shall not pour out; on the other, you will not eat. You see that these laws have nothing painful, how simple and easy these precepts are, how God does not ask our nature anything embarrassing and unpleasant. Many people say that the blood of animals. is heavy, coarse and causes disease: we believe that if we must observe this precept, it is not because of the reason we have just said, as learned as it is, but to fulfill the Lord's command. [Homilies on Genesis]

9:7-12 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. 8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. 11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. Hoc signum testamenti, quod ego ponam intermedium meum et vestrum (the sign of the covenant, which I shall place between my midst and yours); it's as if there were: between me and you. [Locutions]

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM OF CONSTANTINOPLE. Moreover, to know that if he has made this recommendation it is to moderate our sanguinary instincts, he says: As for you, grow, multiply, fill the earth and dominate it. (Gen. 9:7) It is not without reason that he says: As for you. You who are so few; so easy to count, fill the earth and govern it, that is to say, have all empire, all power, and gather the fruits of it. See, I pray you, all the goodness of God who, in exchange for immense benefits, imposes only an easy and unique obligation. Just as, after having placed Adam in paradise and having granted him the enjoyment of everything, he forbade him to touch a tree; likewise here again, after having promised that he would no longer destroy the universe and that he would not be so angry at this point, but that the elements would no longer be upset until consumption, centuries and would always keep their march and their laws, after giving blessings to those whom he had saved, and giving them all power over the animals and the right to eat their flesh, God said to them, Yet you shall not eat the flesh with the blood, who is his soul. You see that after having shown so much kindness and ineffable liberality, he ends with an order: this is not the custom of men. The men want, before all, that their orders are executed, they require a great deal of gentleness and exactitude in those whom they charge with their commands, and it is only at the end that they think of rewarding those who showed them so much obedience. The Master of all things acts quite differently: he begins by spreading his benefits, he seduces us by their abundance, and finally he gives some simple and easy precepts, so that their very facility joins the previous benefits to ensure our obedience… I will establish my covenant, that is, I make a covenant. In the affairs of ordinary life, a promise brings a pact that gives security. Thus the goodness of the Lord is expressed: I will establish my covenant with you. And he rightly says, “I will establish,” which means. Behold, I repair the evil caused by sin; and I will establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; see the clemency of the Lord! it is not with you alone that I make a pact, but with those who will come after you, and I say that this pact will be firm and lasting. And then, to show his munificence: And with all living beasts that are with you, so much the birds and the domestic animals, and all the beasts of the earth that are with you that came out of the ark; and I will establish my covenant with you, and all flesh that has life will no longer perish by the flood; and there will no longer be a deluge for the destruction of the whole earth. Have you understood how far this pact extends? Have you understood all that there is in this promise of ineffable liberality? Consider how God once more extends His goodness even to beings without reason, to wild beasts! and it is not without reason: I have often said it, I repeat it again, animals have been created for man’s sake: therefore they have their share of the benefits bestowed on man. Now the pact seems to confound man and animals, but it is not; not so; for this promise is a consolation which is addressed only to man, that he may know in what degree of honor he is kept, since he is not only filled with benefits; but also, in consideration of him, the liberality of the Lord extends over the animals: And all flesh that lives, says God, will no longer perish by the flood; and there will be no more deluge in the future to destroy all the earth. Do you see how, once, twice, many times, God promises a renewal of universal destruction? It is to banish from the mind of man just the anxieties which disturb him; it is to give him good hope in the future. Then, no longer stopping at his own nature; but adapting ourselves to our infirmity, God makes visible the promise which His words had expressed. He shows once more how he knows how to adapt himself to our infirmity, he gives a permanent sign for the emancipation of the race of men from an unbearable terror: even if frequent rains would rush to the earth, whatever the storm violence; whatever the extent of the floods, he does not want us to feel fear, but we trust him by looking at the sign he gives us: And the Lord God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant that I establish between myself and you; and all living animals that are with you. See what honor he deigns to do! he concluded a pact with him, as a man speaking to another man, and said to him, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have made between me and you, and all the living animals that are with you, generations. Do you see how the sign he is going to give extends to all generations? He does not give this sign only for all living beings without distinction, but it constitutes it perpetual and lasting, as long as the world subsists. [Homilies on Genesis]

9:13-16 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

ALCUIN OF YORK. WHY IS THE RAINBOW GIVEN AS A SIGN OF SECURITY? — Answer. Because the Creator foreknew that the minds of men would easily be frightened that they would be destroyed by a flood again when regularly seeing inundations of waters. [Alcuin of York, Questions and Answers on Genesis, PL 100 Question 133]

WHY WAS THAT SIGN OF SECURITY PUT IN THE HEAVENS? — Answer. So that it could be looked at by everyone, and that, for whatever tribulation, we may raise our hearts’ eyes towards him who dwells in heaven. [Question 134]

WHY ARE THERE DIFFERENT COLORS IN THAT SIGN GIVEN TO MEN? — Answer. To symbolize both secureness and fear. That is why the colors of water and of fire appear together in the rainbow, for it is partly blue and partly red. Therefore it bears witness to both judgements, the past one and the future one, that is, it bears witness to the fact that the world will be burned by the fire of judgement, though it will not be destroyed by the water of a flood. [Question 135]

WERE THERE RAINS BEFORE THE FLOOD? — Answer. It seems that there were not, because there was no rainbow but from the rays of the sun and a wet cloud. It is possible, moreover, that the earth was fertilized by the watering of dew and of springs as in Egypt. [Questions and Answers on Genesis, 136]

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM OF CONSTANTINOPLE. What is this sign? I put my bow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (Gen. 9:13) Here after the verbal promise, I give this visible sign, the rainbow, (which some say produced by the rays of the sun meeting the clouds). If my word, he says, is not enough, here I give my sign, which replies that I will no longer inflict such punishment. At the sight of this sign, be free from all fear: And when I have covered the sky with clouds, my bow will appear in the clouds and I will remember the covenant that is between me and you, and every soul that lives in all flesh. (Gen. 9:13-14) What do you say, O blessed prophet? I will remember, he says, my covenant, that is, my pact, my commitment, my promise. It is not that God needs a sign to remember, but it is so that we, at the sight of this sign, we do not conceive of sad suspicions, it is. so that we may immediately remember the divine promise, that we have the confidence that we will not suffer anything like the Flood.

Have you seen all the care that God takes to accommodate our infirmity, his great concern for our race, the great mercy he shows us, not that he saw the converted men, but because he wants by all these means to teach us the depth of his goodness? And there will be no future flood to destroy all flesh; there will be no more rain of this kind. He saw that this is what human nature dreads; see how he immediately reassures her by a promise, saying to her: "Even if you see torrents of rain, do not conceive, for that reason, gloomy suspicions, fears, for there will be no more in the future of a flood to destroy all flesh; there will be no rain of this kind henceforth; The race of men will no longer experience such a terrible effect of wrath: And my bow, he says, will appear in the clouds, and I will see it to remind me of the everlasting covenant between God and every living soul in all flesh. (Gen. 9:16) Consider the choice of expressions which he uses to inspire man with a firm and solid confidence: And I will see him, to remind me of my covenant, Is it the sight that recalls in him the memory? Let us not think, far from you an idea, like that! But it is so that when we see this sign, we trust the promise of God, knowing with certainty that it is impossible that God does not fulfill his promises. [Homilies on Genesis]

9:17-19 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. 18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. 19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread. 20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:

JEROME OF STRIDON. 9:18 AND THE SONS OF NOAH COMING OUT OF THE ARK WERE SHEM, CHAM, AND JAPHETH. Often the Septuagint, being unable to render in Greek the letter HETH (ח) which contains a double aspiration, add the Greek chi (Χ), to warn us that it is necessary to pronounce these kinds of words with aspiration. In this place, they wrote Cham instead of Ham whose name is still given today in Egypt in the Egyptian language. [Hebrew Questions on Genesis]

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM OF CONSTANTINOPLE. And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant that I made between me and all flesh that is on the earth. (Gen. 9:17) You have received, he says, sign between me and all flesh that is on the earth. From now on, no more confusion in your thoughts, no more trouble in your souls; Look at this sign, have yourself lost hope, and all who come after you, looking at this sign, be comforted; that the sight of this signa gives them the confidence that, henceforth, such a storm will no longer invade the earth; Though the sins of men increase, I, however, will fulfill my promise, and I will never again show one, such anger against all. at a time. Do you understand how great is the goodness of the Lord? Do you understand how he knows how to conform his language? to our weakness. Do you understand the grandeur of his providence? Do you understand what is magnificent in its liberality? Indeed, he has not extended his goodness to two, to three, to ten generations, if you will; what he has promised will extend as long as the world remains. Hence two reasons to correct one of us, because the men of the flood have drawn their punishment by the enormity of their sins; the other, because ineffable mercy has deigned to make such a promise to us. Indeed, for the wise, recognition is a link that binds them more strongly to duty than the fear of punishment.

Let us not be ungrateful, for if, even before we have shown any virtue, or rather, when we have committed actions which deserve such rigorous chastisements, God deigns to grant us so great benefits; when we have proved our gratitude, when we have shown him our gratitude for his graces which warn us, that we will be transformed; and that we will have become better, what insignificant honors will he spare us in his benevolence? If he does us so much good, despite our indignity; if, in spite of our faults, he loves us, when we have rejected our malignity far from ourselves, once we have set ourselves to the pursuit of virtue, what goods will we not obtain? That is why he warns us by his favors, and, though we are sinners, that's why he forgives us, throws far from us punishments ready; it is to attract us by all means, by its benefits, by its patience; and often, when he inflicts punishment on some men, it is to attract other men to him; so that, corrected by fear, they can avoid the real effect of punishment. Do you understand this ingenious goodness, how, in all that the Lord does, there is none? has an exclusive, unique purpose, our salvation? So, let's think about these things; more looseness, no more carelessness for virtue, no more transgression of his orders. As soon as he knits will see us convert, rest, stop without advancing a single step further into the evil, do anything, a beginning of virtue, he too will work with us in his own way, will make us all easy and light; he will not allow that. we have the feeling of the fatigues that accompany, the virtue. For, as soon as the soul tends its thought towards the end, it can no longer be deceived by visible things; she runs, she does not see what strikes the eyes of our body; it distinguishes in a more clear manner than it perceives the objects submitted to our eyes, it represents to itself what the eyes of the body do not see, which is not subject to change. always remains, which is fixed, immutable. Such are the eyes of thought, continually attentive to the spectacle from on high, enlightened by the divine rays; All that belongs to the present life is a dream; a shadow that does not stop them; no more disappointment, no more mistakes. We see wealth, and we laugh at it; we know that he is more unfaithful than a fugitive slave. passes from one master to another, never abides in the same, and causes to those who possess it endless misfortunes, overthrowing, precipitating, so to speak, the rich in the abyss of malignity; at the sight of the beauty of the body, the soul does not stop looking; she thinks of what is inconstant in this passing beauty, that a sudden illness suddenly deprives her of her charms, that old age, in the absence of disease, transforms into (189) ugliness and in deformity, to sudden death, annihilating all that shine of the body. At the sight of glory and power, and of the superb attained at the summit of dignities, at the summit of bliss without bounds, the eyes of the soul are still more indifferent, because there is nothing there nothing immutable, because there is nothing but vanity, which boasts of what passes faster than running water. What is more despicable than the glory of this life, than this grass of the fields! All the glory of man, says the Prophet, is like the grass of the field. (Isaiah, XL, 6.)

Do you understand, beloved, how penetrate the eyes of faith as soon as the thought remains tense: towards God? Have you understood how none of the visible things can disappoint them any more, as judgment becomes right and infallible? But if it seems good to you, let us resume our speech, and after a few short reflections, put an end to our words, so that you can engrave in your memory what you have heard. The Scripture, after having said everything about the divine sign, still wishes to give us other teachings on what concerns this righteous man and his sons; The scripture says, So Noah had three sons that came out of the ark, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; Cham is the father of Chanaan; These are the three sons of Noah, and out of them comes the whole race of men on the earth. (Gen. 9:18-19) It is good to seek why the divine Scripture, mentioning these three lines, adds: But Cham is the father of Chanaan. Do not believe, I beg you, that this has been added to his design; there is nothing in divine Scripture that is said for any reason, nothing that contains hidden utility. Why then did the scripture say, Or Ham is Chanaan's father? By this she wished to mark the incontinence of this Cham, to indicate to us that horror of the universal disaster could not restrain him; that the place so narrow that they all occupied the ark was not an obstacle capable of repressing his concupiscence, although his elder brother had no son yet. This saint, indulged in incontinence, in the very time of such anger, at the very moment of the universal extermination which seized the world, did not subdue his nature, thought only of a coming together in season, has not known how to tame the intemperance of his desires; right away he insisted on showing the evil. of his soul. Also, shortly after the outrage of Chatte towards the one to whom he had to exist, the son of this Cham, Chanaan, was going to undergo the curse. So the divine Scripture does not wait to designate it, to reveal the name of this son at the same time as the incontinence of his father; it is so that, seeing him later manifest so much ingratitude towards his father, you should know that for a long time he was a pervert, since the dreadful catastrophe of which he was a witness could not ameliorate it. What! To extinguish his concupiscence was not enough of so much pain! Well! no, nothing has triumphed over this impure flame, this delirium, nor the desolation of the universe; nor the excess of such a terrible calamity. He who, in so great a misfortune, showed you this madness, this furious delirium, who thought then to procreate children, tell me, what excuse can he invoke?

But here comes another question; it is famous, it circulates everywhere: whence comes that for the sin of the father, it is the son who undergoes the curse? We do not want to lengthen the speech today; we will adjourn the explanation; when we come to the text to which it relates, we will give you the solution that God has suggested to us. There is nothing in Holy Scripture, as I told you, nothing can be found that does not contain a secret thought. Meanwhile, we explained that it is not without reason that Moses named this son saying: Now, Cham is the father of Chanaan. These are, he says, the three sons of Noah. And it is from them that the whole race of men who are on the earth has come out. Let us stop on the way, my beloved, to this place; see here, to reveal again the greatness of the power of God. These were, says the text, the three sons of Noah, and it is from them that the whole race of men who are on the earth came out. How, of only three men, could so great a multitude emerge? How could they suffice? How could so few have made up the entire roof world How did their bodies survive? there were no doctors, no medicine, no. no care of this kind; we had not yet founded a single city. After such a great misfortune, after this existence in the ark, which had made them weak, broken, because they were too much in a hurry, there they are in an immense solitude, in the midst of an inexpressible devastation; how did they not succumb, how did they not perish? Do you not think that fear, fear, answer me, I beg you, must shake their thoughts deeply, shake, and upset their whole being? Do not be surprised, my beloved, there was a God, the One who does all things, the Creator God of nature, he was there who removed all obstacles, with this order: Grow and multiply, and fill the earth; it was he who gave them growth. When the Israelites in Egypt were overwhelmed with work, making bricks with clay, the more they were crushed, the more they grew to become a great multitude. (Exodus, I, and seq.) And neither the pitiless and cruel order of Pharaoh, who commanded to throw the male children into the river, nor the vexations with which they were tormented for their labors, could diminish that crowd which was growing, still growing. It was the will from on high that knows how to draw all things from their opposites…

9:20-21 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: 21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunk, and was naked in his house.

ALCUIN OF YORK. AFTER THE FLOOD, WHY DO WE READ THAT THE JUST MAN NOAH WAS MADE DRUNK? [VARIANT: BEFORE THE FLOOD, WHY DO WE NOT READ THAT NOAH, THE JUST MAN, WAS MADE DRUNK?] —Answer. Maybe, as blessed Jerome says, he did not know that one could be made drunk with wine. Indeed, we do not read that men used wine before the Flood. That is why it is said about Noah specifically, “Noah planted a vineyard”. [Question 137]

WHY DID NAKEDNESS OF THE LOINS FOLLOW FROM HIS DRUNKENNESS? — Answer. Because satiety is often followed by lust. [Questions and Answers on Genesis, 138]

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM OF CONSTANTINOPLE. Noah applying himself to agriculture began, says the text, to plow and cultivate the land, and he planted a vineyard, and drank wine, and was intoxicated. (Gen. 9:20-21) See how great a usefulness for us is the simple beginning of this reading. Indeed, when we hear that this righteous man, that perfect man who received from above such a great testimony, drank and got drunk, how are we, who are plunged into an abyss of sins if various, would not we now make every effort to avoid the scourge of drunkenness? It is, however, to be remarked that the fault is not equal between that just surprised, and we who fall into the same vice. There are indeed many circumstances to excuse this just man; what I say no to excuse drunkenness, but to show that, if this right has succumbed, it is not by intemperance, but because the experience was lacking. Scripture does not simply say that it drank wine until it gets drunk, but it adds (195) circumstances which are the explanation and the excuse of its conduct: Noah applying to the and he planted a vineyard, and drank wine, and was intoxicated. This word began to show that he was the first to drank wine, and, for lack of experience, because he did not know the measure, he fell into drunkenness. And this is not the only cause, but it was very sad: he sought in the wine a consolation, following the words of the Wise: Give those who are in the sadness a liquor that intoxicates them, and wine to those who are in pain. (Prov., XXXI, 6.) The Sage thus shows that there is no equal remedy in wine for wine, provided that intemperance does not compromise its usefulness. And in what gloomy sadness was not plunged that righteous person who saw himself in the midst of so great a solitude, who had before his eyes the corpses of so many men, this burial common to men and animals! It is the custom of the prophets and all the righteous to grieve not only on the fate of their loved ones, but on all other men. Whoever wishes to review them, will find that they have all shown this commiseration; Hear the voice of Isaiah, saying, Do not be anxious to console me for the ruin of the daughter of my people. (Isaiah, XXII, 4.) Jeremiah in turn: Who will give water to my head, and to my eyes a fountain of tears? (Jeremiah IX, 1.) Ezekiel now: Alas, alas! Lord God, will you lose all that remains of Israel? (Ezekiel 9: 8) And Daniel lamenting, saying, You have reduced us more than all the other nations. (Daniel, VII.) And Amos: Lord God, have mercy on them. (Amos, VII, 3,) And Habakkuk: Why do you reduce me to seeing only violence and injustice? and again: Will you treat men as the fish of the sea? (Habakkuk I, 3, 14.) He will also hear this blessed Moses, saying: I beseech you to forgive them. this fault, or if you do not do it, erase me from your book (Exodus, XXXII, 32); and elsewhere: When God had promised to put him at the head of a greater people, after saying to him, "Let me go, I will destroy these men, and I will make you the head of a great people." (Ibid, 10) Moses did not want it; he preferred to remain at the head of these Jews; In the same way, blessed Paul, this doctor of the nations: I would have desired that Jesus Christ had made me serve myself as a victim subject to anathema for my brothers, who are of the same blood as me according to the flesh. . (Rom IX, 3.)

You see how all these righteous people showed deep feelings of commiseration for the neighbor. Now consider what this just man should feel; from what feeling he must be agitated; from what sadness he was to be defeated at the sight of this immense solitude; of this earth, formerly enriched with so many different plants, adorned with flowers, and suddenly losing its foliage of hair, bare, naked, deserted. In a sad pain, seeking a little consolation for him, he began to cultivate the earth, and from there what Scripture says: Noah applying himself to agriculture, began plowing and cultivating the land. earth, and he planted a vineyard.

But it is necessary here to ask whether it was Noah at this time who found the vine, or if, before, from the beginning of the world, it existed. It is probable that it existed before, from the beginning, that it had been created within six days, when God saw that all the things He had done were very good. (Gen. I, 31.) He is indeed resting, says the Scripture, the seventh day, after having finished all his works. (Gen. II, 2.) However, the use of the vine was not known; for if it had been known from the beginning, it is certain that Abel, in his sacrifices, would have also made libations of wine. But as the first men did not know the use of this plant, they did not use it. Noah, on the other hand, applied to agriculture, a very active and diligent man, arrived, by chance, to taste the fruit of it, crushed the grapes, made wine, and drank. And as it was the first time that he tasted it himself, as he knew no one who had tasted it before him, as he had nothing to tell him and the measure and the use, as a result of this Ignorance, he fell into drunkenness. Moreover, when the habit of eating flesh was introduced among men, the use of wine was also a habit. Now consider, my beloved, how little by little the world is organized; how each man, according to the wisdom that God communicates to him, becomes, in these beginnings, the inventor of an art. Thus the arts were introduced into the world: the first invented agriculture; the second, pastoral art; another, the art of raising livestock; another, music; another, the brass industry; As for the righteous man of whom we speak, he found, thanks to the wisdom communicated from above, the art of cultivating the vine. Noah, says the text, applying himself to agriculture, began plowing and cultivating the land, and he planted a vineyard, and drank wine, and was intoxicated. Meditate on this remedy for sadness, on this means of healing, which, because ignorance has exceeded the measure, is not only of no use, but becomes fatal and indisposed.

But perhaps it will be said: why was a plant so fertile in vices and misfortunes, produced? Do not so express, O men, without thinking, all the thoughts that come to you. It is not the plant that is bad, it is not the wine that is vicious, but the abuse that it has, because it is not the wine that produces the faults, the crimes it is the depravation of the will; wine is useful to us; it is intemperance that makes it fatal. If the Scripture shows you the wine in use only after the flood, it is to teach you that, even before the use of wine, men had fallen into disorder, into the excesses of licentiousness; that they had shown their perversity at a time when wine was unknown; so that when you see the wine in use, you will not attribute all our faults to the wine. but to the corrupt will, which perverts itself. Moreover, make another reflection which proves the usefulness of wine, and be seized with a holy horror, O men! wine is the substance that serves to bring about the salvation of the good, which is what the initiates know about our mysteries. Noah applying himself to agriculture, says the text, began to plow and cultivate the land, and he planted a vineyard, and drank wine, and was intoxicated.

It is a terrible evil, my beloved ones; yes, a dreadful evil that drunkenness, which produces blindness, which engulfs reason. Of this man endowed with reason, of this man who has received the empire over all creatures, she makes a captive, chained with indissoluble bonds, a dead whom nothing awakens; she makes something worse than a dead person. The dead man has no energy for good or for evil; but the drunk man, without energy for good, has only more energy for evil; and he is ridiculous in the eyes of his wife, and of his children, and of his servants. His friends, considering his shame, blush and are covered with confusion; his enemies, on the contrary, rejoice and laugh at him, and charge him with opprobrium, and exclaim, "Must we see life, must we see this brute, this pig, breathe! and they use even more shameful expressions. It is because those who are struck by drunkenness are more hideous to see than those who return from combat, their hands soiled with blood, or brought home in tumult; they can be boasted because of trophies, victories, wounds, mutilated members; but for those who are drunk, they are called miserable, and are overwhelmed with imprecations. What is there more miserable than that which connects drunkenness; who every day plunges into wine, and corrupts his thought and judgment? From there, the advice given by the Sage: The main thing in the life of man is bread and water, and clothing, and a house that hides his shame. (Eccli, XXIX, 28.) So that he whom drunkenness possesses should not be exposed in public, but hidden by his own; it is so that it is not the shameful object of the laughter of all. Noah applying himself to agriculture, began, says the text, to plow and cultivate the earth, and he planted a vineyard, and drank wine, and was intoxicated.

The word of drunkenness, my beloved ones, in Holy Scripture, does not mean everywhere what we mean by this word; in our holy books this word also expresses satiety; Perhaps it would be right to say, in regard to the just, that he did not commit an excess, that he would not get drunk; only that he took wine so as to be satisfied. Listen, indeed, the word of David: They will be drunk with the abundance of your house (Psal. XXXV, 9), that is to say, they will be satiated. Moreover, those who abandon themselves to drunkenness never have enough; the more they absorb wine, the more they are altered; this wine is like a fire that sets them on fire; the pleasure disappears; but a thirst impossible to quench, precipitates them into the gulf of drunkenness which keeps them captive. And he planted, says the text, a vineyard, and drank wine, and was drunk; and he was naked in his tent. Consider that it did not happen to him outside, but in his tent; the divine Scripture has put in his tent, so that the following shows you the frightful malignity of him who dared to reveal this state of nakedness. Cham, says the text, father of Chanaan; He saw the nakedness of his father, and he went out, and he announced it to his two brothers outside. Perhaps, if other men had been there, he would also have told them the shame of his father; such was the perversity of this son. [Homilies on Genesis]

9:22-23 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM OF CONSTANTINOPLE. It is to teach you that he was corrupt for a long time, that the Scripture does not limit itself to saying: Cham saw the nakedness of his father; but what does she say? And Cham, father of Chanaan, lives. (Gen. 9:22) Why, tell me, in this passage, does she name her son? It is to teach us that with the same intemperance, the same incontinence that had brought him, at the hour of the terrible upheaval of the world, to procreate his posterity, he ran to insult his father: and he went out said the text, and he announced it to his two brothers outside. See, here, I pray you, my beloved ones, consider that the vices are not in our nature, but in our free thought, in our will. In fact, these three brothers had even father, had come out of the same flanks; the same care had surrounded their education, but they did not show the same heart; the latter fell into sin, the others returned to their father the honor due him. Perhaps this Cham exaggerated by shame the shame of his father by revealing it; he did not hear the word of the Wise One: Do not boast about your father's shame. (Eccles III, 12.) But his brethren did not behave in the same way; and how? When they had heard these words, Shem and Japheth, having spread a cloak over their shoulders, went backward and covered the nakedness of their father, and they did not turn away their faces, nor did they see the nakedness of their father. (Gen. 9:23) Do you see the honesty of these two sons? What the other has divulged, these dare not even look at him; they walked backwards, to cover the nakedness of their father immediately. See, at the same time, with their honesty, their gentleness! they do not growl, they do not beat their brother; but, as soon as they hear it, they take care, both at once, to correct what they regret, and to prove their respect to their father: and they did not turn away their faces and they did not see the nakedness of their father.

It is a proof of the profound respect of these sons, which Scripture makes us see; not only do they recover, but they dare not look. Let us learn by this example, and know how to derive a double utility from it. Let's imitate some; far from us the customs of the other! for if this wicked man, who has revealed the nakedness of a body, has fallen under the influence of the curse, is deprived of the honor which equaled him to his brethren, he has been condemned to serve them, though not him, but all the descendants who have come out of him, who have become slaves, what punishment will not suffer those who reveal the sins of their brethren; who, far from covering them, excusing them, expose them to the light of day, and thereby guilty of sins without number? When you disclose the fault of a brother, you not only make it more shameless, and perhaps cool your zeal for coming into virtue, but you make those who listen to you more indolent and cowardly; and this is not all: you are the cause that God is blasphemed. Now, what is the torment reserved for those who provoke blasphemies? This is what no one knows. So, far from us, I implore you, the customs of Ham; on the contrary, let us imitate the honesty and modesty of the sons who covered the nakedness of their father; Let us do the same, cover the faults of our brethren, not to encourage, by our conduct, their indolence, but to spare them the best means of freeing themselves quickly from their fatal vices, and to return to virtue. Just as it is easier to return to resipiscence when one does not have a large number of witnesses to one's faults, so also one whose forehead has blushed, who knows that his evil actions are known to everyone, does not do not give up easily to his vices; he is like in a deep mud, where he rushes away carried by currents which it is difficult for him to overcome; and, unable to return to the surface, he despairs, and he abandons all hope, to seize the shore again.

Therefore, I beg you, do not publish the faults of the next. If we come to learn them, do not hasten to see this nakedness; let us do like these virtuous sons, recover from our exhortations, from our councils, shelter with a protective shade, and let us hasten to raise up the soul that has fallen; let us teach him the greatness of divine mercy, the excess of the supreme goodness, to obtain for ourselves, even more than these pious young men, the blessing of the Lord, of the God who has made all things, who wants that all men are saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth (I Tim. who (198) does not want the sinner's death, but to convert and live. (Ezek XVIII, 23.) And, says the text, they did not see the nakedness of their father. See how the natural law sufficed for them, first of all, from the beginning, to fulfill the prescriptions which were later recorded in the written legislation for the teaching of the human race; to fulfill this prescription of the law: Honor your father and your mother, that you may be happy (Exodus, xx, 12); and whoever curses his father or mother shall be punished with death. (Ibid, XXI, 17.) Do you see that the natural law was sufficient at first? [Homilies on Genesis]

9:24-27 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. 25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. 27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

ALCUIN OF YORK. WHY WAS CHAM CURSED IN HIS DESCENDANTS (VERSE 25)? — Answer. Because a future punishment awaits those who sin and do not repent. The wicked acts of the reprobates indeed often go unpunished here and succeed, but they are struck in the future. It was prophesized here that the Canaanites would be expelled and vanquished and the land of Canaan would be taken by the children of Israel, who came from the seed of Sem (Gen. 5). [Question 139]

WHY WAS IT SAID, “MAY GOD ENLARGE JAPHETH, AND MAY HE DWELL IN THE TENTS OF SEM” (VERSE 27)? — Answer. Of Sem the Hebrews were born, and of Japheth the people of the Gentiles. So, since the multitude of believers is large, it was named after “largeness”, which is what “Japheth” means. What is added, “may he dwell in the tents of Sem”, is a prophecy concerning us, who live in the learning of scriptural knowledge, Israel having been expelled. [Questions and Answers on Genesis, 143]

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. CURSE OF CANAAN. —We may wonder why Cham, who sinned by offending his father, did not receive the curse in himself, but in his son Canaan. And the answer would be that this fact is in some way a prophecy concerning the Canaanites, who were expelled from the land of Canaan and defeated, gave way to the Israelites, coming from the lineage of Shem. [Questions on Genesis, 17]

JEROME OF STRIDON. 9:27 MAY GOD EXTEND JAPHETH, AND LET SHEM DWELL IN TENTS. From Shem, are born the Hebrews; from Japheth, the people of the Gentiles. As the multitude of believers is great, broad, in Hebrew JAPHETH (יפה), he has received the name of range. For this: "Let Shem dwell in tents," it is a prophecy concerning us, we who are versed in the explanation and knowledge of the Scriptures, from which Israel was banished. [Hebrew Questions on Genesis]

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM OF CONSTANTINOPLE. Noah took his senses, said the text, after the slumber caused by the wine, and learned all that his youngest son had done to him. (Gen. 9:24) Noah resumed his senses, says the text; that they hear these words, those who spend whole days in feasts; that they consider the gravity of their fault; that they learn to escape pernicious drunkenness. Noah regained his senses, the text says. What to say? This is the expression we usually use when those in delusion return to them. Noah; after having been surprised by the devil, resumed his senses, and freed himself from his tyranny, that is what the Scripture says here; for, let us know it well, drunkenness is a willful demon, which darkens the soul of darkness more thick than the devil does, and renders his captive unworthy of all pity. Often, indeed, at the sight of a demoniac, we are seized with pity, with compassion; we like to show him how much we pity his misfortune; we do not do the same with those we see drunk; they provoke our indignation, our disgust, which repels them; we charge them with imprecations. What is the cause, why? it is that the demoniac does what he does not want to do, and he can not fight, tear his clothes, utter shameful words, they forgive him; as for the drunken man, whatever he does, one does not excuse him: servants, friends, neighbors, all overwhelm him with reproaches; it is that he gives himself, voluntarily, to this ignominy; it is because he abandons himself, because he betrays himself, to the tyranny of drunkenness. And what I'm saying is not to accuse this just man. A great number of circumstances met to mitigate his fault; and first of all, he has not been seen to fall there since, certain proof that he sinned for lack of knowledge, and not out of indolence. In fact, if one had to attribute his fault to negligence, he would later have been surprised again by the same passion; but that's not what happened. If he had been guilty of the same fault a second time, the Scripture would not have passed over it in silence, it would have made it known to us; for the Scripture has but one thought, has but one goal, it is to teach us all that has happened, that we may know the truth. One does not see it, by a feeling of envy, neglecting the virtues of the just, nor with a com. partial pleasure, covering with a shadow the faults of sinners; it exposes everything before our eyes, so that we have a rule, a doctrine; so that we too, when we let ourselves be surprised by our negligence, become more circumspect, so as to avoid relapses. For sin is not so grave as persistence in sin. Therefore, do not confine yourself to noticing that this just got drunk, notice above all that; later, nothing like it happened to him. Consider those who, every day, spend their lives in cabarets; who every day; so to speak, they die there; when they recover their senses, it is not for them a reason to flee the scourge of drunkenness, they return there, as to an occupation which they continue with a virile courage. It is necessary to consider still that this righteous one, which moreover was intoxicated only for lack of experience, because he did not know the measure; he was, after all, a righteous man, rich in good works, who could therefore cover and redeem the accident from this fault; but we, who suffer the ravages of so many other passions, if we add drunkenness to all our excesses, what will be our excuse? Who will deign, answer me, I beg you; to forgive us, that corrects no experience? Noah regained his senses, said the text, after the slumber caused by the wine, and learned all that his youngest son had done to him. Where did he learn it? No doubt it was the brethren who said so, not to accuse their brother, but to learn the thing as it had happened, so that the culprit might receive the remedy which his wound required. And he learned, said the text, all that his youngest son had done to him. What to say, all that had done to him? It means a fault so serious (199) that it can not stand. Notice, indeed, how, in the interior of the house, seeing a shameful thing, while he ought to have hidden it, he goes out, he shatters it, he exposes to taunts, mockery, his father, as much as it depended on him; how he wants to make his brothers the accomplices of his detestable thought. If he had to tell a story, he should at least call them inside, speak to them in secret about this nakedness; but no: he goes out, he reveals this nakedness, and if he had met there a crowd of strangers, he would also have made them witnesses of his father's shame. Then, these words of the text: All that he had done, that is to say, the outrage he had made to his father, the forgetfulness he had shown the respect that children owe to their parents . He divulged the faults, he wanted to associate his brothers with this outrage. All that his youngest son had done to him. However, it was not the youngest; for he was the second, the eldest of Japheth; but whatever he was, the elder for Japheth, the corruption of his soul put him after him; the petulance of his passions made him fall; for not having wished to keep within the prescribed limits, he lost the honor he owed to nature; and, like this wicked man, by the corruption of his will ,. lost what he held of nature, Japhet acquired, by his superior wisdom, what nature had not given him.

Do you see how it is impossible to discover anything in the divine Scripture that is put to chance and without a secret thought? What he had done, says the text; his, youngest son. And he said, Let Chanaan be accursed, let him be the slave of his brethren. (Gen. 9:25) Here we have come to this question raised everywhere; for, in fact, we hear: why, when it is the father who is guilty, who has revealed nakedness, is it the son who receives the curse? Please lend me all your attention and receive the explanation you need. We will tell you what divine grace has suggested to us for your usefulness. And he said, Let Chanaan be accursed, let him be the slave of his brethren. It is not without reason, it is not useless, that the text here names the son of Ham; there is a hidden thought. Noah wanted both to punish Ham for his fault, for the outrage he had received, and at the same time he did not want to weaken the blessing God had given him in the past. God blessed, says the Scripture, Noah when he came out of the ark, and his sons with him. (Gen. IX, 1.) So Noah would not curse him whom God had once blessed; He does not stop at the one who has done him the outrage, it is on the son of Ham that it makes fall the curse. Either, it will be said, it shows that Ham was not cursed because he had previously received the blessing of God. But why, when it is Ham who sinned, is it Chanaan who is punished? Well! that very thing was not done without reason; for the father has not suffered a lesser punishment than his son, and he has felt all the rigor of punishment. You know, indeed, you know perfectly well how many times fathers have asked to be punished, themselves, in place of their sons. It is sadder for them to see their sons subjected to punishment than to suffer them themselves. Here is what happened; because, because of the natural love that Ham felt for his son, he felt a more cruel pain; that the blessing of God has remained intact, and that the son, who has received the curse, has atoned for his own sins. For although he is currently incurring the curse for his father's sin, it is still likely that it was at the same time for his own faults that he was punished. It was not only because of his father's sin that he received the curse, but probably because he himself deserved greater punishment. For, in regard to this principle, that fathers are not punished for sons, nor sons for fathers, that every one is punished only for his own faults, so you will find in a thousand places prophets . If anyone eats green grapes, he alone will have his teeth annoyed (Jeremiah XXI, 39); the soul that sinned will die itself (Ezek. and again: The fathers will not be put to death for the children, nor the children for the fathers. (Deut, XXIV, 16.) So, no one among you, I beg you, dare to censure what Scripture tells us today, as if it were permissible to ignore the goal proposed by the divine Scripture; welcome With good dispositions what the word says; admire the marvelous accuracy of divine Scripture, consider the enormity of sin. For this is what sin has done to a brother born of the same mother, born on the same flanks; sin has made it a slave; he has deprived him of his liberty, he has made him subject, and it is from there that the servitude of the ages to come has come. And indeed, men of old were not so delicate, did not need a life so convenient, foreign hands to serve them; each one used himself; all were equal in dignity; in the midst of them there was no inequality of rank. When sin entered the world, it was to destroy liberty, to compromise natural dignity, to introduce servitude; servitude, that perpetual teaching, that eternal warning addressed to us, to flee the servitude of sin, to return to the independence of virtue. That if the slave and the master wish to draw from this example a lasting profit, let them think: the slave, on his side, owes his servitude to the disturbance of Ham; the master, in his turn, that subjugation and servitude did not begin until the day when Cham showed a depraved will, and lost the dignity which made him the equal of his brothers.

Now, in truth, if we want to be sober and prudent, these evils that the sins of our fathers have brought into the world will not reach us, they will be for us only names and stories. If, on the one hand, our first father, by his disobedience, introduced death, labor, and punishment; If, on the other hand, Ham has procured us servitude, now is the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ reduced all these trials to be nothing but a vain noise, only sounds; so that it is so we have only to want. For death, there is no more death; there is only the word that serves as the name for death: let's speak better, the name itself has disappeared. We are no longer saying death, but drowsiness and sleep. Christ himself said: Lazarus, our friend, sleeps (John, XI, 11); And Paul writing to the inhabitants of Thessalonica said to them, As for them that sleep, I do not want you to be ignorant, my brethren. (I Thess, IV, 12.) And in the same way servitude is but a word; the slave is the one who commits sin. And, if you want to understand that the advent of Christ has abolished servitude, it has left only the name, let's say better, destroyed the very name, listen to what Paul says: That those who have faithful teachers do not despise them, because they are their brothers. (I Tim VI, 2.) Do you see how, as soon as virtue arrives, it only makes brothers of those who were formerly called slaves? That Chanaan, says Noah, be the slave of his brothers. You have abused, he says, your dignity; you did not do what you had to do when you were equal in honor; that's why I want to correct you by subjection. This has happened from the beginning to the woman; she was of a dignity equal to that of her husband, she abused her rank, that's why she lost her power, why she heard these words: You will turn to your husband, and he will dominate you. (Gen. III, 16.) You did not know, says the text, make a good use of the command; it is better for you to obey the command than to command badly. In the same way, this Ham, here, receives the punishment for amending; in the person of his son, it is he who is punished; it is so that you know what, what. that then he was an old man, yet the punishment, falling on his son, made his life full of sorrow and bitterness; he thought that when he himself was dead, that son who survived him would atone for his fault. For, to prove that this son was mischievous himself, that all who came out of him were abominable beings, quick to commit evil, listen to what Scripture says in the form of a curse. Your father was Amorhean and your mother was Cthean (Ezek. another word of contempt, in another place: Race of Chanaan, and not of Judah. (Dan XIII, 56.)

Now it is good to learn, after the punishment received by the one who divulged the nakedness of his father, what a reward the sons received who showed such deep respect to Him: May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, says Noah, and that Chanaan is his slave. (Gen. 9:26) Here, perhaps, it will be said. Noah, in pronouncing these words, does not bless Sem; on the contrary, he blesses him in the most effective way. Indeed, when we give thanks to God, when we bless God, the Lord, in turn, gives his blessing more broadly to those who give the opportunity to bless Himself. So Noah, blessing God, made him debtor of a greater blessing; he was, in favor of Sem, the author of a more considerable retribution than if he himself had blessed him in his own name. Just as the Lord, blessed for our sake, becomes for us very lenient and propitious; likewise, (201) reciprocally, when he is blasphemed because of us, he pronounces against us a more severe condemnation, because we have been the occasion of blasphemies. Let us therefore make every effort, I beseech you, to live with so much wisdom, to show such a pure virtue that all who see us offer to the Lord our God. praise and blessings. In his goodness, in his clemency, the Lord wants to be glorified by us; it is not that he receives the least increase of glory; he does not need anything, but he wants us to give him the opportunity to show us more kindness. May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, and let Chanaan be his slave. Do you see how the father announces the punishment, which, however, is rather a correction than a punishment; he was a father, he was a tender father; he did not want a punishment equal to the fault, but of a nature to repress later the progress of malignancy. Here. why, "said he," I condemn you to servitude, so that you may preserve at every moment, always, the memory of what you have done. And he said, Let God multiply the seed of Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Chanaan be his bondman. (Gen. 9:27) Here again, the most abundant blessing, and which perhaps contains a hidden treasure: May God multiply, he says, the posterity of Japheth. It is not wrong to call these just human blessings prophecies. For if it is true that Noah's father did not give him by chance and without design, that name of Noah; if it is true that this name was the prophecy of the coming flood, much more so, this righteous man did not utter these blessings without a secret thought. I believe, indeed, that the blessing of the two brothers signifies the vocation of the two peoples; when he blessed Shem, he blessed the Jews; from Shem came out Abraham, and the Jewish people who multiplied; when he blesses Japheth, he announces the vocation of the Gentiles. Notice the words of the blessing: May God multiply, says he, the seed of Japheth, and dwell in the tents of Shem. This is what we see accomplishment in the calling of nations. For Noah said, "May God multiply, show all the nations; and saying, Let him dwell in the tents of Shem, he indicates the nations beginning to enjoy goods prepared for the Jews. And that Chanaan be his slave. [Homilies on Genesis]

9:28-29 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

JEROME OF STRIDON. 9:29 AND ALL OF THE DAYS OF NOAH WAS NINE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS. Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. Whence it evidently follows, as we have said above, that a hundred and twenty years had been given to this generation to do penance, and that it was not a term assigned to the duration of human life. [Hebrew Questions on Genesis]

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM OF CONSTANTINOPLE. Now Noah lived, says the text, three hundred and fifty years after the flood, and all the time of his life having been nine hundred and fifty years, he died. (Gen. 9:28-29) Do not believe that it is without reason that divine Scripture adds these details. See here a new proof of the continence of the just man. In such an abundance of goods, in perfect repose, for so many years after leaving the ark, he no longer thought of procreating children. Scripture, indeed, does not name other children with these three sons. Consider further the excessive intemperance of Ham, who had before him a father of such continence, without becoming himself more chaste, who, on the contrary, acted in a very different manner. Therefore, it is with reason that all his posterity has been condemned to servitude, the necessary brake of the perverted will. [Homilies on Genesis]