Matthew Henry Commentary Genesis 9

The blessing of God is the cause of our doing well. On him we depend; to him we should be thankful.

Let us not forget the advantage and pleasure we have from the labor of animals, and which their flesh also provides. Nor ought we to be less thankful for the security we enjoy from savage and harmful animals, through the fear of humans that God has instilled deep in them. We see the fulfillment of this promise every day, and on every side.

This grant of animals for food fully warrants their use, but not their abuse by gluttony, still less by cruelty. We ought not to pain them needlessly while they live, nor when we take their lives.

The main reason for forbidding the eating of blood was undoubtedly because the shedding of blood in sacrifices was to remind worshippers of the great atonement. Yet it also seems intended to check cruelty, so that people, by being accustomed to shed and feed upon the blood of animals, would not grow unfeeling toward them and be less shocked by the idea of shedding human blood.

A person must not take away their own life. Our lives belong to God, and we must only surrender them when He pleases. If we hasten our own death in any way, we are accountable to God for it. When God requires the life of a person from the one who took it away unjustly, the murderer cannot restore that life and therefore must forfeit their own instead. Sooner or later, in this world or in the next, God will uncover murders and punish those murders that are beyond human power to punish.

But there are those who are God's ministers to protect the innocent by being a terror to evildoers, and they must not bear the sword in vain (Romans 13:4). Willful murder ought always to be punished with death. To this law, a reason is added: such remains of God's image are still upon fallen humanity that whoever unjustly kills a person defaces God's image and dishonors Him.

Just as the old world was ruined, to be a monument of justice, so this world remains to this day a monument of mercy. But sin, which drowned the old world, will burn this one. Articles of agreement among people are sealed, so that what is promised may be more solemn, and the fulfillment of what is covenanted more certain, to mutual satisfaction. The seal of this covenant was the rainbow, which, it is likely, was seen in the clouds before, but was never a seal of the covenant until now, when it was made so.

The rainbow appears when we have most reason to fear the rain prevailing; God then shows this seal of the promise, that it will not prevail. The thicker the cloud, the brighter the bow in the cloud. Thus, as threatening afflictions abound, encouraging consolations much more abound. The rainbow is the reflection of the sun's beams shining upon or through the drops of rain: all the glory of the seals of the covenant is derived from Christ, the Sun of Righteousness.

And He will shed glory on the tears of His saints. A bow speaks of terror, but this one has neither string nor arrow; and a bow alone will do little harm. It is a bow, but it is directed upward, not toward the earth; for the seals of the covenant were intended to comfort, not to terrify. As God looks upon the bow, so that He may remember the covenant, so should we look upon it, so that we may be mindful of the covenant with faith and thankfulness.

Without revelation, this gracious assurance could not be known; and without faith, it can be of no use to us. The same principle applies to the still greater dangers to which all are exposed, and to the new covenant with its blessings.

The drunkenness of Noah is recorded in the Bible with that fairness found only in Scripture. It serves as a case and proof of human weakness and imperfection, even though he may have been surprised into the sin. This account also shows that the best of people cannot stand upright unless they depend upon Divine grace and are upheld by it. Ham appears to have been a bad man and probably rejoiced to find his father in an unbecoming situation. It was said of Noah that he was perfect in his generations (Genesis 6:9); but this refers to sincerity, not to a sinless perfection.

Noah, who had kept sober in drunken company, is now drunk in sober company. Let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. We need to be very careful when we use God's good creatures plentifully, lest we use them to excess (Luke 21:34). The consequence of Noah's sin was shame. Observe here the great evil of the sin of drunkenness.

It reveals men; what infirmities they have, they betray when they are drunk, and secrets are then easily gotten from them. Drunken porters keep open gates. It disgraces men and exposes them to contempt. As it shows them, so it shames them. Men say and do things when drunk that, when sober, they would blush to think of.

Notice the care of Shem and Japheth to cover their father's shame. There is a mantle of love to be thrown over the faults of all (1 Peter 4:8). Besides that, there is a robe of reverence to be thrown over the faults of parents and other superiors. The blessing of God attends those who honour their parents, and his curse falls especially on those who dishonour them.

Noah declares a curse on Canaan, the son of Ham; perhaps this grandson of his was more guilty than the rest. He shall be a servant of servants, that is, the meanest and most despicable servant, even to his brothers. This certainly points to the victories in later times obtained by Israel over the Canaanites, by which they were put to the sword or brought to pay tribute.

The whole continent of Africa was peopled mostly by the descendants of Ham. For how many ages have the better parts of that country lain under the dominion of the Romans, then of the Saracens, and now of the Turks!

In what wickedness, ignorance, barbarity, slavery, and misery most of the inhabitants live! And of the poor enslaved Africans, how many every year are sold and bought like beasts in the market, and transported from one part of the world to do the work of beasts in another!

But this in no way excuses the covetousness and barbarity of those who enrich themselves with the product of their sweat and blood. God has not commanded us to enslave Africans; and, undoubtedly, he will severely punish all such cruel wrongs.

The fulfillment of this prophecy, which contains almost a history of the world, frees Noah from the suspicion of having uttered it from personal anger. It fully proves that the Holy Spirit took occasion from Ham's offense to reveal his secret purposes.

Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. The church should be built up and continued in the posterity of Shem. From him came the Jews, who were, for a long time, the only professing people God had in the world.

Christ, who was the Lord God, should in his human nature descend from Shem; for from him, as concerning the flesh, Christ came.

Noah also blesses Japheth, and, in him, the islands of the gentiles that were peopled by his descendants. It speaks of the conversion of the gentiles, and the bringing of them into the church.

We may read it, God shall persuade Japheth, and being persuaded, he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. Jews and gentiles shall be united in the gospel fold; both shall be one in Christ.

Noah lived to see two worlds; but being an heir of the righteousness which is by faith, he now rests in hope, waiting to see a better than either.