366 
The knowledge of the True God in the line of Shem. 
I will then recur to the account of Noah, and the division of 
the earth among his progeny, as to the line in which the worship 
of the true God should be maintained. This seems to have 
been quite lost in tradition ; and whilst there remained a recol- 
lection that the name of Ham was in some way significant, 
no such remembrance appears to attach to Shem. His pre- 
rogative was not valued by idolaters. 
We have very distinct dominions assigned, and, pro- 
phetically, a different lot to each. On Canaan, who, according 
to Jewish tradition, perpetrated some outrage,* * * § he pronounces 
the curse of servitude, but on each of the other two “ he 
bestows a benediction appropriate to and fulfilled in the 
destiny of their descendants. On Yaplieth, temporal prosperity, 
wide-spread possessions” ( Yapht Elohim le Yaplieth ), “wealth 
and power ; and on Shem eternal felicity, a knowledge of the 
true God, and his especial protection.” 
This is Mendelssohn’s exposition of the Jewish tradition, 
which seems, I must admit, to exceed anything we can find in 
the prophecy ; but we may not be wrong in seeing in — 
Japheth, t from the root nriQ, with the sense of “ ividely 
extending 
Shem, J EtP, The Name, certainly is connected with the bless- 
ing, “ Blessed be Jehovah, God of Shem,” for the peculiar 
name of the Lord is here brought in in connection with Shem 
(before it is only Elohim), to indicate (says another commen- 
tator §) “ that by the descendants of Shem He would most 
purely be worshipped, according to his Unity, and imma- 
terial, everlasting essence,” which attributes are especially 
expressed in that name. 
Ham, || En, from the root EEn, to “ wax hot,” the one 
who was, in his descendants, to occupy the warm regions 
of the earth, and whose physique was doubtless thereto 
adapted. 
One thing at least is evident, that it was not in the line of 
Ham that the knowledge of the true God was to be perpetuated ; 
and so in due season Abram is chosen in the line of Shem. It 
is, therefore, not to be supposed that we shall find any esta- 
* De Sola, Genesis, p. 38. 
f Compare the Legend of Ouranus and his son Ilus in Sanchoniatlio, — 
Cory, Anc. Fr., p. 13. 
t Ges. Lex. 
§ Philippson, in De Sola, p. 38. 
|| Ges. Lex. 
