Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)/Ham

by Matthew George Easton

Ham – Warm, hot, and hence the south; also an Egyptian word meaning "black", the youngest son of Noah Ge 5:32 comp. Ge 9:22,24 The curse pronounced by Noah against Ham, properly against Canaan his fourth son, was accomplished when the Jews subsequently exterminated the Canaanites. One of the most important facts recorded in Ge 10:1ff. is the foundation of the earliest monarchy in Babylonia by Nimrod the grandson of Ham Ge 10:6,8,10. The primitive Babylonian empire was thus Hamitic, and of a cognate race with the primitive inhabitants of Arabia and of Ethiopia. The race of Ham were the most energetic of all the descendants of Noah in the early times of the post-diluvian world.

See Easton on ACCAD 60