GOD’S COMMAND to exterminate the Canaanites wasn’t an afterthought. As the Israelites tell the story, the Canaanites were doomed from the start for something that happened nearly at the beginning of human history.
After the great flood, which killed every living creature not on the ark, and Noah and his family de- arks, Noah plants the first vineyard, makes wine, and gets drunk (maybe he needed to unwind). Like a college fresh-man, he collapses naked inside his tent in a drunken coma. His youngest son, Ham, enters the tent, sees him lying there, and goes out to tell his brothers, Shem and Japheth. Rather than gawking, the two brothers walk backward into the tent and cover their father with a garment.
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