Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

May he dwell in the tents of Shem
Genesis 9:27

"May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant." (Genesis 9:27 contains Noah's prophetic blessing, although it was a curse on Canaan and Ham in its own way, but that's a separate discussion. We won't even enter into the question of what spirit was Noah under the influence of given that he had just awoken from his drunken stupor (Genesis 9:24)!

As is often the nature of biblical prophecy there is a wordplay or name and nature link between the one blessed or cursed and the action predicted. Here, in verse 27, the Hebrew verb form is יפתּ yaphet from פתה pâthâh (Strong's #6601), almost identical in sound to יפת yepheth, Japheth (Strong's #3315). This verb really means "to open up" and often refers to open-mindedness, sometimes in the negative sense of gullibility and deception. The English versions tend to translate as "to enlarge" geographically and presumably in terms of population numbers but nowhere else is the verb used in this way, and this understanding seems to be taken from the Aramaic rather than Hebrew meaning of the verb.

Young's Literal version has "God doth give beauty to Japheth" (the targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel has "God will beautify the borders of Japheth" but beautify can mean to enhance) and the rabbis did speculate on a similar theme that God had blessed the Hellenistic world with beauty, culture and the arts. They further thought that if Japheth (Greece) brought its culture within the tents of Shem then they would also learn righteousness.

Genesis 9:27 goes on to say that "he will dwell in the tents of Shem". The Shemites or Semites are the peoples that became the Jews (down Isaac and Jacob's line) and also too the Arabs (down Ishmael's line, but also descended from Shem). Gill points out that the Medes, Greeks and Romans were descendants of Japheth and did indeed occupy Shem (Israel)'s tents awhile.

The Jewish Talmud^F1 thinks of the verse as predicting the rise and acceptance of the Greek language in the tents of Shem, which although true, is hard to infer and is hardly a blessing.

Many early and later Christian commentators thought the verse predicted the coming together of Greek gentiles with believing Jews into the early church. But if this were true it is a little exclusive for such a universal gospel and would appear to deny the Hamites their potential access to Christ.

The Aramaic targums though understand things differently. Targum Onkelos has:

"God shall cause his divine presence to dwell in the tents of Shem"

Jonathan Ben Uzziel thus:

"God will beautify the borders of Japheth and his sons shall be proselytes, and dwell in the schools of Shem"

Ben Uzziel sees the verse evangelistically, like the early church but in the sense of Greeks becoming godfearers and righteous gentiles studying at the feet of Shem. Onkelos, though, uses a circumlocution for God's name, the shekhinah or divine presence/glory, to imply that God himself will dwell in the tents of Shem. Indeed, God did in the time of Abraham (Genesis 18:21-22) and Job (Job 29:4 see my Hebrew Thoughts column on דוס çôwdh, Strong's #5475).

The 'he' of the verse could be either Japheth or God. The Soncino Chumash (ed. Cohen) on Genesis 9:27 reads "The subject is God: He shall cause His Divine Presence to dwell in Israel", this is the interpretation of the famous Jewish rabbi and reputable commentator, Rashi.

Even more direct than either targums or Rashi is the statement in the pre-Christian book of Jubilees, possibly the first ever written commentary on Genesis by Jewish authors probably around the 2nd to 1st century B.C.. In it (Jubilees 7.11; 8.18) we read:

"And he blessed Shem, and said, 'Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Cannan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and God shall dwell in the dwelling of Shem...and [Noah] remembered all that he had spoken with his mouth in prophecy; for he had said: Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, And may the Lord dwell in the dwelling of Shem"

Christians, therefore, would not be amiss in seeing this as a prophecy of God coming down and dwelling in the land of Israel in the body or tent of Jesus. A body is sometimes described as a tent (2 Corinthians 5:1,4). Indeed, the verb "to dwell" here is שכן shâkan (Strong's #7931). The Mosaic tabernacle used in the desert was called משכן mishkân in the Hebrew (Strong's #4908), a direct noun derivative of the verb shâkan "to dwell". The Latin Vulgate appropriately uses tabernaculis, "to tabernacle" and reminds us of John 1:14:

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt (literally tabernacled) among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father"

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FOOTNOTES:
F1: Jerusalem Talmud, Megillah, 71b; Babylonian Talmud, Megillah, 9b; Midrash Bereshit Rabba, 36.32.1

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KJ Went has taught biblical Hebrew, hermeneutics and Jewish background to early Christianity. The "Biblical Hebrew made easy" course can be found at www.biblicalhebrew.com.

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