The curse upon Canaan, imposed by the Scriptural patriarch Noah, concerned Noah's drunkenness and the accompanying shameful act perpetrated by his son Ham, the father of Canaan. The "vine" is used in the Scripture to signify spiritual goodness.
The concept of the curse finds its origins in Genesis 8: "Noah built an Altar to the LORD; Noah took 'one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird,' and 'burned them whole' as a sacrifice on the Altar.
The odor of the sacrifice pleased the LORD, and HE said to HIMSELF :
'NEVER AGAIN WILL I PUT THE EARTH UNDER A CURSE BECAUSE OF WHAT PEOPLE DO; I KNOW THAT FROM THE TIME THEY ARE YOUNG THEIR THOUGHTS ARE EVIL. '
'NEVER AGAIN WILL I DESTROY ALL LIVING BEINGS, AS I HAVE DONE THIS TIME.'
As long as the World exists, there will be A TIME OF PLANTING AND A TIME FOR HARVEST.
There will ALWAYS BE COLD AND HEAT, SUMMER AND WINTER, DAY AND NIGHT."
In Genesis 9, GOD make a Covenant with Noah and his sons, "GOD blessed NOAH and his sons and said, 'Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth. All the animals, birds, and fish (the elements in the seen and the unseen worlds and the elemental spirits in it) will live in fear of you. They are all placed under your power. Now you can eat them, as well as green plants; I give them all to you for food." (1-3) Noah who was a farmer, was the FIRST MAN to plant a VINEYARD.
In Matthew 21, JESUS spoke in parables the meaning concerning a vineyard and a fig-tree in this way,
"When JESUS went into the Temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling there. HE overturned the table of the moneychangers and the stools of those who sold pigeons, and said to them, 'IT IS WRITTEN IN THE SCRIPTURE that GOD SAID, "My TEMPLE will be called A HOUSE OF PRAYER."But you are making it a hideout for thieves!"(12-13) ... Listen to another parable JESUS said, "There was once a landowner who planted a Vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a hole for the wine press, and built a Watchtower. Then he rented the Vineyard to tenants and left home on a trip. When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent his slaves to the tenants to receive his share of the harvest. The tenants grabbed his slaves, beat one, killed another, and stone another. Again the man sent other slaves, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all he sent his son to them. "Surely they will respect my son," he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, "This is the owner's son. Come on, let's kill him, and we will get his prosperity!" So they grabbed him, threw him out of the Vineyard, and killed him. Now, when the owner of the Vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? JESUS asked. "HE will certainly kill those evil men," they answered, "and rent the Vineyard out to other tenants, who will him his share of the harvest at the right time."(33-41).
It is noteworthy that the curse was made by Noah and not by GOD. Noah cursed the nature of the offense and in a symbolic sequence it shows Noah's authority compromised since being under a Covenant with GOD, Noah, as a High Priest, was suppose to be the first one to exercise self-control.
After Noah became drunk and Ham dishonoring his father, by seeing the nakedness of his father, upon awakening Noah pronounced a curse on Ham's youngest son, his grandson Canaan, stating that his offspring would be the servants of servants. Of Ham's four sons, Canaan fathered the Canaanites, while Mizraim fathered the Egyptians, Cush the Cushites, and Phut the Lybians. The same 4 are mentioned in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, as the 4 races known by the Egyptians.
The Scripture indicates that Noah restricted his curse to the offspring of Ham's youngest son Canaan, Noah's grandson, for the transgression of his father, and it was not extended to Ham's other sons. According to the Covenant's rules in place over Noah and his descendants, the curse was force to be placed in that specific way. Ham is mentioned as his youngest son in terms of the spiritual rank marked by his deeds. The transgression put him lower in the ladder and with the additional sin of inviting his brothers to commit the same aggravated and degrading deed. Ham's god was not the GOD of Shem.
Canaan's descendants, according to the Scripture, include: Sidonians, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, Hamathites.
The Hittites are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as 2nd of the 11 Canaanite nations under the name of 'children of Heth,' who lived near Hebron. Heth means "that who GOD strengthened."
Hittites appear in the Scripture several times as living near Canaan since the time of Abraham to the time of Ezra after the return from the Babylonian exile. The nature of Noah's drunkenness and the dishonorable action of his own youngest son is expressed in a number of circumstances in the Scripture involving the Israelite's way of following GOD's WORD.
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