Curse of Ham Japheth? And why will Japheth "dwell in the tents of Shem"? Further difficulties include Ham's being referred to as "the youngest son", when all other lists make him Noah's second son. Per Sarna, the biggest challenge of the narrative is why Canaan was cursed, rather than Ham, and the concealed details of the shameful incident bear the same reticence of Reuben's sexual transgression. The narrative's short five verses indicate that Canaan's Hamite paternity must have had great significance to the narrator or redactor, according to Sarna, who adds, "The curse on Canaan, invoked in response to an act of moral
Tower of Babel 70) languages scattered from Babel are the Old Irish poem "Cu cen mathair" by Luccreth moccu Chiara (c. 600); the Irish monastic work "Auraicept na n-Éces"; "History of the Prophets and Kings" by the Persian historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (c. 915); the Anglo-Saxon dialogue "Solomon and Saturn"; the Russian "Primary Chronicle" (c. 1113); the Jewish Kabbalistic work "Bahir" (1174); the "Prose Edda" of Snorri Sturluson (c. 1200); the Syriac "Book of the Bee" (c. 1221); the "Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum" (c. 1284; mentions 22 for Shem, 31 for Ham and 17 for Japheth for a total of 70); Villani's