What Does Genesis 9:23 Mean?

He also said, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant." The blessing of Shem takes a distinctive form: Noah blesses not Shem but the God of Shem. "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem", the honor is placed first on the divine relationship that characterizes this branch of the family. Shem's blessing consists in having a specific, identified relationship with the Lord; his greatness is derivative of the greatness of the God who has claimed him as his own.

This identification becomes enormously significant in the light of the later biblical story. Shem is the ancestor of Abraham, the recipient of the great patriarchal covenant; Abraham is the ancestor of Israel, through whom the Law and the Prophets are given; Israel is the people through whom the Messiah is born. The line from Shem to Jesus runs through every covenant administration of the Old Testament. Noah's blessing on "the God of Shem" is an unwitting prophecy of the entire redemptive history that will unfold from this family's extension into the nations.

The blessing of Japheth, "may God enlarge Japheth", predicts the geographic and numerical expansion that would characterize the peoples descended from him, traditionally identified with the Indo-European and related peoples who spread widely across Europe and Asia. The promise that Japheth would "dwell in the tents of Shem" has been interpreted in multiple ways, but its most significant reading anticipates the inclusion of the Gentile nations in the covenantal blessing flowing from the Semitic line, a theme that the New Testament will claim is fulfilled in the gospel's spread to all nations.