Elohim, and had become his God. It is only by
anticipation, then, that God can, in His relation to Shem, be
designated as Jehovah, and as the God of Shem. The thought can, when
fully brought out, be this alone: "Blessed be God, who will, in future,
reveal Himself as Jehovah, and as the God of Shem."

If it be overlooked that, in this appellation of God, there is implied
the indirect designation of the blessings which are to be conferred on
Shem (just as in Gen. xxiv. 27 the words, "Blessed be Jehovah, the God
of my master Abraham," imply the thought: because He has manifested
Himself as Jehovah, and as the God of my master; which thought is then
further carried out in the subsequent words: "And who hath not left
destitute my master of His mercy and His truth;"--and just as it is
also in the utterance of Zacharias in Luke i. 68, where the words,
"Blessed be the Lord [Greek: kurios], the God of Israel," imply the
thought: because He has manifested Himself as the Lord [in the New
Testament, [Greek: kurios] is used where the Old has Jehovah], the God
of Israel),--if this be overlooked, we obtain only a weak and
inadequate thought, very unsuitable to the context, the purport of
which evidently is to celebrate Shem, and to mark him out as worthy of
his name. So it is according to _Hofmann_, who, in the words,
"Blessed--Shem," finds only an expression of gratitude for the gift of
this good son, and who limits the announcement of blessings to the
single one--that Canaan shall be Shem's servant. Against this feeble
interpretation we must adduce these considerations also: that nowhere
does the gift of the good son form, even indirectly, the subject in
question;--that thus we should lose the opposition of the curse and the
blessing (which requires that, under [Pg 38] the "Blessed be Jehovah,"
we should have concealed the "Blessed be Shem"), just as we should, the
contrast between Jehovah here and Elohim in the following verse;--and,
lastly, that what, in the following verse, is said of Japheth's
dwelling in the tents of Shem, would thus be deprived of its necessary
foundation.

It is said: "Canaan shall be a servant to _them_." The suffix [Hebrew:
-mv], which cannot be used for the singular, any more than can the
suffix [Hebrew: -M], for which it is only the fuller poetical form (the
instances of a different use, adduced by _Ewald_, Sec. 247, d., can easily
be explained in accordance with the rule), indicates that the
announcem