A further proof that Ham took to wife a daughter of the race of Cain is
found in the traces of evidence indicating her person, who she was.
Lamech, of the race of Cain, had a daughter, Naamah; her name is given
as the last in the genealogy of Cain. Why did the inspired penman think
it necessary to send her name down to us? Why was the genealogy of Cain
given us, unless to announce some fact important for us to know? If this
whole race were to be cut off by the flood, we see nothing in the
genealogy teaching any lesson to the descendants of Noah. Why was the
particular line from Cain to Naamah selected, unless she was the
particular object designed to be pointed out? Hundreds of other
genealogies, commencing in Cain and terminating in some one just at the
coming of the flood, existed; but not written down nor transmitted, for
the obvious reason that such list could be of no benefit to posterity.
Are we not, then, led to believe that there was some design in the
preservation of the one terminating in Naamah? But this genealogy could
only be preserved through the family of Noah; through whom we also have
a genealogy of the line from Seth, terminating in Noah’s youngest son.
These two stand in a parallel position, at the foot of each separate
list. But it is so extremely unusual for ancient genealogies to give the
name of a female, who had brothers, that it becomes strong evidence,
when such catalogue terminates in the name of such a female, that she
personally was the individual on whose account the catalogue was formed.
Is not this consideration, and the fact that it could only be preserved
by the family of Noah, evidence that they attached sufficient importance
to it to make its preservation by them a desirable object?
Inasmuch as Naamah belonged to a race distinct from that of Seth, could
the family of Noah have any desire to preserve her lineage from any
other cause than that of her having become a member of that family?—in
which case the cause of its preservation is obvious, and a thing to have
been expected. On any other state of facts, would they have carefully
handed down the genealogy, so far as we are informed, of a mere
uninteresting woman of the cursed race of Cain, and neglected to have
given us the _name_ and _genealogy of Noah’s wife_, of the more holy
race of Seth?
The presumption then being that she did become the wife of one of Noah’s
sons, the first inquiry is, to which was she attached? A sufficient
answer to this question, for the present moment, will be found in the
fact that Ham was doomed to perpetual and bitter slavery, while his
brothers were blessed and ordained to be his masters. Now since an
amalgamation of the races of Seth and Cain was deemed a most grievous
sin before the flood, if Japheth or Shem had either of them taken Naamah
to wife, it would be past understanding to find them both highly blessed
and made the masters of Ham.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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