When Noah’s prophetic eye fell on Shem, the blessings that rose to his view were too rich and grand for description. He could only give utterance to his grateful emotions and thanksgivings in the words――“Blessed be Jehovah, God of Shem”! Blessed be Jehovah, the God of the covenant with his professed people, the God of all blessings, of ever-enduring love and faithfulness! What will he not do for his chosen people, brought into relations to himself so near and so dear!――――In this line the sweep of his prophetic eye took in the Hebrew race――Abraham and the patriarchs; Moses and the pious kings and holy prophets; and above all, the Great Messiah――to be born of David’s line and to be the incarnation of God’s mercy to a lost world. No wonder his soul was moved to devoutest adoration――Blessed be Jehovah who reveals himself as the God of Shem! Of Japheth he predicts enlargement in the sense of a numerous offspring――“God shall enlarge,” _i. e. multiply_ “Japheth,” with a play on the significance of his name which signifies _the enlarged one_. God will verify his name and enlarge the enlarged son; in Hebrew phrase, will _Japhetize_ Japheth.――――In the last clause of this verse, the original leaves us in doubt whether the subject of the verb is God or Japheth. Grammatically it might be either――God shall dwell, or Japheth shall dwell, in the tents of Shem. In favor of making Japheth the subject are these considerations:――(a.) The verse preceding gives the prophetic destiny of Shem; this, of Japheth.――――(b.) The expression is not altogether apposite when applied to God, for although God dwelt in the Hebrew temple and dwells by his Spirit in the bodies of his people, yet he is not elsewhere said to dwell _in the tents_ of his people. The phrase leads the mind to such dwelling as may be said of men but is not said of God.――――Applied to Japheth it had a most apposite and beautiful fulfillment when the Gentile races of Japheth came in as proselytes to the Hebrew communion, but far more when in the Christian age, the Jews were broken off from the old stock that the Gentiles might be grafted in, and they were; and may be almost said to have taken possession of the deserted tents of Shem as their own through all the Christian centuries to this hour. All Protestant Christendom is this day of Japheth’s line, fully at home in the tents of Shem.