Cham חָם
Noach's middle son; from him came Cush, Mitzrayim, Put and Canaan
He is named third in the list of Noach's sons and was saved with his brothers in the ark. With him is connected the account of his father's nakedness: Cham saw and told his brothers, while Shem and Yefet walked in backwards with a garment on their shoulders and covered their father without looking (Bereshit 9:20–23).
The curse that follows falls not on Cham himself but on his son Canaan—"a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers" (Bereshit 9:25). The Torah says so plainly, and the names should not be confused.
The table of nations in Bereshit 10 traces from his four sons—Cush, Mitzrayim, Put and Canaan—Egypt, Ethiopia, the Canaanite peoples, and Nimrod, the first ruler on earth.
The Torah gives no years for him.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Bereshit 5:32, 9:18–27, 10:1–32 — Noach's three sons and the table of the nations descended from each
- I Chronicles 1:1–4 — the same line from Adam to the sons of Noah, repeated in the Writings a thousand years after the Torah
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.