Actually this goes back to the time right after the flood where Noah's son Ham's son Canaan supposed laughed at his grandfathers's drunkeness and nakedness. How many years later was it....over 1,000 years.
*** w04 1/1 p. 31 Highlights From the Book of Genesis—I ***
9:20-25—WhydidNoahcurseCanaan?Very likely Canaan was guilty of some abuse or perversion against his grandfather Noah. Though Canaan’s father, Ham, witnessed this, he did not interfere but appears to have spread the story
*** it-1 pp. 399-400 Canaan ***
. The fourth-listed son of Ham and grandson of Noah. (Ge 9:18; 10:6; 1Ch 1:8) He was the progenitor of 11 tribes who eventually inhabited the region along the eastern Mediterranean between Egypt and Syria, thereby giving it the name "the land of Canaan."—Ge 10:15-19; 1Ch 16:18; see No. 2.
Following the incident regarding Noah’s drunkenness, Canaan came under Noah’s prophetic curse foretelling that Canaan would become the slave of both Shem and Japheth. (Ge 9:20-27) Since the record mentions only that "Ham the father of Canaan saw his father’s nakedness and went telling it to his two brothers outside," the question arises as to why Canaan rather than Ham became the object of the curse. Commenting on Genesis 9:24, which states that when Noah awoke from his wine he "got to know what his youngestson had done to him," a footnote in Rotherham’s translation says: "Undoubtedly Canaan, and not Ham: Shem and Japheth, for their piety, are blessed; Canaan, for some unnamed baseness, is cursed; Ham, for his neglect, is neglected." Similarly, a Jewish publication, ThePentateuchandHaftorahs, suggests that the brief narrative "refers to some abominable deed in which Canaan seems to have been implicated." (Edited by J. H. Hertz, London, 1972, p. 34) And, after noting that the Hebrew word translated "son" in verse 24 may mean "grandson," this source states: "The reference is evidently to Canaan." TheSoncinoChumash also points out that some believe Canaan "indulged a perverted lust upon [Noah]," and that the expression "youngest son" refers to Canaan, who was the youngest son of Ham.—Edited by A. Cohen, London, 1956, p. 47.
These views, of necessity, are conjectural since the Biblical record does not give any details as to Canaan’s implication in the offense against Noah. Yet some implication seems definitely intended by the fact that, just before relating the case of Noah’s drunkenness, Canaan is abruptly introduced into the account (Ge 9:18) and, in describing Ham’s actions, the record refers to him as "Ham the father of Canaan." (Ge 9:22) That the expression "saw his father’s nakedness" may indicate some abuse or perversion that involved Canaan, is a reasonable conclusion. For in most instances incest or other sexual sins are meant when the Bible speaks of ‘laying bare’ or ‘seeing the nakedness’ of another. (Le 18:6-19; 20:17) So, it is possible that Canaan had committed or attempted to commit some abuse on the unconscious Noah and that Ham, though having knowledge of this, failed either to prevent it or to take disciplinary action against the offender, and compounded the wrong by making known to his brothers Noah’s disgrace.
The prophetic element of the curse must also be considered. There is no evidence to indicate that Canaan himself became the slave of Shem or Japheth during his lifetime. But, God’s foreknowledge was at work, and since the curse expressed by Noah was divinely inspired, and since God’s disfavor is not expressed without just cause, it is likely that Canaan had already manifested a definitely corrupt trait, perhaps of a lustful nature, and that God foresaw the bad results in which this characteristic would eventually culminate among Canaan’s descendants. In the earlier case of Cain, Jehovah had noted a wrong heart attitude and had warned Cain of the danger of being overcome by sin (Ge 4:3-7); God also had discerned the unreformable bent toward wickedness on the part of the majority of the pre-Flood population, making their destruction warranted. (Ge 6:5) The most obvious evidence of the justness of the curse placed on Canaan is thus seen in the later history of his descendants, for they built up a particularly sordid record of immorality and depravity, as both Biblical and secular history testify. The curse on Canaan saw its fulfillment some eight centuries after its pronouncement, when Canaan’s descendants were subjugated by the Semitic Israelites, later coming under the domination of the Japhetic powers of Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
