Blessing of Shem to Abraham; Japheth and the nations

Just as the curse ran its course, so the blessing spread abroad upon the blessed line, each according to his order. First among them Shem was blessed in these words: ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and Ham shall be his servant.’ (Gen 9:26) The force of that blessing is this: that God, the Lord of all, became the privileged possession of Shem’s piety.

That blessing flowered when it reached Abraham, who stands tenth in the genealogy counted down from Shem’s seed. (Shem to Abram) For this reason the Father and God of all was pleased to be named the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob — for upon Abraham the blessing of Shem had come to rest. (God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Mt 22:32)

And the blessing of Japheth runs thus: ‘May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the house of Shem; and let Ham be his servant.’ (Gen 9:27) That is: this blessing came into bloom at the end of the ages, when the Lord was manifested in the calling of the Gentiles, God having stretched his call out to them. For ‘their voice went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’ (Ps 19:4; Rom 10:18)

‘Enlarge,’ then, means the calling of the nations — that is, the Church; and ‘Japheth shall dwell in the house of Shem’ means that he shall dwell in the fathers’ inheritance, having received in Jesus Christ the rights of the firstborn. (Gentiles fellow heirs; firstborn) And each, according to the order in which he was blessed, receives by descent the fruit of the blessing.