It is notable here that the main enemies of Israel came from the descendants of Ham. This points to the fact that the descendants of Japheth and Shem generally lived in peace with each other (Genesis 9:27). Clashes occurred mostly with the nations descended from Ham. The main enemies of Israel that we read of here include:
● Egypt—in other translations called Mizraim.
● Canaan—the Canaanites
● Babel and Assyria
● The Philistines
One notable person mentioned here is Nimrod. He is a grandson of Ham. Nimrod is the first man to start acting like a violent tyrant following the flood. He evokes the pre-flood image of Lamech (see Genesis 4:19–23). The law of the jungle (the survival of the strongest) again starts to become the norm on the earth. Nimrod again shows that mankind boldly rebels against God and that man desires to live only for himself and only through his own strength.
He is the type of man who does not want to live in dependence on God and with love towards him. He believes that he is fully capable of taking care of himself. Nimrod was strong and fast. For this reason he was also a mighty hunter; his life even becomes proverbial: good hunters would later be compared to this Nimrod.
This man, rising above others, began to act as a ruler. It appears that his rise also coincided with the beginning of a more structured society. It is this society we read about in Genesis 11:2; the kind of society which then existed in the valley of Shinar.
6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan.