Genesis 9:23

23 Shem and Japheth took a cloak, held it between them from their shoulders, walked backwards and covered their father's nakedness, keeping their faces turned away so they did not see their father's exposed body.

Genesis 9:23 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 9:23

And Shem and Japheth took a garment
Who were the two brothers Ham told what he had seen, and who, no doubt, reproved him for his ill behaviour, and then took a garment, a coat of their own, very probably, some large garment fit for the purpose;

and laid it upon both their shoulders;
one part of it on the right shoulder of the one, and the other on the left shoulder of the other:

and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father;
going backward when they came into the tent, and to the place where their father lay, they threw the garment off from their shoulders over him, and so covered him:

and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's
nakedness:
which they purposely shunned, for which reason they went backwards, and their faces were backwards to their father; which showed their modesty, and their filial piety and duty, and thus by their actions reproved Ham, as well as doubtless they did by words.

Genesis 9:23 In-Context

21 He drank from its wine, got drunk and passed out, naked in his tent.

22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and told his two brothers who were outside the tent.

23 Shem and Japheth took a cloak, held it between them from their shoulders, walked backwards and covered their father's nakedness, keeping their faces turned away so they did not see their father's exposed body.

24 When Noah woke up with his hangover, he learned what his youngest son had done.

25 He said, Cursed be Canaan! A slave of slaves, a slave to his brothers!