Genesis 9:23

23 And Sem and Iapheth toke a mantell and put it on both there shulders ad went backward ad covered there fathers secrets but there faces were backward So that they sawe not there fathers nakydnes.

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 and drancke of the wyne and was droncke and laye vncouered in the myddest of his tet.

22 And Ham the father of Canaan sawe his fathers prevytees and tolde his ij. brethren that were wythout.

23 And Sem and Iapheth toke a mantell and put it on both there shulders ad went backward ad covered there fathers secrets but there faces were backward So that they sawe not there fathers nakydnes.

24 As soone as Noe was awaked fro his wyne and wyst what his yongest sonne had done vnto hym

25 he sayd: cursed be Canaan ad a seruante, of all seruantes be he to his brethren.