Genesis 9:23

23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, and the two of them put [it] on [their] shoulders and, walking backward, they covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces [were turned] backward, so that they did not see the nakedness of their father.

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 he drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he exposed himself in the midst of his tent.

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and he told his two brothers outside.

23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, and the two of them put [it] on [their] shoulders and, walking backward, they covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces [were turned] backward, so that they did not see the nakedness of their father.

24 Then Noah awoke from his drunkenness, and he knew what his youngest son had done to him.

25 And he said, "Cursed [be] Canaan, a slave of slaves he shall be to his brothers."

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "And"
• [b]. Or "and"