Genesis 9:23

23 And Sem and Japheth having taken a garment, put it on both their backs and went backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their face backward, and they saw not 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 of the wine, and was drunk, and was naked in his house.

22 And Cham the father of Chanaan saw the nakedness of his father, and he went out and told his two brothers without.

23 And Sem and Japheth having taken a garment, put it on both their backs and went backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their face backward, and they saw not the nakedness of their father.

24 And Noe recovered from the wine, and knew all that his younger son had done to him.

25 And he said, Cursed be the servant Chanaan, a slave shall he be to his brethren.