Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they didn’t see their father’s nakedness.
Parallel Translations
-
Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they didn’t see their father’s nakedness.
-
And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.
-
And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Genesis 9:23 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Galatians 6:1 Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted.
- Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
- Leviticus 19:32 “ ‘You shall rise up before the gray head and honor the face of the elderly; and you shall fear your God. I am Yahweh.
- Romans 13:7 Therefore give everyone what you owe: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if customs, then customs; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
- 1 Timothy 5:1 Don’t rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father; the younger men as brothers;
- 1 Timothy 5:17 Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and in teaching.
- 1 Timothy 5:19 Don’t receive an accusation against an elder, except at the word of two or three witnesses.
- 1 Peter 2:17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
- 1 Peter 4:8 And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 23. And Shem and Japheth took a garment. Here…
23. And Shem and Japheth took a garment. Here the piety, as well as the modesty, of the two brothers is commended; who, in order that the dignity of their father might not be lowered in their esteem, but that they might always cherish and keep entire the reverence which they owed him, turned away their eyes from the sight of his disgrace. And thus they gave proof of the regard they paid to their father’s honor, in supposing that their own eyes would be polluted, if they voluntarily looked upon the nakedness by which he was disgraced. At the same time they also consulted their own modesty. For (as it was said in Genesis 3:1) there is something so unaccountably shameful in the nakedness of man, that scarcely any one dares to look upon himself, even when no witness is present. They also censure the impious rashness of their brother, who had not spared his father. Hence, then, we may learn how acceptable to God is that piety, of which the example here recorded receives a signal encomium of the Spirit. But if piety towards an earthly father was a virtue so excellent, and so worthy of praise; with how much greater devotedness of piety ought the sacred majesty of God to be worshipped? The Papists make themselves ridiculous by desiring to cover the filthiness of their idol, yea, the abominations of their whole impure clergy, with the cloak of Shem and Japheth. I omit to state how great is the difference between the disgrace of Noah and the execrable vileness of so many crimes which contaminate heaven and earth. But it is necessary that Antichrist and his horned bishops, with all that rabble, should prove themselves to be fathers, if they with that any honor should be paid them.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 9:23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment,…
Gen 9:23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid [it] upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces [were] backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.
Ver. 23. And Shem and Japhet took a garment.] Ham had no hand in this good work; which shows what a good one he was, and how far from being of that good emperor’s mind, {a} who said, that if he should find a bishop committing adultery, he would rather cover that unclean act with his imperial cloak, than suffer it to come abroad to the scandal of the weak, and the scorn of the wicked.
Read full note →
{a} Constant. Mag. Theodoret., lib. i. - Eccles. Hist., cap. xi.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And Shem and Japheth took a garment,.... Who were…
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:
Read full note →
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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and went…
And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father - They not only would not see it themselves, but provided that no one else might see it; herein setting an example of charity, with reference to other men's sin and shame.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 23. See Clarke on Ge 9:22
Verse 23. See Clarke on Ge 9:22
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Gen 9:23. And Shem and Japheth took a garment,…
Gen 9:23. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, &c. — They not only would not see it themselves, but provided that no one else might see it; herein setting an example of charity with reference to other men’s sin and shame.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Neither ought we to be so quick-sighted in discovering…
Neither ought we to be so quick-sighted in discovering the faults of any: which we often represent as real, when they are only apparent. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 23. Took a garment — Hebrews, the garment; that…
23. Took a garment — Hebrews, the garment; that is, the loose mantle with which he would naturally have covered himself on going to sleep. The Mosaic law was specially stringent in enjoining filial reverence, and in prohibiting such moral uncleanness as seems to have given pleasure to Ham. Compare Lev_18:7, etc. Sensuality, with its attendant abominations, were the great sins which brought such terrible judgment upon the Canaanites, so that the land “vomited them out.” Comp. Lev_18:24-28.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 23. a garment] Heb. simlah, LXX ἱμάτιον, Lat. pallium:…
23. a garment] Heb. simlah, LXX ἱμάτιον, Lat. pallium: the large upper garment which was also used as a covering by night, as appears from Exo_22:26; Deu_24:13. The conduct of Shem and Japheth, in its regard for their father’s honour, is contrasted with the levity and want of delicacy displayed by their brother.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And Shem and Japheth took a garment. Literally, the…
And Shem and Japheth took a garment. Literally, the robe, i.e. which was at hand (Keil, Lange); the simlah, which was an outer cloak (Deu_10:18; 1Sa_21:10; Isa_3:6, Isa_3:7) in which, at night, persons wrapped themselves. (Deu_22:17) Sometimes the letters are transposed, and the word becomes salmah (cf. Exo_22:8; Mic_2:8) And laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not the nakedness of their father; thereby evincing "the regard they paid to their father"s honor and their own modesty (Calvin).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.