Genesis 9:23

Shem and Jafeth got a coat. They held it over their shoulders and walked backwards into the tent. They put the coat on their father to cover his naked body. They didn’t turn around and look at their naked father.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

22Ham (Canaan’s father) went into the tent and saw his naked father. Ham didn’t respect his father, so he went outside and told his brothers what happened.

24After Noah woke up, he found out what Ham, his youngest son, did to him.

Read all of Genesis 9

Cross References

Romans 13:7So you have to give everybody whatever you owe to them. You have to pay taxes and pay the bills the government bosses send you. And you still have to respect those bosses.

1 Timothy 5:1If ever people in the church there go wrong, and if you have to straighten them out, be careful to respect them while you do it. If you talk to an old man, don’t talk to him in an angry way, but talk easy to him, like he is your father. If it is a young man, talk to him like he is your brother.

1 Timothy 5:19And you know, church leaders can go wrong too. But if somebody blames a church leader for something, don’t believe them unless there are 2 or 3 people that tell the same story about that leader. Then you have to find out if that story is true.

1 Peter 4:8And this is the most important thing you’ve got to do, you’ve got to keep on loving each other very much. Even if somebody does something bad to you, you have to love them, and be good to them anyway, and don’t do payback to them.

Matthew Henry on Genesis 9:19-24

Sin of Ham. ( b. c. 2347.) 18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. 19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread. 20 And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: 21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment,… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Genesis 9:23