Genesis 9:23 - Exposition

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 ( Deuteronomy 10:18 ; 1 Samuel 21:10 ; Isaiah 3:6 , Isaiah 3:7 ), in which, at night, persons wrapped themselves ( Deuteronomy 22:17 ). Sometimes the letters are transposed, and the word becomes salmah (cf. Exodus 22:8 ; Micah 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).