Genesis 9:23

וַיִּקַּח שֵׁם וָיֶפֶת אֶת־הַשִּׂמְלָה וַיָּשִׂימוּ עַל־שְׁכֶם שְׁנֵיהֶם וַיֵּֽלְכוּ אֲחֹרַנִּית וַיְכַסּוּ אֵת עֶרְוַת אֲבִיהֶם וּפְנֵיהֶם אֲחֹרַנִּית וְעֶרְוַת אֲבִיהֶם לֹא רָאֽוּ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיִּקַּח֩ שֵׁ֨ם וָיֶ֜פֶת אֶת־הַשִּׂמְלָ֗ה וַיָּשִׂ֙ימוּ֙ עַל־שְׁכֶ֣ם שְׁנֵיהֶ֔ם וַיֵּֽלְכוּ֙ אֲחֹ֣רַנִּ֔ית וַיְכַסּ֕וּ אֵ֖ת עֶרְוַ֣ת אֲבִיהֶ֑ם וּפְנֵיהֶם֙ אֲחֹ֣רַנִּ֔ית וְעֶרְוַ֥ת אֲבִיהֶ֖ם לֹ֥א רָאֽוּ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ λαβόντες Σῆμ’ καὶ ἸάΦεθ τὸ ἱμάτιον ἐπέθηκαν ἐπὶ τὰ δύο νῶτα αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν ὀπισθοφανῶς καὶ συνεκάλυψαν τὴν γύμνωσιν τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῶν· καὶ τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτῶν ὀπισθοφανές, καὶ τὴν γύμνωσιν τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῶν οὐκ ἴδον.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

At vero Sem et Japheth pallium imposuerunt humeris suis, et incedentes retrorsum, operuerunt verenda patris sui: faciesque eorum aversæ erant, et patris virilia non viderunt.

Spanish

Entonces Sem y Jafet tomaron un manto y, poniéndoselo sobre los hombros, entraron caminando de espaldas para no ver la desnudez de su padre, y lo cubrieron. Como caminaban de espaldas, no lo vieron desnudo.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Entonces Sem y Japhet tomaron la ropa, y la pusieron sobre sus propios hombros, y andando hacia atrás, cubrieron la desnudez de su padre, teniendo vueltos sus rostros, y así no vieron la desnudez de su padre.

English

Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Genesis 9:23 narrates how Shem and Japheth took a garment, placed it on their shoulders, and walked backward to cover their father's nakedness — averting their faces so they would not see him exposed. The verse uses a chain of narrative verbs to build a sequence of deliberate, careful actions.

Key words

va-yiqqach — Lakach ("he took", H3947G) in qal narrative form: the initial action, grammatically singular in form though it governs two subjects (Shem and Japheth), a common Hebrew construction when subjects follow the verb.
sim.lah — simlah ("garment", H8071): a feminine singular noun marked as definite object by 'et (H0853), referring to a specific cloth.
shekhem — "shoulder of" (H7926), construct form linking to sh'nei-hem ("both of them", H8147), literally "the shoulder of the two of them" — a dual construct expressing that both brothers shared the load on their shoulders together.
achoranit — "backwards" (H0322), an adverb appearing twice in the verse (lines 17 and 27), emphasizing the reversed orientation both of their walking and of their faces.
er.vat — "nakedness of" (H6172), construct noun repeated twice (lines 21 and 29), each time bound to avi-hem ("their father", H0001G + H9028), forming the phrase "the nakedness of their father."

What the text says

The verse is built entirely on a chain of narrative vav-prefixed verbs (va-yiqqach, va-yasimu, va-yelkhu, va-yekhassu), each meaning "and then he/they did X," which creates a tightly sequential action: they took, they placed, they walked, they covered. The verb yekhassu ("they covered," H3680) is in the piel stem, an intensive verbal form, distinguishing it from the simple qal forms used elsewhere in the verse.

The clause structure separates two actions by direction: the brothers walk achoranit ("backwards," H0322) to perform the covering, and the text repeats achoranit a second time regarding their panim ("faces," H6440H) — literally "their faces were backwards." This repetition of the same adverb for both the manner of walking and the position of their faces reinforces, through Hebrew's paratactic style, that avoidance of sight was structural to the entire action, not incidental. The final clause uses the perfect verb ra'u ("they saw," H7200G) negated by lo' ("not," H3808), stating as completed fact that they did not see their father's ervah ("nakedness," H6172).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew shekhem sh'nei-hem ("shoulder of the two of them," singular shekhem) is rendered in the LXX as τὰ δύο νῶτα αὐτῶν ("their two backs/shoulders," plural), and in the Vulgate as humeris suis ("on their shoulders," plural) — both versions pluralize what the Hebrew construct phrase treats through a singular noun bound to a dual pronoun.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.