Key Verse Spotlight
Genesis 9:23 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" 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. "
Genesis 9:23
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
21 He drank of the wine and got drunk. He was uncovered within his tent.
22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
23 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.
24 Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him.
25 He said, “Canaan is cursed. He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.”
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Genesis 9:1
"God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth."
Genesis 9:2
"The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that moves along the ground, and all the fish of the sea, are delivered into your hand."
Genesis 9:3
"Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As I gave you the green herb, I have given everything to you."
Genesis 9:4
"But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat."
Genesis 9:5
"I will surely require accounting for your life’s blood. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man."
Genesis 9:6
"Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image."
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