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.
Shem and Japheth took a garment. The Hebrew verb "took" being in the singular, intimates that the impulse to this act of respect to their common father originated with Shem, whose pious mind recognized in Noah not only a parent, but a king and a priest, while Japheth merely acted upon his suggestion. х hasimlaah (H8071), the garment or outer mantle, which was also used for wrapping the person at night] (Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 22:17). The characters of these two brothers, as manifested by their conduct in this transaction, stand in favourable contrast to that of Ham, whose lack of filial reverence and indecent levity indicate his strong assimilation to the gross propensities and habits of the antediluvian race with which he had allied himself by marriage (see Genesis 4:22).