Then introduces a new sequence of events.

Shem and Japheth took a garment: garment translates the word used in Exo 22.26, which Good News Translation renders “cloak.” It refers to a large square cloth worn in the daytime and used at night to wrap around a person’s body to keep warm. In some languages “blanket,” “sheet,” or “cloth” will be the equivalent. In some parts of the world there is a special term for the kind of garment referred to here.

Laid it upon both their shoulders gives a picture of the two men facing away from the tent opening, and each holding a corner of the cloth across his back at the shoulder so that it did not drag on the ground. In order to give a clear picture, it may be necessary to say, for example, “Each brother held the cloth up to his shoulder” or “They stretched the cloth between them at their shoulders.”

And walked backward: that is, “and walked backward into the tent” (backward so they would not see their naked father). And covered the nakedness of their father: that is, “covered their father’s naked body.”

The writer makes a great effort to show that Shem and Japheth were not guilty of any wrong. Their faces were turned away: turned away translates the same word rendered backward in “walked backward.” The picture is of the brothers looking in the opposite direction from the way they were walking. They did not see their father’s nakedness once again emphasizes that Shem and Japheth did not behave themselves in an unseemly way.

At this point again it is hard not to see the funny side of the story. But it is important to translate so that the details of the actions, movements, and positions of the two men are clearly understood. The following are two examples of translations that pay attention to the details: “They-two turned their backs to the tent, and walked softly inside, and covered up their father. They-two didn’t turn their faces and look at their father who had no clothes on”; “They-two walked backward, they-two went inside the tent of their father, in order to cover him over. They-two turned away their faces, because they were ashamed to look at their father sleeping naked.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .