9:21 drank of the wine. Scripture both looks favorably on wine (Num. 15:5–10; Deut. 14:26; Ps. 104:15; John 2:1–11) and soberly warns of its dangers (Is. 5:22; Prov. 21:17; 23:20, 21, 29–35; Is. 28:7), particularly the moral laxity exemplified by self-exposure (Lam. 4:21; Hab. 2:15). Nazirites (Num. 6:3, 4), officiating priests (Lev. 10:9), and rulers making decisions (Prov. 31:4, 5) were to abstain from it.

became drunk. Just as Adam, the original head of the human race, sinned through eating (3:6), so Noah, the head of the human race after the Flood, sinned through drinking. The striking parallels between Adam and Noah (8:1 note), and the contrast between saintly Noah before the Flood (6:8, 9) and the drunken sinner after it, direct the reader to God, not man, for salvation.

lay uncovered. Self-exposure is both publicly demeaning (2 Sam. 6:16) and incompatible with living in God’s presence (Ex. 20:26; cf. Deut. 23:12–14).