How did Noah know about his youngest son's sin?

Question

Genesis 9:24

AKJV And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him.

ASV And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done unto him.

BBE And, awaking from his wine, Noah saw what his youngest son had done to him, and he said,

BIB

BSB When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him,

EasyEnglish Noah woke up from his sleep. He found out what his youngest son (Ham) had done.

EBR And Noah awoke from his wine,––and came to know what, his youngest son, had done to him.

ERV And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done unto him.

1. What is the best translation for H3045

Original: ידע

Transliteration: yâda‛

Phonetic: yaw-dah' And is there a way of using Context to know which meaning?

2. How did Noah know about it?

Answer 1

Answering : How did Noah know about it ?

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 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.And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. Genesis 9:20-24, KJV.

There are several ways in which Noah might have known what Ham had done.

Firstly, he may have been aware, despite the wine, of what was going on around him, even if he was unable to respond. But once sober, the memory would be with him.

Secondly, one of the two sons who clothed him, or both of the sons together, may have told Noah of what had happened, once he awoke.

Or, thirdly, God told him. Noah was such a man as had had intimate dealing with the Lord, who had conveyed intricate details regarding the ark and its construction. Would it not be a much smaller thing for the Lord to tell Noah what had happened ?

Answer 2

There are three traditional rabbinic interpretations to what Ham actually did to Noah:

1. He did nothing more than look at Noah while he was naked. This seems to be the majority view.
2. Ham castrated Noah. This view is explained in a midrash (Sanhedrin 70) in the Babylonian Talmud (3rd-6th century AD).
3. Ham committed incest with Noah.

A detailed discussion of this can be found in "Noah's Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan", in the Journal of Biblical Literature (Vol. 124, No. 1, 2005, pp. 25-40).

Rashbam, an 11th century Jewish commentator, observes "וייקץ נח ... does not mean 'Noach awoke,' but 'Noach was awoken.'" Being castrated is certainly something which would wake one up and would have been obvious to Noah without having to be told about it.

I know this is a minority interpretation of the passage, but I thought it would be interesting to add to the corpus of answers.