Genesis 9

God Makes a Covenant With Noah

1Then God blessed Noah and his sons. He said to them, “Have children so that there are many of you. Fill the earth. 2All the land animals will be afraid of you. All the birds in the sky will be afraid of you. Every creature that moves along the ground will be afraid of you. So will every fish in the seas. Every living thing is put under your control. 3Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. I have already given you the green plants for food. Now I am giving you everything.

4“But you must not eat meat that still has blood in it. 5I will certainly hold someone accountable if you are murdered. I will even hold animals accountable if they kill you. I will also hold anyone accountable who murders another person.

6“Anyone who murders a human being

will be killed by a human being.

That is because I have made human beings

so that they are like me.

7Have children so that there will be many of you. Multiply and become many on the earth.”

8Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons who were with him. He said, 9“I am now making my covenant with you and with all your children who will be born after you. 10I am making it also with every living creature that was with you in the ark. I am making my covenant with the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals. I am making it with all the creatures that came out of the ark with you. In fact, I am making it with every living thing on earth. 11Here is my covenant I am making with you. The waters of a flood will never again destroy all life. A flood will never again destroy the earth.”

12God continued, “My covenant is between me and you and every living creature with you. It is a covenant for all time to come. Here is the sign of the covenant I am making. 13I have put my rainbow in the clouds. It will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14Sometimes when I bring clouds over the earth, a rainbow will appear in them. 15Then I will remember my covenant between me and you and every kind of living creature. The waters will never again become a flood to destroy all life. 16When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it. I will remember that my covenant will last forever. It is a covenant between me and every kind of living creature on earth.”

17So God said to Noah, “The rainbow is the sign of my covenant. I have made my covenant between me and all life on earth.”

The Sons of Noah

18The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. 19The people who were scattered over the earth came from Noah’s three sons.

20Noah was a man who farmed the land. He decided to plant a field that produced grapes for making wine. 21When he drank some of the wine, it made him drunk. Then he lay down inside his tent without any clothes on. 22Ham saw his father naked. Then Ham, the father of Canaan, went outside and told his two brothers. 23But Shem and Japheth picked up a piece of clothing and laid it across their shoulders. Then they walked backward into the tent. They covered their father’s body. They turned their faces away because they didn’t want to see their father naked.

24Then Noah woke up from his sleep that was caused by the wine. He found out what his youngest son had done to him. 25He said,

“May a curse be put on Canaan!

He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers.”

26Noah also said,

“May the Lord, the God of Shem, be praised.

May Canaan be the slave of Shem.

27May God add land to Japheth’s territory.

May Japheth live in the tents of Shem.

And may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”

28After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29Noah lived a total of 950 years. And then he died.

Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®

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Berĕshith (Genesis) 9

1And Elohim blessed Noaḥ and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase, and fill the earth.

2“And the fear of you and the dread of you is on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the heavens, on all that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea – into your hand they have been given.

3“Every creeping creature that lives is food for you. I have given you all, as I gave the green plants.

4“But do not eat flesh with its life, its blood.

5“But only your blood for your lives I require, from the hand of every beast I require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I require the life of man.

6“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood is shed, for in the image of Elohim has He made man.

7“As for you, be fruitful and increase, bring forth teemingly in the earth and increase in it.”

8And Elohim spoke to Noaḥ and to his sons with him, saying,

9“And I, see, I establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you,

10and with every living being that is with you: of the birds, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.

11“And I shall establish My covenant with you, and never again is all flesh cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again is there a flood to destroy the earth.”

12And Elohim said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living being that is with you, for all generations to come:

13“I shall set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

14“And it shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud,

15and I shall remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living being of all flesh, and never again let the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16“And the rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I shall see it, to remember the everlasting covenant between Elohim and every living being of all flesh that is on the earth.

17And Elohim said to Noaḥ, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

18And the sons of Noaḥ who went out of the ark were Shĕm and Ḥam and Yapheth. And Ḥam was the father of Kena‛an.

19These three were the sons of Noaḥ, and all the earth was overspread from them.

20And Noaḥ, a man of the soil, began and planted a vineyard.

21And he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.

22And Ḥam, the father of Kena‛an, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

23So Shĕm and Yapheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father, but their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

24And Noaḥ awoke from his wine, and he knew what his younger son had done to him,

25and he said, “Cursed is Kena‛an, let him become a servant of servants to his brothers.”

26And he said, “Blessed be יהוה, the Elohim of Shĕm, and let Kena‛an become his servant.

27“Let Elohim enlarge Yapheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shĕm. And let Kena‛an become his servant.”

28And Noaḥ lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

29So all the days of Noaḥ were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

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