Genesis 9

God Confirms His Covenant

1Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. 2All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror. I have placed them in your power. 3I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables. 4But you must never eat any meat that still has the lifeblood in it.

5“And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. 6If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings#9:6 Or man; Hebrew reads ha-adam. in his own image. 7Now be fruitful and multiply, and repopulate the earth.”

8Then God told Noah and his sons, 9“I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, 10and with all the animals that were on the boat with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals—every living creature on earth. 11Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”

12Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. 13I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. 14When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, 15and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. 16When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.” 17Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”

Noah’s Sons

18The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.) 19From these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the earth.

20After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. 21One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. 22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. 23Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked.

24When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. 25Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham:

“May Canaan be cursed!

May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.”

26Then Noah said,

“May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed,

and may Canaan be his servant!

27May God expand the territory of Japheth!

May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem,#9:27 Hebrew May he live in the tents of Shem.

and may Canaan be his servant.”

28Noah lived another 350 years after the great flood. 29He lived 950 years, and then he died.

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Genesis 9

CHAPTER 9

1And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Increase ye, and be ye multiplied, and fill ye the earth;

2and your dread and trembling be on all [the] unreasonable beasts of the earth, and on all [the] birds of heaven, with all things that be moved in earth; all fishes of the sea be given to your hand.

3And all thing which is moved and liveth shall be to you into meat; I have given to you all things, as I gave the green worts before,

4except that ye shall not eat flesh with the blood,

5for I shall seek the blood of your lives, of the hand of all unreasonable beasts and of the hand of man, of the hand of man and of his brother, I shall seek the life of man.

6Whoever sheddeth out man’s blood, his blood shall be shed; for man is made to the image of God.

7Forsooth increase ye, and be ye multiplied, and enter ye on [the] earth, and fill ye it.

8Also the Lord said these things to Noah, and to his sons with him,

9Lo! I shall make my covenant with you, and with your seed after you,

10and to each living soul which is with you, as well in birds as in work beasts and small beasts of [the] earth, and to all things that went out of the ship, and to all unreasonable beasts of [the] earth.

11I shall make my covenant with you, and each flesh shall no more be slain of the waters of the great flood, neither the great flood destroying all [the] earth shall be any more.

12And God said, This is the sign of bond of peace, which I give between me and you, and to each living soul which is with you, into everlasting generations.

13I shall set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of bond of peace between me and [the] earth;

14and when I shall cover [the] heaven with clouds, my bow shall appear in the clouds,

15and I shall have mind of my bond of peace which I made with you, and with each soul living that nourisheth flesh; and the waters of the great flood shall no more be to do away all flesh.

16And my bow shall be in the clouds, and I shall see it, and I shall have mind of the everlasting bond of peace, which is made between God and man, and each soul living of all flesh which is on [the] earth.

17And God said to Noah, This shall be a sign of [the] bond of peace, which I made between me and each flesh on earth.

18Therefore they that went out of the ship were Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; forsooth Ham, that is the father of Canaan.

19These three were the sons of Noah, and all the kind of men was sown of them on all [the] earth.

20And Noah, an earth-tiller, began to till the earth, and he planted a vinery [or a vineyard],

21and one day he drank wine, and was drunken; and he was naked, and lay in his tabernacle.

22And when Ham, the father of Canaan, had seen this thing, that is, that the shameful members of his father were made naked, he told his two brethren withoutforth.

23And Shem and Japheth putted a mantle on their shoulders, and they went backward, and covered the shameful members of their father, and their faces were turned away, and they saw not the privy members of their father.

24And Noah waked of the wine, and when he had learned what things his lesser, or younger#9:24 Most modern translations and Bible dictionaries refer to Ham as Noah’s youngest son, though he is second in all the lists in the Bible. The KJV, like the “Wycliffe Bible” (both versions), uses ‘younger’ in this verse., son had done to him,

25he said, Cursed be the child Canaan, he shall be a servant of servants to his brethren.

26And Noah said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan be the servant of Shem;

27God alarge Japheth, and dwell he in the tabernacles of Shem, and Canaan be the servant of him.

28Forsooth Noah lived after the great flood three hundred and fifty years;

29and all the days of him were filled nine hundred and fifty years, and he was dead.

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