Genesis 9
9
God’s Covenant with Noah
1God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.#Gn 1:28; 8:17; 9:7; 35:11 2The fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the earth, every bird of the sky, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are placed under your authority. 3Every creature that lives and moves will be food for you;#Dt 12:15; 1Tm 4:3–4 as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything.#Gn 1:28–30 4However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it.#Lv 3:17; 7:20; 17:10–16; 19:26; Dt 12:16,23; 15:23; 1Sm 14:34; Ac 15:20,29 5And I will require a penalty for your lifeblood;#9:5 Lit And your blood belonging to your life I will seek I will require it from any animal#Ex 21:28 and from any human; if someone murders a fellow human, I will require that person’s life.#Gn 4:2,8
6Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans his blood will be shed,#Ex 21:12–14; Lv 24:17; Nm 35:33; Mt 26:52
for God made humans in his image.#Gn 1:26–27
7But you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out over the earth and multiply on it.”#Gn 1:28
8Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, 9“Understand that I am establishing my covenant#Gn 6:18; 8:22; 17:2; Ex 6:4; 19:5; Lv 26:9 with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you — birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you — all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark. 11I establish my covenant with you that never again will every creature be wiped out by floodwaters; there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”#Is 54:9–10
12And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant#Gn 17:11 I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all future generations: 13I have placed my bow in the clouds,#Ezk 1:28; Rv 4:3; 10:1 and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant#Lv 26:42,45; Dt 7:9; 1Kg 8:23; Ezk 16:60 between me and you and all the living creatures: water will never again become a flood to destroy every creature. 16The bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it and remember the permanent covenant#Gn 17:13; 2Sm 23:5; 1Ch 16:17; Is 24:5 between God and all the living creatures on earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and every creature on earth.”
Prophecies about Noah’s Family
18Noah’s sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. 19These three were Noah’s sons, and from them the whole earth was populated.#Gn 9:1,7; 10:32; 1Ch 1:4
20Noah, as a man of the soil, began by planting#9:20 Or Noah began to be a farmer and planted a vineyard. 21He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. 22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.#Lm 4:21; Hab 2:15 23Then Shem and Japheth took a cloak and placed it over both their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father naked.
24When Noah awoke from his drinking and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said:
Canaan is cursed.#Dt 27:16
He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers.#Jos 9:23; Jdg 1:28; 1Kg 9:20–21
26He also said:
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem;
Let Canaan be#9:26 As a wish or prayer; others interpret the verbs in vv. 26–27 as prophecy: Canaan will be... Shem’s slave.
27Let God extend Japheth;#9:27 In Hb, the name Japheth sounds like the word “extend.”
let Japheth dwell in the tents of Shem;
let Canaan be Shem’s slave.
28Now Noah lived 350 years after the flood. 29So Noah’s life lasted 950 years; then he died.
© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Genesis 9
9
God promised not to cover the earth with water again
1God was good to Noah and his sons. God said to them, “I want you to have lots of kids, and fill the earth with people.#Genesis 1:28 2I’m making you boss over everything that lives on the ground, all the animals and all the birds, and I’m making you boss over the fish and everything in the sea too. They will be frightened of you.
3I gave you bush tucker to eat, and now I’m giving you meat to eat too. You can eat anything that moves. 4But I’m telling you this about blood. Blood is important. It keeps a body alive. So don’t eat any blood. You have to drain the blood out of the animal before you eat it. Don’t eat any meat that still has the blood in it.#Leviticus 7:26-27; 17:10-14; 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:16, 23; 15:23 5And I will punish anyone and anything that kills a person dead. If an animal kills somebody, it has to die. And it is the same for a person that kills another person, that murderer has to die. 6You see, I made people to be like myself, so they are important. So if somebody kills another person dead, you have to kill that murderer dead.#Genesis 1:26; Exodus 20:13
7But I want you mob to have lots of kids, so that there will be lots of people everywhere on the earth.”#Genesis 1:28
8Then God told Noah and his sons, 9“I promise this to you and to your kids, and to all the people that will be born later on. 10And I promise this to all the animals that live on the earth too, all the birds, and all the wild animals, and all the animals that are not wild. I promise this to all of the animals that came out of the big boat with you. 11I promise that there will never again be a real big flood of water that will finish up everything on the earth. There will never again be a big flood that kills all the people and animals.”
God sent a rainbow to help people remember what he promised
12And God said, “I will give you something to help you remember what I promised to you, and to all of the animals living on the earth, and to your kids, and to all the people that will be born later on. 13It is my rainbow, up there in the sky. I’m putting it there to help you remember what I promised to you, and to everything that lives on the earth. I promised that I will never again send a real big flood to finish up everything on the earth. 14Sometimes I will send rain clouds into the sky, and there will be a rainbow in the clouds too. 15Then I will remember what I promised to you, and to all the living animals. And there will never again be a flood that will kill all of the animals on the earth. 16Every time I look at the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember what I promised to you, and to all the animals on the earth. I will never break that promise. It will last for ever.”
17And God said to Noah, “This is very important. That rainbow will help you remember that I myself promised that for every living thing.”
Noah got drunk
18-19Noah had 3 sons. Their names were Shem, and Ham, and Jafeth. They were on the boat with Noah, and after they got off the boat, they had their own sons and daughters. One of Ham’s sons was called Canaan, and there were lots of other sons and daughters too. And later, all those kids had more kids, and it kept going like that. All the people in the world are from Noah’s family.
20Soon after Noah came out of the big boat, he started growing a garden. He planted some grape vines, and they grew some grapes. Then he made some wine from those grapes. 21Noah drank some of that wine and got drunk. He took his clothes off and went to sleep in his tent. 22Ham (Canaan’s father) went into the tent and saw his naked father. Ham didn’t respect his father, so he went outside and told his brothers what happened. 23Shem and Jafeth got a coat. They held it over their shoulders and walked backwards into the tent. They put the coat on their father to cover his naked body. They didn’t turn around and look at their naked father.
24After Noah woke up, he found out what Ham, his youngest son, did to him. 25Then Noah said, “I’m going to curse Canaan, Ham’s son. He will have to work hard for his relatives, without pay. 26God is good. I’m going to ask God to look after Shem, but Canaan will work hard for him with no pay. 27I’m going to ask God to give Jafeth a big country. Jafeth and Shem will share that country, and Canaan will work hard for them with no pay.”
28Noah lived for another 350 years after the flood. 29He died when he was 950 years old.
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