God lovingly blessed Noah and all his family and said to them, “Reproduce, be fruitful, and populate the earth. I will cause every living creature of earth, sky, and sea to fear and dread you from this time forward. They are now under your authority. You may now eat the meat of animals as well as green plants; I now give you everything for food for you. However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it, for its life is in the blood. If anyone takes another person’s life, I will demand an account—whether from man or beast, I will demand an account for taking a human life.
“Whoever sheds human blood,
by other humans he must have his own blood shed;
for to kill a person is to kill one made
in God’s own beautiful image.
Now all of you, with my blessing, reproduce,
be fruitful and repopulate the earth.”
Then God said to Noah and his family, “I establish my loving covenant with you, your descendants, and every living creature that is with you—animals large and small, birds, and every living thing that came out of the ark. I will maintain my loving covenant with you. I will never again completely destroy life on earth by means of a flood. Yes, never again will a flood destroy the whole earth!”
“Here is the sign for you and future generations that my loving covenant will endure between me and you and every animal that came with you out of the ark: I have placed my rainbow among the clouds, and it will be a sign of my loving covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth, and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant with you and with every living thing upon the earth. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy life from the earth. When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant I made with you and every living thing of every kind upon the earth.”
So God said to Noah, “The rainbow is my signature in the sky, my seal of love to confirm that I have kept my covenant between me and every living thing on earth.”
Noah’s sons came out of the ark with him: Shem, Ham (the father of Canaan), and Japheth. From these three sons of Noah the entire world was repopulated.
Noah, a farmer, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank so much of the wine he made that he got drunk and passed out naked inside his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, went into the tent and gazed on his shamefully exposed father. Then he went out and informed his brothers. So, Shem and Japheth took their father’s cloak and walked backwards with the cloak on their shoulders into the tent to cover up their naked father. Respectfully, they turned their faces away so as not to see their father lying there exposed. When Noah sobered up and realized what his youngest son had done to him, he uttered these words:
“Cursed be your son, Canaan,
and let him be the lowest of servants to his brothers.”
He also said,
“Worthy of praise is YAHWEH,
the God of Shem!
Let Canaan be Shem’s slave.
May God enlarge Japheth’s family
and increase his territory.
May he share in the blessing of Shem,
and his descendants make their homes
among the tents of Shem,
and may Canaan be his slave also!”
After the flood, Noah lived another three hundred and fifty years. Noah’s entire lifetime was nine hundred and fifty years, and then he died.
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