Genesis 9
9
1And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. 3Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4#Lev 7.26,27; 17.10-14; Deut 12.16,23. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning; of every beast I will require it and of man; of every man's brother I will require the life of man. 6Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image. 7And you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly on the earth and multiply in it.”
8Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9“Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.#9.10 Gk: Heb repeats every beast of the earth 11I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”
18The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. 19These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled.
20Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; 21and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. 22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. 24When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;
a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.”
26He also said,
“Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem;#9.26 Or Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem
and let Canaan be his slave.
27God enlarge Japheth,
and let him dwell in the tents of Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave.”
28After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. 29All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America
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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