Genesis 9
9
God's Promise to Noah
1 #
Gn 1.28. God said to Noah and his sons:
I am giving you my blessing. Have a lot of children and grandchildren, so people will live everywhere on this earth. 2All animals, birds, reptiles, and fish will be afraid of you. I have placed them under your control, 3and I have given them to you for food. From now on, you may eat them, as well as the green plants that you have always eaten. 4#Lv 7.26,27; 17.10-14; 19.26; Dt 12.5-19,23,24; 15.23. But life is in the blood, and you must not eat any meat that still has blood in it. 5-6#Gn 1.26; Ex 20.13. I created humans to be like me, and I will punish any animal or person that takes a human life. If an animal kills someone, that animal must die. And if a person takes the life of another, that person must be put to death.
7 #
Gn 1.28. I want you and your descendants to have many children, so people will live everywhere on earth.
8Again, God said to Noah and his sons:
9I am going to make a solemn promise to you and to everyone who will live after you. 10This includes the birds and the animals that came out of the boat. 11I promise every living creature that the earth and those living on it will never again be destroyed by a flood.
12-13The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be my sign to you and to every living creature on earth. It will remind you that I will keep this promise forever. 14When I send clouds over the earth, and a rainbow appears in the sky, 15I will remember my promise to you and to all other living creatures. Never again will I let floodwaters destroy all life. 16When I see the rainbow in the sky, I will always remember the promise that I have made to every living creature. 17The rainbow will be the sign of that solemn promise.
Noah and His Family
18Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, left the boat. Ham later had a son named Canaan. 19All people on earth are descendants of Noah's three sons.
20Noah farmed the land and was the first to plant a vineyard. 21One day he got drunk and was lying naked in his tent. 22Ham entered the tent and saw him naked, then went back outside and told his brothers. 23Shem and Japheth put a robe over their shoulders and walked backwards into the tent. Without looking at their father, they placed it over his body.
24When Noah sobered up and learned what his youngest son had done, 25he said,
“I now put a curse on Canaan!
He will be the lowest slave
of his brothers.
26I ask the Lord my God
to bless Shem
and make Canaan his slave.
27I pray God will give Japheth
more and more#9.27 more and more: In Hebrew “Japheth” sounds like “more and more.” land
and let him take over
the territory of Shem.
May Canaan be his slave.”
28Noah lived 350 years after the flood 29and died at the age of 950.
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Genesis 9
9
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons. And he said to them: "Increase, and multiply, and fill the earth.
2 And let the fear and trembling of you be upon all the animals of the earth, and upon all the birds of the air, along with all that moves across the earth. All the fish of the sea have been delivered into your hand.
3 And everything that moves and lives will be food for you. Just as with the edible plants, I have delivered them all to you,
4 except that flesh with blood you shall not eat.
5 For I will examine the blood of your lives at the hand of every beast. So also, at the hand of mankind, at the hand of each man and his brother, I will examine the life of mankind.
6 Whoever will shed human blood, his blood will be poured out. For man was indeed made to the image of God.
7 But as for you: increase and multiply, and go forth upon the earth and fulfill it."
8 To Noah and to his sons with him, God also said this:
9 "Behold, I will establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you,
10 and with every living soul that is with you: as much with the birds as with the cattle and all the animals of the earth that have gone forth from the ark, and with all the wild beasts of the earth.
11 I will establish my covenant with you, and no longer will all that is flesh be put to death by the waters of a great flood, and, henceforth, there will not be a great flood to utterly destroy the earth."
12 And God said: "This is the sign of the pact that I grant between me and you, and to every living soul that is with you, for perpetual generations.
13 I will place my arc in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the pact between myself and the earth.
14 And when I obscure the sky with clouds, my arc will appear in the clouds.
15 And I will remember my covenant with you, and with every living soul that enlivens flesh. And there will no longer be waters from a great flood to wipe away all that is flesh.
16 And the arc will be in the clouds, and I will see it, and I will remember the everlasting covenant that was enacted between God and every living soul of all that is flesh upon the earth."
17 And God said to Noah, "This will be the sign of the covenant that I have established between myself and all that is flesh upon the earth."
18 And so the sons of Noah, who came out of the ark, were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now Ham himself is the father of Canaan.
19 These three are the sons of Noah. And from these all the family of mankind was spread over the whole earth.
20 And Noah, a good farmer, began to cultivate the land, and he planted a vineyard.
21 And by drinking its wine, he became inebriated and was naked in his tent.
22 Because of this, when Ham, the father of Canaan, had indeed seen the privates of his father to be naked, he reported it to his two brothers outside.
23 And truly, Shem and Japheth put a cloak upon their arms, and, advancing backwards, covered the privates of their father. And their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father's manhood.
24 Then Noah, awaking from the wine, when he had learned what his younger son had done to him,
25 he said, "Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants will he be to his brothers."
26 And he said: "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, let Canaan be his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth, and may he live in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant."
28 And after the great flood, Noah lived for three hundred and fifty years.
29 And all his days were completed in nine hundred and fifty years, and then he died.