Genesis 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.

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Berĕshith (Genesis) 9

1And Elohim blessed Noaḥ and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase, and fill the earth.

2“And the fear of you and the dread of you is on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the heavens, on all that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea – into your hand they have been given.

3“Every creeping creature that lives is food for you. I have given you all, as I gave the green plants.

4“But do not eat flesh with its life, its blood.

5“But only your blood for your lives I require, from the hand of every beast I require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I require the life of man.

6“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood is shed, for in the image of Elohim has He made man.

7“As for you, be fruitful and increase, bring forth teemingly in the earth and increase in it.”

8And Elohim spoke to Noaḥ and to his sons with him, saying,

9“And I, see, I establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you,

10and with every living being that is with you: of the birds, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.

11“And I shall establish My covenant with you, and never again is all flesh cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again is there a flood to destroy the earth.”

12And Elohim said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living being that is with you, for all generations to come:

13“I shall set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

14“And it shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud,

15and I shall remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living being of all flesh, and never again let the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16“And the rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I shall see it, to remember the everlasting covenant between Elohim and every living being of all flesh that is on the earth.

17And Elohim said to Noaḥ, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

18And the sons of Noaḥ who went out of the ark were Shĕm and Ḥam and Yapheth. And Ḥam was the father of Kena‛an.

19These three were the sons of Noaḥ, and all the earth was overspread from them.

20And Noaḥ, a man of the soil, began and planted a vineyard.

21And he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.

22And Ḥam, the father of Kena‛an, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

23So Shĕm and Yapheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father, but their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

24And Noaḥ awoke from his wine, and he knew what his younger son had done to him,

25and he said, “Cursed is Kena‛an, let him become a servant of servants to his brothers.”

26And he said, “Blessed be יהוה, the Elohim of Shĕm, and let Kena‛an become his servant.

27“Let Elohim enlarge Yapheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shĕm. And let Kena‛an become his servant.”

28And Noaḥ lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

29So all the days of Noaḥ were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

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