Genesis 9

God's Covenant with Noah

1 # Gen 1.28 God blessed Noah and his sons and said, “Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth. 2All the animals, birds, and fish will live in fear of you. They are all placed under your power. 3Now you can eat them, as well as green plants; I give them all to you for food. 4#Lev 7.26–27; 17.10–14; 19.26; Deut 12.16, 23; 15.23The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood. 5If anyone takes human life, he will be punished. I will punish with death any animal that takes a human life. 6#Gen 1.26; Ex 20.13Human beings were made like God, so whoever murders one of them will be killed by someone else.

7 # Gen 1.28 “You must have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth.”

8God said to Noah and his sons, 9“I am now making my covenant with you and with your descendants, 10and with all living beings — all birds and all animals — everything that came out of the boat with you. 11With these words I make my covenant with you: I promise that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. 12As a sign of this everlasting covenant which I am making with you and with all living beings, 13I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world. 14Whenever I cover the sky with clouds and the rainbow appears, 15I will remember my promise to you and to all the animals that a flood will never again destroy all living beings. 16When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and all living beings on earth. 17That is the sign of the promise which I am making to all living beings.”

Noah and his Sons

18The sons of Noah who went out of the boat were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19These three sons of Noah were the ancestors of all the people on earth.

20Noah, who was a farmer, was the first man to plant a vineyard. 21After he drank some of the wine, he became drunk, took off his clothes, and lay naked in his tent. 22When Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked, he went out and told his two brothers. 23Then Shem and Japheth took a robe and held it behind them on their shoulders. They walked backwards into the tent and covered their father, keeping their faces turned away so as not to see him naked. 24When Noah was sober again and learnt what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said,

“A curse on Canaan!

He will be a slave to his brothers.

26Give praise to the LORD, the God of Shem!

Canaan will be the slave of Shem.

27May God cause Japheth#9.27 Japheth: This name sounds like the Hebrew for “increase”. to increase!

May his descendants live with the people of Shem!

Canaan will be the slave of Japheth.”

28After the flood Noah lived for 350 years 29and died at the age of 950.

Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.

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Genesis 9

CHAPTER 9

1And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Increase ye, and be ye multiplied, and fill ye the earth;

2and your dread and trembling be on all [the] unreasonable beasts of the earth, and on all [the] birds of heaven, with all things that be moved in earth; all fishes of the sea be given to your hand.

3And all thing which is moved and liveth shall be to you into meat; I have given to you all things, as I gave the green worts before,

4except that ye shall not eat flesh with the blood,

5for I shall seek the blood of your lives, of the hand of all unreasonable beasts and of the hand of man, of the hand of man and of his brother, I shall seek the life of man.

6Whoever sheddeth out man’s blood, his blood shall be shed; for man is made to the image of God.

7Forsooth increase ye, and be ye multiplied, and enter ye on [the] earth, and fill ye it.

8Also the Lord said these things to Noah, and to his sons with him,

9Lo! I shall make my covenant with you, and with your seed after you,

10and to each living soul which is with you, as well in birds as in work beasts and small beasts of [the] earth, and to all things that went out of the ship, and to all unreasonable beasts of [the] earth.

11I shall make my covenant with you, and each flesh shall no more be slain of the waters of the great flood, neither the great flood destroying all [the] earth shall be any more.

12And God said, This is the sign of bond of peace, which I give between me and you, and to each living soul which is with you, into everlasting generations.

13I shall set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of bond of peace between me and [the] earth;

14and when I shall cover [the] heaven with clouds, my bow shall appear in the clouds,

15and I shall have mind of my bond of peace which I made with you, and with each soul living that nourisheth flesh; and the waters of the great flood shall no more be to do away all flesh.

16And my bow shall be in the clouds, and I shall see it, and I shall have mind of the everlasting bond of peace, which is made between God and man, and each soul living of all flesh which is on [the] earth.

17And God said to Noah, This shall be a sign of [the] bond of peace, which I made between me and each flesh on earth.

18Therefore they that went out of the ship were Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; forsooth Ham, that is the father of Canaan.

19These three were the sons of Noah, and all the kind of men was sown of them on all [the] earth.

20And Noah, an earth-tiller, began to till the earth, and he planted a vinery [or a vineyard],

21and one day he drank wine, and was drunken; and he was naked, and lay in his tabernacle.

22And when Ham, the father of Canaan, had seen this thing, that is, that the shameful members of his father were made naked, he told his two brethren withoutforth.

23And Shem and Japheth putted a mantle on their shoulders, and they went backward, and covered the shameful members of their father, and their faces were turned away, and they saw not the privy members of their father.

24And Noah waked of the wine, and when he had learned what things his lesser, or younger#9:24 Most modern translations and Bible dictionaries refer to Ham as Noah’s youngest son, though he is second in all the lists in the Bible. The KJV, like the “Wycliffe Bible” (both versions), uses ‘younger’ in this verse., son had done to him,

25he said, Cursed be the child Canaan, he shall be a servant of servants to his brethren.

26And Noah said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan be the servant of Shem;

27God alarge Japheth, and dwell he in the tabernacles of Shem, and Canaan be the servant of him.

28Forsooth Noah lived after the great flood three hundred and fifty years;

29and all the days of him were filled nine hundred and fifty years, and he was dead.

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