Genesis 8:20–9:17

²⁰And Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and he took from all the clean animals and from all the clean birds, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹And Yahweh smelled the soothing fragrance, and Yahweh said to himself,^p “Never again will I curse^q the ground for the sake of humankind, because the inclination of the heart of humankind is evil from his youth. Nor will I ever again destroy^r all life as I have done. ²²As long as the earth endures,^s seed and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease.

God’s Covenant with Noah and Humankind

9And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ²And fear of you and dread of you shall be upon every animal of the earth, and on every bird of heaven,^a and on everything that moves upon the ground, and on all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they shall be given. ³Every moving thing that lives shall be for you as food. As I gave the green plants to you, I now give you everything. ⁴Only you shall not eat raw flesh with blood in it.^{b 5}And^c your lifeblood^d I will require; from every animal^e I will require it. And from the hand of humankind, from the hand of each man to his brother I will require the life of humankind.

⁶“As for the one shedding the blood of humankind,

by humankind his blood shall be shed,

for God made humankind in his own image.

⁷“And you, be fruitful and multiply, swarm on the earth and multiply in it.” ⁸And God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹“As for me, behold, I am establishing my covenant with you and with your seed after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and every animal of the earth with you, from all that came out of the ark to all the animals of the earth. ¹¹I am establishing my covenant with you, that never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, nor will there ever be a flood that destroys the earth.” ¹²And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you, and between every living creature that is with you for future generations. ¹³My bow I have set in the clouds, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and between the earth. ¹⁴And when I make clouds appear over the earth the bow shall be seen in the clouds. ¹⁵Then^f I will remember my covenant that is between me and you, and between every living creature, with all flesh. And the waters of a flood will never again cause the destruction^g of all flesh. ¹⁶The bow shall be in the clouds, and I will see it, so as to remember the everlasting covenant between God and between every living creature, with all flesh that is upon the earth.” ¹⁷And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am establishing between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”