20 Then Noah built aan altar to the Lord, and took of every bclean animal and of every clean bird and offered cburnt offerings on the altar.

21 The Lord asmelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said 1to Himself, “I will never again bcurse the ground on account of man, for cthe 2intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; dand I will never again 3destroy every living thing, as I have done.

22 “While the earth remains,

Seedtime and harvest,

And cold and heat,

And asummer and winter,

And bday and night

Shall not cease.”

Chapter 9

Covenant of the Rainbow

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “aBe fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

2 “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the 1sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given.

3 “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, aas I gave the green plant.

4 “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, aits blood.

5 “Surely I will require 1ayour lifeblood; 2bfrom every beast I will require it. And 2from every man, 2from every man’s brother I will require the life of man.

6 “aWhoever sheds man’s blood,

By man his blood shall be shed,

For bin the image of God

He made man.

7 “As for you, abe fruitful and multiply;

1Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.”

8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,

9 “Now behold, aI Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your 1descendants after you;

10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.

11 “I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall anever again be cut off by the water of the flood, bneither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12 God said, “This is athe sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for 1all successive generations;

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

14 “It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud,

15 and aI will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and bnever again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16 “When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the aeverlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

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