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.”

18 Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and aHam was the father of Canaan.

19 These three were the sons of Noah, and afrom these the whole earth was 1populated.

20 Then Noah began 1farming and planted a vineyard.

21 He drank of the wine and abecame drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent.

22 Ham, the father of Canaan, asaw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were 1turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.

25 So he said,

“aCursed be Canaan;

1bA servant of servants

He shall be to his brothers.”

26 He also said,

“aBlessed be the Lord,

The God of Shem;

And let Canaan be 1his servant.

27 “aMay God enlarge Japheth,

And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;

And let Canaan be 1his servant.”

28 Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood.

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