Genesis 9

The covenant of the rainbow

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ²The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand.a ³Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things.

⁴But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.b ⁵And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man:c ⁶Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.d

⁷But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out across the earth and multiply upon it.” ⁸Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, ⁹“Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you,e ¹⁰and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth—every living thing that came out of the ark.

¹¹And I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”f ¹²And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:g ¹³I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.h

¹⁴Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.” ¹⁷So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and every creature on the earth.”

Noah's drunkenness

¹⁸The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated. ²⁰Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.

²¹But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. ²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. ²³Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

²⁴When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵he said, “Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”i

The blessing of Shem

²⁶He also declared: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the servant of Shem.j ²⁷May God expand the territory of Japheth; may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.” ²⁸After the flood, Noah lived 350 years.

²⁹So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.