Bereshis 9
9
1Vayevarech Elohim et Noach and his banim, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish ha'aretz.
2And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of ha'aretz, and upon every bird of the air, upon all that moveth upon ha'adamah, and upon all the dagim of the yam; into your yad are they delivered.
3Every remes that liveth shall be food for you; even as the yarok esev (green plant) have I given you all.
4But basar with the nefesh thereof, which is the dahm thereof, shall ye not eat.
5And surely your dahm of your nefeshot will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the yad haAdam; at the hand of every manʼs brother will I require the nefesh haAdam.
6Shofech dahm (one who sheddeth manʼs blood), by man shall his dahm be shed; for in the tzelem Elohim made He man.
7And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly on ha'aretz, and multiply therein.
8And Elohim spoke unto Noach, and to his banim with him, saying,
9And I, hineni, I establish My brit (covenant) with you, and with your zera after you;
10And with kol nefesh that is with you, of the bird, of the behemah, and of every animal of ha'aretz with you; from kol yotzei hatevah (all that go out of the ark), to every creature of ha'aretz.
11And I will establish My brit (covenant) with you, neither shall kol basar yikaret (be cut off, violently killed) any more by the waters of the mabbul; neither shall there be any more mabbul l'shacheit (to destroy) ha'aretz.
12And Elohim said, This is the ot (sign) of the brit (covenant) which I make between Me and you and every nefesh chayyah (living creature) that is with you, for dorot olam (perpetual generations);
13I do set My keshet (bow) in the anan (cloud), and it shall be for an ot brit between Me and ha'aretz.
14And it shall come to pass, when I bring an anan over ha'aretz, that the keshet be'anan (rainbow) shall be seen;
15And I will remember My brit, which is between Me and you and kol nefesh chayyah of kol basar; and the waters shall no more become a mabbul (flood) l'shacheit (to destroy) kol basar.
16And the keshet shall be in the anan; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the brit olam between Elohim and kol nefesh chayyah of kol basar that is upon ha'aretz.
17And Elohim said unto Noach, This is the ot habrit, which I have established between Me and kol basar that is upon ha'aretz.
18And the bnei Noach, that went forth of the tevah, were Shem, and Cham, and Yephet; and Cham is the av of Kena'an (Canaan).
19Shloshah (Three) are the bnei Noach; and of them was the kol ha'aretz populated.
20And Noach began to be an ish ha'adamah (a man of the soil), and he planted a kerem (vineyard);
21And he drank of the yayin, and became shikker (intoxicated); and he lay uncovered inside his ohel.
22And Cham, the av of Kena'an, saw the erom (nakedness) of his av, and told his two achim on the outside.
23And Shem and Yephet took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward, and covered the erom of their av; and their faces were turned the other way, and they saw not the erom of their av.
24And Noach awoke from his yayin, and had da'as of what his ben katan had done unto him.
25And he said, Arur (cursed) be Kena'an; an eved of avadim shall he be unto his achim.
26And he said, Baruch Hashem Elohei Shem; and Kena'an shall be his eved.
27Elohim shall enlarge Yephet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Kena'an shall be his eved.
28And Noach lived after the mabbul three hundred and fifty years.
29And all the days of Noach were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
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Bereshis 9: TOJB2011
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
FOURTH EDITION © Artists For Israel Intl Inc., 2002-2011, 2021.
Genesis 9
9
Covenant with Noah. 1#God reaffirms without change the original blessing and mandate of 1:28. In the Mesopotamian epic Atrahasis, on which the Genesis story is partly modeled, the gods changed their original plan by restricting human population through such means as childhood diseases, birth demons, and mandating celibacy among certain groups of women. God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.#Gn 1:22, 28; 8:17. 2#Pre-flood creatures, including human beings, are depicted as vegetarians (1:29–30). In view of the human propensity to violence, God changes the original prohibition against eating meat. Fear and dread of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. 3#Gn 1:29–30; Dt 12:15. Any living creature that moves about shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. 4#Lv 7:26–27; 17:4; Dt 12:16, 23; 1 Sm 14:33; Acts 15:20. Only meat with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.#Because a living being dies when it loses most of its blood, the ancients regarded blood as the seat of life, and therefore as sacred. Jewish tradition considered the prohibition against eating meat with blood to be binding on all, because it was given by God to Noah, the new ancestor of all humankind; therefore the early Christian Church retained it for a time (Acts 15:20, 29). 5Indeed for your own lifeblood I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from a human being, each one for the blood of another, I will demand an accounting for human life.#Gn 4:10–11; Ex 21:12.
6#The image of God, given to the first man and woman and transmitted to every human being, is the reason that no violent attacks can be made upon human beings. That image is the basis of the dignity of every individual who, in some sense, “represents” God in the world. Anyone who sheds the blood of a human being,
by a human being shall that one’s blood be shed;
For in the image of God
have human beings been made.#Gn 1:26–27; Lv 24:17; Nm 35:33; Jas 3:9.
7Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it.#Gn 1:28; 8:17; 9:2; Jas 3:7.
8#God makes a covenant with Noah and his descendants and, remarkably, with all the animals who come out of the ark: never again shall the world be destroyed by flood. The sign of this solemn promise is the appearance of a rainbow. God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you#Gn 6:18. 10and with every living creature that was with you: the birds, the tame animals, and all the wild animals that were with you—all that came out of the ark. 11I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.#Sir 44:18; Is 54:9. 12God said: This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: 13#Sir 43:12. I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature—every mortal being—so that the waters will never again become a flood to destroy every mortal being.#Is 54:9. 16When the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature—every mortal being that is on earth. 17God told Noah: This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and every mortal being that is on earth.
Noah and His Sons. 18#The character of the three sons is sketched here. The fault is not Noah’s (for he could not be expected to know about the intoxicating effect of wine) but Ham’s, who shames his father by looking on his nakedness, and then tells the other sons. Ham’s conduct is meant to prefigure the later shameful sexual practices of the Canaanites, which are alleged in numerous biblical passages. The point of the story is revealed in Noah’s curse of Ham’s son Canaan and his blessing of Shem and Japheth. The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.#Gn 5:32; 10:1. 19These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.
20Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. 21He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and lay naked inside his tent.#Lam 4:21; Hb 2:15. 22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside. 23Shem and Japheth, however, took a robe, and holding it on their shoulders, they walked backward and covered their father’s nakedness; since their faces were turned the other way, they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said:
“Cursed be Canaan!
The lowest of slaves
shall he be to his brothers.”#Dt 27:16; Wis 12:11.
26He also said:
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem!
Let Canaan be his slave.
27May God expand Japheth,#In the Hebrew text there is a play on the words yapt (“expand”) and yepet (“Japheth”).
and may he dwell among the tents of Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave.”
28Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. 29The whole lifetime of Noah was nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.
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Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc