1God blessed Noah and his sons. He said to them, ‘Give birth to many children so that you become very many people. Your descendants will live all over the earth. 2All the animals and all the birds will be afraid of you. You have authority over them. You also have authority over all the living things that move across the ground and all the fish in the sea. 3You may now eat anything that lives and moves. Before, I gave you the green plants to eat. Now I give you everything to eat as your food.

4But you must not eat meat that still has the blood of life in it.

5If any person or animal kills a human, I will certainly punish them. Their punishment will be death.

6God made people so that they were like himself. #9:6 See Genesis 1:26.

So if anyone kills a human,

another human must kill him.

7But as for you, you should give birth to many children so that you become very many people. There will be many people and they will live all over the earth.’

8God said to Noah and to his sons, 9‘I promise you that I will obey the covenant that I am making with you. #9:9 A covenant is a special agreement that God makes with people. He promises that he will help them in a certain way. I promise this to you and to all your descendants. 10I also promise this to all the animals and birds that came out of the ship with you. That is everything that lives on the earth. 11This is the covenant that I promise to keep: I will never cause water to destroy all living things on the earth again. Deep water will never again come again to destroy the earth.’

12Then God said, ‘I will show you clearly that I have made this covenant with you, and with every living animal. I will keep this promise for ever, for as long as people live on the earth. 13I have put my rainbow among the clouds in the sky. It will show you clearly that I have made this covenant with everything on the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth, a rainbow will sometimes appear. 15Then I will remember the covenant that I have made with you and with all the different kinds of living things. Never again will the water become so deep that it destroys everything that lives. 16When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember my covenant. It is a promise that I have made with every kind of living thing on the earth.’

17Then God said to Noah, ‘The rainbow will show you that I will certainly keep my promise. I will keep my covenant that is between me and everything that lives on the earth.’

Noah's sons

18The names of Noah's sons were Shem, Ham and Japheth. They all came out of the ship with Noah. Ham later became the father of a son called Canaan. 19All the people who live on the earth are descendants of Noah's three sons.

20Noah was a farmer. He was the first person to plant vines.

21He used the grapes to make wine. One day, he drank some of the wine and he became drunk. He lay inside his tent and he slept. He was not wearing any clothes. 22Canaan's father, Ham, saw that Noah was not wearing any clothes. He went out of the tent. He told his two brothers what he had seen. 23Then Shem and Japheth took Noah's coat and they put it between their shoulders. They walked into Noah's tent with their backs to Noah. In this way they covered their father with the coat. They looked away from their father so that they did not see him. They did this because Noah was not wearing any clothes. #9:23 Vines grow a small round fruit called grapes. People use grapes to make wine. Wine is a drink containing alcohol.

24Later, when he was no longer drunk with the wine, Noah woke up. He found out what his youngest son, Ham, had done. 25He said, ‘I curse Canaan! He will become a slave that must serve his brothers.’

26Noah also said, ‘I praise the Lord, the God of Shem! Let Canaan become Shem's slave! 27I pray that God will make the land of Japheth and his descendants grow bigger. I pray that the descendants of Japheth will share good things with Shem. I pray that Canaan will become Japheth's slave.’ #9:27 Noah wanted God to bless Shem and Japheth, because they did the right thing. Noah asked for a curse on the descendants of Ham because he caused Noah to be ashamed.

28Noah lived for 350 years after God covered the earth with deep water. 29In his whole life, Noah lived for 950 years. Then he died.

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Genesis 9

1And God blessed Noe and his sons. And he said to them: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth.

2And let the fear and dread of you be upon all the beasts of the earth, and upon all the fowls of the air, and all that move upon the earth: all the fishes of the sea are delivered into your hand.

3And every thing that moveth and liveth shall be meat for you: even as the green herbs have I delivered them all to you:

4Saving that flesh with blood you shall not eat.

5For I will require the blood of your lives at the hand of every beast, and at the hand of man. At the hand of every man, and of his brother, will I require the life of man.

6Whosoever shall shed man's blood, his blood shall be shed: for man was made to the image of God.

7But increase you and multiply:, and go upon the earth, and fill it.

8This also said God to Noe, and to his sons with him:

9Behold, I will establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you.

10And with every living soul that is with you, as well in all birds as in cattle and beasts of the earth, that are come forth out of the ark: and in all the beasts of the earth.

11I will establish my covenant with you; and all flesh shall be no more destroyed with the waters of a flood: neither shall there be from henceforth a flood to waste the earth.

12And God said: This is the sign of the covenant which I will give between me and you, and to every living soul that is with you, for perpetual generations.

13I will set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be the sign of a covenant between me, and between the earth.

14And when I shall cover the sky with clouds, my bow shall appear in the clouds:

15And I will remember my covenant with you, and with every living soul that beareth flesh: and there shall no more be waters of a flood to destroy all flesh.

16And the bow shall be in the clouds, and I shall see it, and shall remember the everlasting covenant, that was made between God and every living soul of all flesh which is upon the earth.

17And God said to Noe: This shall be the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh upon the earth.

18And the sons of Noe who came out of the ark, were Sem, Cham, and Japheth: and Cham is the father of Chanaan.

19These three are the sons of Noe: and from these was all mankind spread over the whole earth.

20And Noe, a husbandman, began to till the ground, and planted a vineyard,

21And drinking of the wine was made drunk, and was uncovered in his tent.

22Which when Cham the father of Chaanan had seen, to wit, that his father's nakedness was uncovered, he told it to his two brethren without.

23But Sem and Japheth put a cloak upon their shoulders, and going backward covered the nakedness of their father: and their faces were turned away, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

24And Noe awaking from the wine, when he had learned what his younger son had done to him,

25He said: Cursed be Chaanan; a servant of servant shall he be unto his brethren.

26And he said: Blessed be the Lord God of Sem; be Chanaan his servant.

27May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Sem; and Chanaan be his servant.

28And Noe lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

29And all his days were in the whole nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

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Genesis 9

Genesis 9