Genesis 9

God promised not to cover the earth with water again

1God was good to Noah and his sons. God said to them, “I want you to have lots of kids, and fill the earth with people.#Genesis 1:28 2I’m making you boss over everything that lives on the ground, all the animals and all the birds, and I’m making you boss over the fish and everything in the sea too. They will be frightened of you.

3I gave you bush tucker to eat, and now I’m giving you meat to eat too. You can eat anything that moves. 4But I’m telling you this about blood. Blood is important. It keeps a body alive. So don’t eat any blood. You have to drain the blood out of the animal before you eat it. Don’t eat any meat that still has the blood in it.#Leviticus 7:26-27; 17:10-14; 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:16, 23; 15:23 5And I will punish anyone and anything that kills a person dead. If an animal kills somebody, it has to die. And it is the same for a person that kills another person, that murderer has to die. 6You see, I made people to be like myself, so they are important. So if somebody kills another person dead, you have to kill that murderer dead.#Genesis 1:26; Exodus 20:13

7But I want you mob to have lots of kids, so that there will be lots of people everywhere on the earth.”#Genesis 1:28

8Then God told Noah and his sons, 9“I promise this to you and to your kids, and to all the people that will be born later on. 10And I promise this to all the animals that live on the earth, too, all the birds, and all the wild animals, and all the animals that are not wild. I promise this to all of the animals that came out of the big boat with you. 11I promise that there will never again be a real big flood of water that will finish up everything on the earth. There will never again be a big flood that kills all the people and animals.”

God sent a rainbow to help people remember what he promised

12And God said, “I will give you something to help you remember what I promised to you, and to all of the animals living on the earth, and to your kids, and to all the people that will be born later on. 13It is my rainbow, up there in the sky. I’m putting it there to help you remember what I promised to you, and to everything that lives on the earth. I promised that I will never again send a real big flood to finish up everything on the earth. 14Sometimes I will send rain clouds into the sky, and there will be a rainbow in the clouds, too. 15Then I will remember what I promised to you, and to all the living animals. And there will never again be a flood that will kill all of the animals on the earth. 16Every time I look at the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember what I promised to you, and to all the animals on the earth. I will never break that promise. It will last for ever.”

17And God said to Noah, “This is very important. That rainbow will help you remember that I myself promised that for every living thing.”

Noah got drunk

18-19Noah had 3 sons. Their names were Shem, and Ham, and Jafeth. They were on the boat with Noah, and after they got off the boat, they had their own sons and daughters. One of Ham’s sons was called Canaan, and there were lots of other sons and daughters too. And later, all those kids had more kids, and it kept going like that. All the people in the world are from Noah’s family.

20Soon after Noah came out of the big boat, he started growing a garden. He planted some grape vines, and they grew some grapes. Then he made some wine from those grapes. 21Noah drank some of that wine and got drunk. He took his clothes off and went to sleep in his tent. 22Ham (Canaan’s father) went into the tent and saw his naked father. Ham didn’t respect his father, so he went outside and told his brothers what happened. 23Shem and Jafeth got a coat. They held it over their shoulders and walked backwards into the tent. They put the coat on their father to cover his naked body. They didn’t turn around and look at their naked father.

24After Noah woke up, he found out what Ham, his youngest son, did to him. 25Then Noah said, “I’m going to curse Canaan, Ham’s son. He will have to work hard for his relatives, without pay. 26God is good. I’m going to ask God to look after Shem, but Canaan will work hard for him with no pay. 27I’m going to ask God to give Jafeth a big country. Jafeth and Shem will share that country, and Canaan will work hard for them with no pay.”

28Noah lived for another 350 years after the flood. 29He died when he was 950 years old.

Genesis 9

God’s Covenant with Noah and Humankind

1And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2And fear of you and dread of you shall be upon every animal of the earth, and on every bird of heaven,#Or “the sky” and on everything that moves upon the ground, and on all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they shall be given. 3Every moving thing that lives shall be for you as food. As I gave the green plants to you, I have now given you everything. 4Only you shall not eat raw flesh with blood in it.#Literally “flesh with its life, its blood” 5And#Or “only”; the same word that occurs at the beginning of v. 4 your lifeblood#Literally “your blood belonging to your life” I will require; from every animal#Literally “from the hand of every animal” I will require it. And from the hand of humankind, from the hand of each man to his brother I will require the life of humankind.

6“As for the one shedding the blood of humankind,

by humankind his blood shall be shed,

for God made humankind in his own image.

7“And you, be fruitful and multiply, swarm on the earth and multiply in it.” 8And God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9“As for me, behold, I am establishing my covenant with you and with your seed after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and every animal of the earth with you, from all that came out of the ark to all the animals of the earth. 11I am establishing my covenant with you, that never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, nor will there ever be a flood that destroys the earth.” 12And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you, and between every living creature that is with you for future generations. 13My bow I have set in the clouds, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and between the earth. 14And when I make clouds appear over the earth the bow shall be seen in the clouds. 15Then#Or “And” I will remember my covenant that is between me and you, and between every living creature, with all flesh. And the waters of a flood will never again cause the destruction#Literally “be to destroy” of all flesh. 16The bow shall be in the clouds, and I will see it, so as to remember the everlasting covenant between God and between every living creature, with all flesh that is upon the earth.” 17And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am establishing between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

Noah’s Descendants

18Now#Or “And” the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.#Literally “all the earth branched out” 20And Noah began to be a man of the ground, and he planted a vineyard. 21And he drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he exposed himself in the midst of his tent. 22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and he told his two brothers outside. 23Then#Or “And” Shem and Japheth took a garment, and the two of them put it on their shoulders and, walking backward, they covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were turned backward, so that#Or “and” they did not see the nakedness of their father. 24Then#Or “And” Noah awoke from his drunkenness,#Or “his wine” and he knew what his youngest son had done to him. 25And he said,

“Cursed be Canaan,

a slave of slaves he shall be to his brothers.”

26Then#Or “And” he said,

“Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem,

and let Canaan be a slave to them.

27May God make space for Japheth,

and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,

and let Canaan be a slave for him.”

28And Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. 29And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

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Genesis 9

Genesis 9