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

1-4God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Every living creature—birds, animals, fish—will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You’re responsible for them. All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else. Except for meat with its lifeblood still in it—don’t eat that.

5“But your own lifeblood I will avenge; I will avenge it against both animals and other humans.

6-7Whoever sheds human blood,

by humans let his blood be shed,

Because God made humans in his image

reflecting God’s very nature.

You’re here to bear fruit, reproduce,

lavish life on the Earth, live bountifully!”

8-11Then God spoke to Noah and his sons: “I’m setting up my covenant with you including your children who will come after you, along with everything alive around you—birds, farm animals, wild animals—that came out of the ship with you. I’m setting up my covenant with you that never again will everything living be destroyed by floodwaters; no, never again will a flood destroy the Earth.”

12-16God continued, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and everything living around you and everyone living after you. I’m putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll remember my covenant between me and you and everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth.”

17And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I’ve set up between me and everything living on the Earth.”

18-19The sons of Noah who came out of the ship were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah; from these three the whole Earth was populated.

20-23Noah, a farmer, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank from its wine, got drunk and passed out, naked in his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and told his two brothers who were outside the tent. Shem and Japheth took a cloak, held it between them from their shoulders, walked backward and covered their father’s nakedness, keeping their faces turned away so they did not see their father’s exposed body.

24-27When Noah woke up with his hangover, he learned what his youngest son had done. He said,

Cursed be Canaan! A slave of slaves,

a slave to his brothers!

Blessed be God, the God of Shem,

but Canaan shall be his slave.

God prosper Japheth,

living spaciously in the tents of Shem.

But Canaan shall be his slave.

28-29Noah lived another 350 years following the flood. He lived a total of 950 years. And he died.

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Genesis 9

Genesis 9